June 2: As I walked this morning at Norwood Farm, the scent of swamp azalea filled me up. It was the pleasure of a deep inhalation that you don’t want to exhale. The scents of summer on Nantucket that are unforgettable are swamp azalea, privet and sweet pepper.
Some might say the salt spray sea smell is the hallmark aroma of the island, but for me it is those shrubs. Of course the roses and lilies are fine, and even the honeysuckle, but they are not the most emblematic in my book.
The swamp azalea, rhododendron viscosum, is now open at all the ponds and wet places. It lights up the pond shrubbery and sends its enticing scent abroad. I can see the sweet pepper getting ready to bloom, but will have to wait until later in the month, or August. The privet is blooming on the hedges waiting to be clipped.
Bernd Heinrich: "We humans have experimented with various social systems; some have endured and others not. I believe, however, that our well-being is tied not so much to the structure of our society and the politics that determine it, as to our ability to maintain contact with nature, to feel that we are part of the natural order and that we are capable of making a living within it." The Snoring Bird
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