A love letter to lilacs

[schnee]

Once again, this is the kind of article I read the Christian Science Monitor for: A love letter to lilacs and the joys of fleeting pleasure, by - no, not Murr Brewster, but by Lily Stewart. What a wonderful way to start a morning.

Comments

[mondhasen]

Lovely story; thanks for the share! There are lilacs growing along the driveway of my parents’ home (unless my brother has ripped them out). I loved how strong their delicate scent could be, and it was such a wonderful sign that Spring was here.

A language note: I had to look up “sillage” as my brain converted the word, and meaning, to “silage.” Our kindergarten class visited a farm and I still have a distinct memory of the latter.

[schnee]

You're welcome! And that sounds very nice indeed.

Interesting. I didn't stumble across the spelling, but the word gave me pause (there were a couple in the article I was unfamiliar with). Having looked up sillage now, I'm glad to see that it meant what I thought it means, but I'm unsure how it's different from silage in meaning. Is there any at all?

[mondhasen]

Silage, to me, refers to ground up crop matter that is stored on farms in… silos! The odor is overpowering and, as the farmer told our kindergarten class all those years ago, you could die from the fumes if trapped in with them.

[schnee]

Ah, right. But isn't that the same as sillage?

And yes, I quite vividly remember that bit of advice from my childhood as well! That, and that you could drown (as it were) in large heaps of grain etc., and that if you got stuck in them you should remain calm and call for help rather than try to dig yourself out.