Night Scents

  I have always been one who is fascinated by the night.  Darkness hides so many things.  I am much more cautious these days as I am getting older but during my younger years,  a good hike about the place in the middle of the night was invigorating.  In fact, the kids and I would often venture out after midnight to traipse about the place.  A foggy night was even more enticing.  We would hike down the lane then make a sharp right and head down through the woods to the creek bed.  From there, our meandering would bring us back up behind the chicken house and around by the canebrake.  The hikes were never long but were enjoyable.  Things look so much different, sound different and even smell different than they do during the daytime hours.  Hikes with the kids were nigh on thirty years ago but they still talk about our times.  I miss those times.  My hikes now are generally limited to early morning treks around the hillside and the marsh edge and are never at night.  I miss the suspense of what is around the next corner and the intrigue of how much more alert the senses become at night when you cannot fully depend on the eyesight.  

  At daybreak, I headed out into the garden and was immediately engulfed in the sweetest aroma.  The Four O'clock plants were in full bloom!  These bloom late in the evening and then close during the early morning.  While the plants come with a variety of colored blooms, mine have all mixed together over the years to become hot pink.  This is the hazard of saving seeds year after year.  The plants cross pollinate and soon you wind up with only one color.  It is fine by me as long as they still smell so delightful! 

  Finding the blooms this morning has made me realize just how much I am missing by not doing the nightly hikes.  If ever my kids come back to the Little Bayou House, perhaps I can convince them to take just one midnight hike...just for old time's sake...just for old Mom's sake. Maybe?  Perhaps I should just open the windows tonight and be happy with that.