Brian J., March 2012
I went into the nursery last week, and I asked to see the Lileks.
“What?” the man asked.
“The Lileks,” I said. Well, it’s not what I tried to say, but that’s what it sounded like.
“Oh, the lilacs,” he said.
Lileks, today:
Also: next door neighbor is out back for a smoke, waves to me in the dusk, asks a favor. I come over.
“What’s up?”
“We have a dear sweet old lady coming over for dinner tomorrow,” he said. “And she just loves Lileks.”
“Well I would be honored to drop by and pay a visit,” I say, thinking as long as you’re not asking me to stay for the whole dinner, sure – pop in during dessert, surprise the old lady.
“I mean the lilacs.” He points to the bushes. “I wondered if I could snip a few.”
I included a picture in 2012 of the lilacs I hopefully planted around our propane tank. They lasted a couple years. Then we had a couple years of years of sunflowers. Then a year of tall grasses that I thought were sunflowers when they sprouted, but clearly they lacked, you know, flowers. This year, I went with hydrangea bushes. Which are almost already dead.
One of the reasons we moved to Nogglestead was to have more space for gardening, which apparently here at Nogglestead means “Making room for the Bermuda grass.” I’m beginning to wonder if that will be one of the reasons we move out.
