Honeysuckle

As'salamu Alaikum & Peace to any who visit!

According to the calendar the first day of Autumn will start, shortly before sunset today Insha Allah.  However, I think Summer is content to linger and heat up the days and nights.  There are numerous pleasures to living in an area with seasonal changes.  Watching the dance of nature as it transforms effortlessly into the next phase of life.   Subhan Allah...what a gift we receive each moment of the day from Allah (SWT).

The first time I experienced the sweet-scented fragrance of honeysuckle,  was growing up and playing in the warm (and often sweltering sun) with my friends.   "Momma West" was the name of this wonderful woman, whose home I would stay each summer.  She had this huge trellis of wild roses,  near the edge of her back yard.  LOL, not sure why the trellis was even needed...those roses had become a fixture of the backyard and our lives.

Now mind you,  as pretty as the roses were...it was the sweet-scented honeysuckle bushes that filled the air.  Oh, my friends and I somehow made this terrific discovery.   If you gently pinch the end of the honeysuckle and remove the stem, you will get this single crystal clear drop of nectar.  Al7amdulillah,  it was like free candy!   Except you needed almost 100 of them to satisfy you.

The memory that I remember most is the perfume smell of the honeysuckle at night.  All most every neighbor had honeysuckle bushes in some spot of their yard,  so the air was always filled with the sweet but never clinging smell.  I didn't smell my honeysuckle this summer...but the memories are forever fragrant.

Summer Notes from Nazeeha