Summer Sweet Magnolia Air

Do you know what I love so much, is how nature produces the most tantalizing fragrances.  For the past two weeks I have noticed a sweet aroma that seemed to waft ever so delicately through the late-night cooled air when I usually go for my walks.

I am one who loves to look at flowers, plants and trees but certainly I do not know the names of them. That is why I have a multitude of insanely smart and wonderful Friends, including the ones I have met through blogging, who are like walking Botonists. They are always teaching me something new everyday. Hey, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be growing celery right now.

I was curious though as to what this tree was that is in our complex, it was last year that I had seen it and noticed that is had massive cream-white buds and green rubber-tree shiny leafs, although I did not get a close-up look at it and did not put two-and-two together that it was even a Magnolia tree, but it is and how magnificent and aromatic it is!

The perfume has a very heavy floral scent and reminds me of the Gardenia flower. I find myself purposely wandering by those trees every day to pick up the scent and to see if there is one flower low enough for me to get a picture. No luck yet but tomorrow will be today soon enough.

And upon some research I also found the most beautiful poem about this tree. It was written by Author Helen Deutsch. It is called "The White Magnolia Tree" and it reads:

The year when I was twenty-one,
(John that year was twenty-three)
That was the year, that was the spring,
We planted the white magnolia tree.

"This tree," said John, "shall grow with us,
And every year it will bloom anew.
This is our life. This is our love."
And the white magnolia tree grew and grew...

Oh, youth' a thing of fire and ice,
And currents that run hot and white,
And its world is as bright as the sun...

I was twenty-one...
And I wore a plume in my hat.
And we went to the movies and wept over" Stella Dallas",
And John sang "Moonlight and Roses"
(a little off-key, but very nicely really),

And we hurried through our crowded days
With beautiful plans, boundless ambitions, and golden decisions.
There is so much the young heart clamours for,
That it must have, and that it cannot live without,
And it must be all or nothing,
For aren't we the masters of creation?

Oh, valiant and untamed were we,
When we planted the white magnolia tree!
And the white magnolia grew and grew,
Holding our love within its core,
And every year it bloomed anew,
And we were twenty-one no more.

No more untamed, no more so free,
Nor so young, nor so wild and aflame were we.
Dearer to us grew other things:
Easy sleep, books, a day's quiet holiday,
Good talk beside a fire, the beauty of old faces...

We have known many things since then:
The death of a child and the bitter lesson
That a heart which breaks can mend itself again
(That it can and must be done),
And what loyalty can mean,
And how real a word like courage can become,
And that solitude can be rich and gratifying
And quite different from loneliness...

There is so little the serious heart requires:
Friends, faith, a window open to the world,
Pride in work well done,
And strength to live in a world at war
And still maintain the heart's own private peace...

Dear Heaven, I give thanks to thee
For things I did not know before,
For the wisdom of maturity,
For bread, and a roof, and for one thing more...

Thanks because I still can see
The bloom on the white magnolia tree.

So, here is hoping that I get to take a picture and add it to this post. For now, I will read the poem again, sip on a cup of tea and wait for sun to set.  

I have updated this post to include one picture. Hard to get just the right lighting but it is still beautiful as it opens up with its' petals unfolding.