Sultry as a summer evening

"Sultry as a summer evening and as intoxicating as an exotic perfume, the scent of gardenias settles like a memory onto your soul. The blossoms are just as enticing. Buds shaped like seashells unfurl into velvet soft flowers in the warmth and humidity of early evening. But it's the fragrance that captivates."

 from Southern Living "A Fragrance That Captivates"

The gardenias are in bloom throughout my neighborhood and the scent is everywhere, including just outside my door.  It's a scent that I think of as purely Southern, though the plant originated in the orient. And it's a scent that tells me summer is here.   I'm tempted to tuck a bloom behind my ear, Billie Holliday style.

This is the time of year when I long for a sleeping porch - a screened bedroom where I could feel the night breezes, smell the gardenias,  and wake to the birds singing.  

The young birds are everywhere in the garden now.  Cardinals, brown thrashers, towhees, and robins.

Most of the nests are out of sight, but a pair of robins built a nest just off of our deck where I was able to keep watch until they fledged.

So much has been happening in the garden, and I've not had time to record it here - unless I wanted to give up my garden time for blog time.  I do have photos and hope to share some more of them soon.