From Simple Pleasures of the Garden

"I suppose the garden behind my grandparents house was small, but to a four-year-old it seemed immense. The distance from the backdoor to the end of the yard was a journey from the safety of home, across an expanse of grass, around orderly flower beds, and finally to the marvelous wilderness of the tall, old lilac hedge. I discovered that a persistent push would let me enter a cool, green space under the branches of the lilacs. There I daily established my first household, presiding over tea parties for an odd assortment of stuffed animals and the patient family cat.

Now, nearly seven decades later, the heady scent of lilacs takes me back to that garden where I took those first ventures toward independence ~ though never out of sight of the familiar backdoor."

~ From 'Simple Pleasures of the Garden', author unknown