Sweet honeysuckle thickens the gray coastal air

21 May 2012

In hedgerows along roads and fields in the coastal area, the sweet smell of blooming honey suckle is pushing out into our characteristically cool air of late May. Waves of the the scent fill the noses of walkers, bicyclists and drivers with their windows down.  It's a smiling smell that takes our minds back to childhood when we plucked off the little white and brown trumpets, nipped off the green cap at the bottom and pulled out the thin filaments that brought with them a droplet of nature's free candy.

I always thought the brown honeysuckle flowers brought forth the sweeter nectar.

And here's two questions:

How about this weather? Well, it's blowing out of the northeast and that cool air is running into the warming continent so we get the rainy. misty, blowy weather that's not unusual here in late spring.  I was watching the Orioles and Nationals game Sunday afternoon.  They were playing in D.C. Bright sunshine and 80 degrees.  Later in the day, a man told us he had ridden a bicycle tour in Wilmington earlier in the day.  "It was sunny and 85 there," he said.  "Now I'm back here, it's raining and 20 degrees cooler."

It's supposed to be a rainy week but everyone's keeping their fingers crossed that the sunny forecast for the Memorial Day weekend holds up.

And traffic?  What was it Saturday?  It took us a half hour to drive from Lewes to Rehoboth Beach for a wedding. Stop and go all the way. I thought I had taken a Rip Van Winkle nap and woken up on Fourth of July weekend. The highway was packed and downtown Rehoboth Beach was swarming with people and cars.  It was the last weekend before the meters go up and the weather was beautiful.  The annual Sidewalk Sale no doubt brought lots of people into town too,  Lots and lots of people said "Let's go to the beach!"