Treasure

I am having the quietest, simplest day. It has been lovely. I took a walk and picked some hurricane lilies that were growing in front of an old, abandoned house. I brought them home and put them in my favorite vase along with some tea olive which is blooming right now. I tried valiantly to take a picture of the whole arrangement, but none of the photos appealed to me in the least. It was like trying to capture the essence of the fragrance of the tea olive which is, I am afraid, impossible.
But I did get a picture of the tea olive bloom which I liked and there it is. That entire cluster is no bigger around than a quarter- such is the bloom of the tea olive. And yet, it's fragrance is so powerful that you can smell it from yards away. It does not require huge, gaudiness to release a scent, only these tiny blossoms, so small that you can quite literally smell them before you see them.
It is the perfect scent for today. It does not overpower, it wends its way to the nose and then to the brain and then to the face where you find you are smiling.

I am smiling. It is a quiet, peaceful day. The tea olive is the loudest thing in my world right now although the hurricane lily does indeed explode like a delicate firework in the afternoon light and I am as content as I could possibly be with just that vase of fragrance and color and beckoning stamens of love dust.