a little South Carolina Aloha

The State flower of SouthCarolina is the Jessamine. Its easy to see why too. The vines cover most everything in the wild places of the state. They go un noticed most of the time, but in the early spring they start to catch your eye. Little yellow buds appear and in a matter of days the vines are bursting with yellow trumpet shaped flowers that smell somewhat like pez candy muddled with cheap perfume; a little sweet but not in an unpleasant way. Our backyard wilderness is covered in jessamine vines and when I looked out over them this spring I could not help it, I had to have a go at stringing a lei. So I went out in the weeds and collected the blossoms. Even though I must have picked over 100 flowers I hardly left a dent in this years crop. It turned out rather nice if I do say so myself. The only thing is that while it seems the most natural thing in the world to wear a lei in Hawaii, its is a little strange and uncomfortable to wear one in South Carolina. So I wore it for an hour or so, and then gave it to my neighbor Barbara who probably thought I had lost my mind. Still It was fun for a while, and if I have another bumper crop of jessamine next year I may do it all over again, we'll see...