Enchanted Wisteria (ST#8)

I'm not much of a movie-goer and until I met Sara, all I knew about flowers was that roses were red, violets were blue, and carnations were grown specifically to embarrass young men who had to pin corsages on their prom date in front of her Mom and Dad who watched every move.

In the early 1990's I went to a movie in Bethesda, MD, probably the last time I ever did. I saw a movie with Joan Plowright named "Enchanted April" in which, on a cold, rainy day in post WWI England, a woman on her way to work saw an ad in a newspaper reading, "To those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine. Small medieval Italian castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April ..."

I'm not a fan of movies with car chases, fake, amplified gunfire, gratuitous sex or loud music, and "Enchanted April" had none of these. It featured adult conversation and some nice scenery in warm Italy. I suppose it had wisteria, but to be perfectly honest, I didn't know what wisteria was at the time, and assumed it might be something served at a meal.

Fast forward to this century and January 2000 when I met a lady on-line who called herself GardenNymph, who lived in Georgia, and seemed to know all about flowers and trees and stuff. She's the one who taught me that the trees in my Maryland yard with round spiked seed pods that looked like floating mines in WWII Navy movies were really nuisance trees called Sweet Gum.

Over the next couple of years, we carried on a long range relationship, getting together at least monthly, meeting each others families, and getting to know one another. In the summer of 2002, I quit my job in Maryland, sold my house, gave most of my furniture to neighbors and Goodwill, moved to Georgia and married my garden nymph. Thus began my education in flora where I learned that beavers like sweet gum trees and that wisteria is a flowering vine with beautiful blooms and a delightful aroma.

. . . and we have lots of wisteria. To this day, when it begins to bloom, I'm reminded of the movie "Enchanted April" and how I thought it might be some sort of pasta.