I had an aggravating morning. Nothing really wrong just a series of events that prevented me from getting to do the things I needed to do.
Right when I thought I had everything taken care of and I could get to work Granny called asking me if she could borrow some olive oil. She had started cooking before she realized she was out so I had to take it down the hill to her right away.
I was trying to hurry so I could get back to my chores, but right when I stepped into Granny’s yard I smelled the most amazing scent. I didn’t stop long enough to let it register that it was honeysuckle but the fragrance did improve my disposition immediately.
After I had delivered the olive oil I headed back up the trail. That’s when I decided to figure out what the amazing scent was.
As I looked around the yard I spied the honeysuckle and felt downright silly for not realizing that’s what it was in the first place.
Here’s what I wrote about the honeysuckle back in 2011.
“The trail between our house and Pap’s smells so sweet I’d like to take a chair and sit in the middle of the road.
Earlier this year as we helped Granny and Pap get started on the garden at their house one of the projects was to pull the honeysuckle from Granny’s red bud tree. They pulled, they sawed, and finally they tied one end of a rope around a big chunk of it and the other end to the back of The Deer Hunter’s truck. When he laid the gas to it for a moment it seemed the whole tree would come down, but the honeysuckle gave up its hold on the red bud and down the road it went behind the truck.
I thought “Oh no what if he got all the honeysuckle.” See I didn’t want to miss that feeling I get every year when the honeysuckle around Pap’s house blooms. I stand still and give the air a good sniff like a hound dog and as I look at the blooms and smell the sweet scent I just know the world will be okay one way or another—how could it not be in the face of honeysuckle?”
After I admired the wall of honeysuckle I decided to amble down the road a bit and see if I could spy a sassafras tree. I’ve been wanting to make some sassafras tea and I remembered there used to be one along the trail that leads down to my brother Steve’s house. I quickly found a half a dozen small sassafras trees.
By that time Chitter came driving up the road. She’d had a morning about like mine. She stopped to see what I was doing. We ended up back at the honeysuckle sucking the small drops of sweetness found on the stems of the blooms.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
I’m glad Granny was out of olive oil because the beauty of wild honeysuckle turned my aggravating day into one of gratefulness for the mountain holler I live in.
Last night’s video: One of My Favorite Recipes for Using Fresh Kale from the Garden!
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I was watching the episode when you were showing different flowers in your garden. You showed one that you called Sundrop. I live in Virginia and we call that particular flower Yellow Rose of Texas. My husband and I love watching you and your family on You Tube. We normally watch you all while eating supper. I hope to meet you at your book signing in Boone.
I came across ‘Blind Pig & the Acorn’ this afternoon & has been looking at it & it now is 8-56pm. I was born & raised
In Fireco, Wv. I loved the Sarvis trees that bloomed all over Raleigh County.
I have loved reading what all has been talking about. Brings back. loads of child hood memories. Thanks u’ all.
Oh my dear, nothing improves the mood like smelling honeysuckle. I was rewarded each time I went to my mailbox by that fragrance. It will always probably be there, because the ground is rough and uneven plus a tendency to hold water. Maybe it will be enjoyed by the new tenants as much as I did. Meanwhile, I will always love an unexpected fragrance of wild roses or honeysuckle anywhere I find it. For a few years when I lived in New Orleans, there was a band of 4 o’clock around a large tree in the yard. That is a fragrance to be remembered, and always drew me out to the porch when the mosquitoes weren’t buzzing. Dear friends were able to share the fragrance with me. I planted the 4 o’clock seeds, but was never able to grow them.
Honeysuckle, lily-of-the-valley, lilac, jasmine, and gardenia are my favorite flower scents. I grew up in the city but we had honeysuckle, lily-of-the-valley, and lilac growing around us and I loved smelling them every summer. I live in the country now and only have honeysuckle around and it brings back the lovely times of being a child. They used to make perfumes out of all of those flowers, and wish that they still did. I don’t like the new perfumes with the heavy scents. Glad that you got to take the time to smell the honeysuckle and it turned your day around.
Kelly – look for mail order company called OLD VERMONT TRADER. They carry old-timey floral fragrances you might like.
Check online.
o Tipper why did you pull the Redbud tree down. Have you ever made Redbud jelly. it is so good and healthy good to. Alot of good heath benefits from it. o I love to smell the lovely smell of honeysuckle.
Gigi- we only pulled the honeysuckle down not the tree 🙂
From the time I was knee high to a puddle duck, I have loved the scent of honeysuckle. When I was a child the honeysuckle grew along the top of the garden fence. It was pleasant to catch it’s scent on a breeze as we worked in the garden each spring. At night the scent was thicker and headier. It made sitting on the back porch of an evening so enjoyable. That garden fence is gone now, but the honeysuckle has found a way to crawl across the hedge between the garden and the yard. The scent of honeysuckle and the sound of the whippoorwills made some of my best childhood memories. I still look forward to spring just to smell the honeysuckle and hear the whippoorwills call. The two are entwined in my memories. The thought of one brings immediately the thought of the other. They are pieces of heaven on earth to me. Thanks Tipper for invoking some of my most nostalgic memories the past few days. First the whippoorwill, and now the honeysuckle.
I also love the scent of jasmine and gardenia. My hubby bought me a Star of India jasmine vine many years ago. It still fills the night air in spring and summer with it’s lovely scent. When we were married only a few years he bought me a gardenia bush and planted it right next to one of our bedroom windows. Many nights I fell asleep with the scent of gardenia wafting in on a breeze through the open windows.
Another lovely scent we enjoy here are the mimosas blooming in spring and early summer. They smell so sweet. Most people consider mimosas to be invasive, and perhaps they are, but we love the scent. We do try to keep them somewhat under control. Following the mimosas, we enjoy the sweet scent of our Mr. Lincoln red roses. Their scent on the night air is also thick and heady. Can you tell I love sweet smelling flowers?
Have they ever made a ladies’ perfume of honeysuckle? I’m sure it would turn men into bees and the ladies would spend much time fighting them off.
My daughter, upon encountering honeysuckle and being shown how to taste its sweetness at about 2 years old, named it ‘honey suckers’ and maintains that naming to this day as she turns 40.
Thanks for the post and the memories it evoked.
Blessings to all . . .
yes Robert they did. I don’t know if they still do but Avon use to sale it.
I had never paid attention to honeysuckle until last summer on one of my daily walk with my 6 year old niece she said her mom
picked said her Mom picked them and they ate I promise this year I will look thanks for reminding me
I love the smell of Honeysuckles! They grew abundantly on a hillside close to the house I grew up in. This post brings back such wonderful memories. Thank you!
The last two days here have felt like winter to me. It’s been in the 60’s with almost a constant breeze and just a mist of rain. The dogwood and blackberry blooms have fallen off and strawberries are ripening. What winter would you call this?
Ed-it’s been cooler here too! I wonder if this is what I’ve heard called britches winter 🙂
I just love the way the Lord turns you in another direction and puts you where you need to be when you need to be. There are times I wonder why I went that way instead of the other, He just wanted to bless me. I think the Lord gave you two an awesome blessing this morning.
I love the smell of honeysuckle and wild roses. Unfortunately we don’t have any honeysuckle at our place but we have a ton of wild roses. The grow from the woods around the house and in the past couple of years they’ve began spilling over the fence into our backyard. I was researching them a while back and apparently they’re considered a nuisance by some because they spread everywhere. It would be fine with me if they spread allover everything around here! Those and honeysuckle are the best scents
Good for you for being able to turn your day around!
I love the scent of honeysuckle too, but our wild north Idaho mountain variety looks pretty anemic compared to that robust specimen in you photo. The smell I adore is that of Russian Olive blooming. I grew up the second half of my childhood in Wyoming and the Russian Olives and cottonwoods were thick along the Shoshone river. The smell of those Russian Olives were so sweet in the spring.
I’ve always loved the smell of honeysuckle, it takes me back to carefree childhood days. Here in town behind our back yard there is a creek with woods, and we are just lucky enough to have honeysuckle growing there and we can smell it, even more if the wind blows. Husband and I were in the front yard the other day and I started sniffing and then he did, and we both said at the same time, “HONEYSUCKLE!” Loved this story today!!
Cheer up, Tipper, when you get older and those knees and back start hurting like mine are this morning, you will be thankful for those days you didn’t do anything but loaf. Since I retired, my son will tease me and say it now takes you all week to do what you use to do in one day. I read this the other day -how many retired people does it take to change a light bulb, the answer is only one but it will take them all day. I tell people I am not being lazy. I am being energy efficient! The older I get the more days I have when nothing goes right.
I once could do two day’s work in one long day. Now It takes me a week to do one day’s work and another week to get over it.
oh so glad I’m not the only one dealing with that. just turned 70 and spring with an acre is feeling overwhelming this year. last year I was good for a 4 hour go. So far I’m getting 2 hours out of my day of labor. Oh well it is what it is but my jasmine and wisteria have taken off and the honeysuckle which was just put in as a 6 inch pot is going slowly so far in upstate NY. We just had a pneumonia front go through. The jasmine was awesome and the French wisteria hasn’t bloomed yet so crossing my fingers for this season.
Thanx Tipper, reminds me of the Passion flowers which is my personal favorite and the Bumble Bees love it. We planted it by our doors to the house and every time that we went in or out the smell was intoxicating. We also planted Morning Glories. The beauty of Flowers and Blooms is unmatched by anything that Man can make, God bless.
I will always stop to smell the beautiful scent permeating the air in which I am walking or sitting and I LOVE the fragrance of Honeysuckle. In my growing up years actually in a town, I loved and still love Lilacs greeting me as I stepped out in our yard. I smelled Honeysuckle at my grandparents in NE MS and even here in PA and down country roads in Maryland. A couple of years ago, I was at our son’s house down south and a beautiful scent came wafting through the air. It perfumed the air all around his koi pond and as I walked around the big pond. I didn’t think it was Honeysuckle so when I returned to the house I asked him what was that wonderful smell out in the yard. He said it was the Jasmine Vine growing up one of the trees. I had heard of Jasmine but had never seen it, what I saw was a tiny white flower that vines up the tree. I sure appreciate God giving me that little memory of all the beautiful flowers, vines and shrubs aroma so I stop and take in the smell and beauty.
Memories of my childhood!
Honeysuckle reminds me of being at my granny and pa’s house. They had it down by their corn field at the creek and there was also always some growing near the grapes. It smelled so sweet and tasted so good. I wish I had some in our yard now.
In my opinion, the fringe tree blossom is the best-smelling flower in the world while honeysuckle and Mimosa are toss-ups for second place. They say the sense of smell is our strongest and I believe that is true when it comes to memories. The fragrance of the mimosa tree takes me back to my aunt’s house where I spent so many hours playing in the yard under a canopy of pink flowers.
Praying that God will Bless Miss Cindy again today!
We were created with 5 senses. Sight. Hearing. Smell. Taste. and Touch. These are gifts of God! Unfortunately as we age, these gifts can grow faint.
Loss of smell has become a more common thing in the wake of Covid. Sad because it is important and may let you know if danger is around you…like a fire.
Honeysuckle is one thing there’s plenty of around here! When I was a child, I’d pick blooms to suck the drops of sweet nectar and it was fun! What happens to the child in each of us who got excited being enthralled in simple moments and sometimes got carried away in that moment? I’ve spent a hard 10 years trying to become like the child I used to be. It’s took lots of unraveling to get me trained back to innocence, sweetness and pure basics of life! Don’t mind me sniffing on the roadside like a hound dog or plucking buds. I will be about my way shortly with a fist of flowers prettier and more cheerful than all the money the crooks have stole from the common man. My millionaire friend who’s an absolute slave to his money will NEVER, EVER have what you and I have, Tipper. It’s those moments too that remind us GOD is saying to each of us “ ENJOY AND KNOW IVE GOT THIS!!!”
Honeysuckle is one of my favorite scents. I’m smelling it in my suburban neighborhood. I think we all have those kind of mornings where nothing is going the way we’d like.
Tipper, just recently I was talking to my husband about not seeing any honeysuckle for a long time. So, long that neither of us could remember the last time.
This post gives me such hope!
Just like us praying for Miss Cindy. With God nothing is hopeless. Take care!
I have a love/hate relationship with honeysuckle. I love the scent and my bees love the nectar. I hate the fact that it takes over EVERYTHING. My beautiful hydrangea bush was swallowed and killed by the vine when I had my back surgery and could not get out to keep the vine under control.
We have honeysuckle out behind the barn. It smells so good! We used to taste the honeysuckle all the time when ai was a kid. You have reminded me to do that again!
It seems to me as if the honeysuckles are particularly abundant and fragrant this year. Love this story!
Thank you for reminding me it’s time to find that wonderful aroma. Like the whippoorwill is my favorite, the honeysuckle is right there with it. It brought tears to my eyes with memories of years past.
thank you for the memories!
God bless Tipper and her family, God bless Ms Cindy, have a great day friends of Appalachia, ✝️❤️
I’ve always believed that fragrance has a undiscovered power. It leads insects to pollinate and provide food, it smells good, it changes attitudes, it is alluring. When I smell a very powerful fragrance, I always take deep lungfuls of it to enjoy inside myself. It MUST have a special power that scientists have yet to discover and I take advantage every chance I get. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
The moment I saw the photo of the honeysuckle, I recalled it’s rich sweet fragrance. There’s nothing else like it. As a child I was taught to “drink” the nectar from the flowers by an older sister. Such a miniscule amount from each blossom…more fragrance than taste. For kids who didn’t have ready access to junk food, this was nature’s candy. Thank you for prompting that memory!
We had both honeysuckle and a redbud at my home when i was a kid. Brought back memories of tasting honeysuckle sweetness. We also would taste the sweetness of clover flowers. Bumble bees swarmed the flowers of both. The smell was so sweet it was intoxicating. The Redbud was so beautiful as well. Thank you for bringing that all back to me.
isn’t God amazing? i have been there many times!
thank you for reminding me to slow down and smell the flowers!
Nothing like the scent of honeysuckle on a warm summer night with a slight breeze,I have a one climbing amongst my rose bush next to my patio where I sit in the evening Tipper,one of those magical scents that evoke wonderful memories.All the best Tipper.
Michael
I love the smell of honeysuckle, it let’s you know spring is here and summer is on the way
I love how the smallest thing can completely change our perspective and our outlook. Sights and sounds can do it, but a scent that can lift our spirits and our hearts- now, that’s something really special! For me, Heartleaf always does it. When I’m walking in the woods and come across Wild Ginger, I have to pick the leaf and crush it, holding it under my nose for that scent that takes me all the way back, more than 55 years, to being in my Mamaw & Papaw’s front yard, playing under their oaks, picking “hearts” and sniffing like a hound dog. But I always look around for more than one before picking these days and never choose the healthiest, youngest looking leaf for my nostalgic enjoyment. Thank you for sharing what lifted your heart and turned your morning around.
About two weeks ago I was at my great granddaughter’s soccer game. At the edge of the field was a long long row of honeysuckles. The smell was divine and I heard the younger parents asking what’s that smell? I thought to myself if only they had the memories of hollers and honeysuckles.
Always loved honeysuckle. Your story reminded me of my times spent as a boy roaming Mariners Museum Park in Newport News ,VA. Wonderful place to visit if you ever get the chance. Lots of honeysuckle.
Even though its a small park in the middle of a city , deer and turkeys make their home there. When I was a boy (1970’s) a black bear swam the James River and came up into the park. He was eventually sighted, trapped, and relocated to the Great Dismal Swamp where he probably came from.
I was out walking this week and was clicking along at a good pace listening to the birds singing in the trees and watching all the critters scurrying around. Determined to keep my pace going to keep my heart rate up and my blood pumping because well … I need to exercise and I love to do it early. As I was walking along deep in thought about the world we live in and the concerns I have about our great nation I was suddenly struck by the sweet aroma of Honeysuckle and I came to a stop and found it. I spent some time enjoying the smell and of course I had to suck the nectar out of some of them too.
It was at that moment that I realized that the concerns I had in the minutes prior were no longer present. I think God has a way of letting us know that he is still there and not to worry so much because it serves no purpose. Let’s all take time to stop and smell the Honeysuckle.
Robert Frost had a time just like that only his was about “the way a crow shook down on me a dust of snow from a hemlock tree has given my heart a change of mood and saved some part of a day I had rued.” Good hearts find ways to save the day.
Interestingly enough I also love to be around those blooms. As I watched you preparing the kale salad I was reminded that a very long time ago, before the current selection of salad dressings, I grew up on fresh lemon juice and olive oil on our salads. I think, after watching this video, I will go back to that basic dressing of lemon juice and olive oil. Thanks for the memories and God Bless you guys.
I also like the smell of honeysuckle. I think over time, a lot of the honeysuckle around my home has been killed or maybe my smeller don’t work so good anymore, I don’t seem to smell as much of it now as I use too. Even though I plow, dig, and hoe in my garden spot, it’s morning glories that keep coming back each year. I think kudzu and sweet gums are the curse of the south.
Randy
To the kudzu and sweet gums I’d like to add fire ants and nut grass.
Ron, you are right about that, if I was allergic to fire ants and any kind of stinging bee, I would have been dead a long time ago.
I think that honeysuckle and wild crab apple blossoms have a wonderful fragrance.
And Virginia Creeper? The color it shows in fall is scant payment for the hurt it causes my old body every year trying to keep it from choking my flowers and climb my trees. That plant and I have been fighting over the same dirt for decades! My smeller is also showing the effects of age, but I still smell and appreciate the honeysuckle.