…in the heights of Cedar City last bloomed untrammeled by late snow and frost?

Not this year, although, so far as the lilacs are concerned, this spring has been a half-glass proposition because the lilacs actually got to bloom, but the weather got cold enough that while the blooms were gorgeous, the frost nipped them to the degree that there was no fragrance.

That’s a first in thirty years.

When you live at 6,000 feet between two mountain ranges and near the top of a sizable hill, you come to expect extremely variable weather, as well as frequent high winds.

We’ve had springs where the lilacs avoided the unpredictable inclement weather and they bloomed and perfumed the yard, and springs where they were snowed out or frozen and we had neither blooms nor fragrance. And quite a few springs where they budded and the buds immediately froze enough that when they thawed, they just dried up without opening. And even a spring or two where the wind was severe enough to blow off the blooms before they fully opened.

But full blooms with no fragrance? Never before.

Then, again, we’ve seen a lot this year that we never thought we’d see, and it’s not just here. Even Paris was just bombarded with intense hail and flash floods. Why should the lilacs of Cedar City be immune?

So… I’ll wait for next year and hope for both blooms and fragrance.