June Cottage Letter and Lilacs

The lilacs are in bloom. I inherited two in my yard: a rare white beauty and a light pinky purple. It is a sweet pleasure to bend a branch to take in the familiar but fleeting scent. It is featured in the Cottage Letter for June. There is still time to get yours.

It only blooms for a few weeks of the year and it’s one of those flowers you can’t buy at the grocery store year round like a rose. 

People don’t realize lilacs aren’t even native to North America. They arrived with the settlers from Europe – cuttings carefully stowed away in steamer trunks for the voyage to a new land, then planted with care and hope.

My friend Elsa recommended a sprinkling of Paris inside the Cottage Letters. This month we are linking Les Deux Magots café and lilacs, largely because the purple lilac looks nice with the Naples Yellow of the building.

Even now, over a century later, if you come across a lilac bush in the forest in North America, you’ve likely arrived at an old homestead where a European settler planted a lilac bush that begat another lilac that begat another and so on and so forth. Perhaps even someone who once frequented Les Deux Magots in Paris planted one here.

Painting a lilac is a multi-layered and a multi-medium situation. This time I added paint pencils. Vibrant!

There is a discrepancy about where the original lilacs were planted. One romantic theory is that they were planted outside the kitchen door so the scent could waft into the house. Another more practical theory is that they were planted beside the outhouse. Both theories are likely. It makes me look twice at the one planted in my backyard. 

Scent is linked heavily to memory. The smell of lilac brings me back to school days when children were tasked with bringing in mason jars of blooms to decorate the church. 

My daughter now takes her lilac sprig to the church service where they celebrate Mary. We choose one that’s not too big, not too small, wrap it carefully in a wet paper towel, then wrap that in tin foil. She walks down the aisle along with all the other children with their lilacs. There are a few tulips and daffodils as well. Whatever we have on hand will do. Mary doesn’t mind.

Once I was done painting and writing the Cottage Letter for June (photos to follow after the current subscribers get theirs), I whipped up a visual journal spread.

This is largely due to acquiring a new journal and trying out the paper. Not bad. Could be better. Should I do a whole visual journal book? Please advise. Also let me know if you found an excellent journal that holds watercolour well. This one is okay. Not ready to recommend.

-J

PS Look at this TREMENDOUS kind letter I received about the May Cottage Letter last month. You sticker lovers are going to understand. (I’m adding a sticker in the June letter as well… FUN)

Dearest Janice,

Your May Cottage Letter arrived this morning - and with it - the sunny Spring weather. Perfect timing!

So, I sat down right there - outside amidst the birdsong, pops of green & flowering trees - and gave it a read. 

Your letters always perk me up but this one in particular - with all the cherry blossoms (my fav) and none other than - a STICKER!! An absolutely gorgeous one at that! 

I’m downright giddy! I don’t know what it is about stickers but they make me bubble with joy - giddy, schoolgirl joy bubbles 🫧 😊. 

Just wanted to say thanks for bringing the joy on this lovely day & I hope you have an awesome long weekend. 

~ S.