Pretty flowers.

If you've known me since childhood, you probably know that I love lilacs. A lot. I had a lilac bush in my backyard as a child, and I swear to you that thing was my best friend. Which may sound sad, but I spent hours playing around that bush. I hid things in its branches and made up games, and pretended all sorts of things, many of them I can't even remember because when you're a child there's this whole other world going on inside of your head that you can't tap into as an adult.

One thing I do remember is that when I went through my Xena obsession stage, and started "training" with a quarter staff in my backyard, no tree or bush was safe except for my lilac. I beat the shit out of every other thing in our backyard except that.

So when I found out that there was an entire garden of lilac bushes in Manito Park here in Spokane, I became a giddy little girl again. I was eagerly waiting for when they would come into bloom, and today was the day. I caught them at the perfect time, when the trees are half budded and half bloomed out. It smelled like heaven and I took, um, a lot of pictures. Like over fifty. I LIKE LILACS, SHUT UP! Here are some of my favorites...