August 12, 2012 Pine St.

For a long way, we walk under deep rose colored crape myrtles, breathing in their fragrant sweetness and I am wondering why there is no candle scented with this fresh sweetness, no perfume, no bath salts.  The path is littered with blossoms from the heavily laden trees.  Bees buzz.

The crape myrtle (lagerstromemia) is native to India.  It was a plant taken to Linnaeus, "the father of taxonomy" by a Swedesh merchant named Magnus von Lagerstrom and so the tree is named after him.  In India, a silk worm eats the leaves.

In the American south, the tree is incredibly hardy.  Even a cold winter or a draught can't kill it.  I love this tree.  I have three 40 ft tall pale pink, one white, one purple, one new watermelon pink ande several small soft pink ones, all of which I planted in my yard.

We went down to St. Charles, Louisanna about 15 years ago for Ryan's brother's wedding.  We rented a van and also visited "The Myrtles", an old plantation (owned at that time by a friend of Ryan's mother's) which is famous for its ghost.  The ghost is a servant who had posioned the family with   oleander, another beautiful flowering southern plant.                            .

There was a small restaurant on the grounds where we had crawfish etoufee and delicious bread pudding.  We did not see the ghost.