Our Rosa rugosa shrub was planted when we had to miss out on going to Ogunquit one year. I’d been missing the ocean air, the salty way Maine seduced you brusquely and beautifully, and so I found a plant that would bloom wit the scented memory of all those walks along the Marginal Way. It didn’t bloom profusely that first year – or most years for that matter – but just one bloom was enough for me to smell, and then quell the restless heart.
That clump of Rosa rugosa has lasted for over a decade, though it still only yields a few flushes of blooms each year. This one is currently beginning. and every time I see a bloom open, I stop to rush over and inhale its perfume. It takes me back to the Maine of my earliest days with Andy, and further back to my first trip to Provincetown with Suzie, and then even further back with memories of Cape Cod with my Mom and Dad and brother. All happy memories, all got me dizzy on the intoxicating scent…
