After Benjamin went to bed tonight, Jacob and I had a special bike ride through the neighbourhood. We had had a brief but dramatic shower this afternoon (a few small hail balls included), leaving all the leaves and flowers shiny and bright. The sun was getting closer to setting and the day was still warm enough to be comfortable but the coolness of night was in the air.
It was the smells, though, that captured me the most. The moisture really brings out all the delicate fragrances that can remain hidden on our typical sunny, dry days. The sweet, delicate scent of the fleeting lilacs was around us. That smell always brings me back to growing up in Michigan where we had a lilac bush out in the front of our house. The green, lush smell of freshly cut grass. The chalky wet pavement smell that seems to precede rainstorms and linger after them. Even just the cool, damp smells of the wet earth and the fading lightness of the crabapple blossoms all came together.
Riding through the myriad of smells, with the evening light softening the day, everything just felt magical and homey and comforting. Such a fleeting moment of the day, usually lost in the hectic activity of after-dinner clean up and bedtime routines and end-of-the-day crabbiness. It was so enjoyable tonight to spend that time with Jacob, my boy who is also in the fleeting years of youth, his sweetness beginning to be edged out here and there with independence and attitude. I must soak it in while I can.
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