May 26

The mints in the front knot garden have gone to flower, delicate and small their blossoms of pale purple and blue. We have several varieties of mint both in the garden and growing wild in the periphery of the lawn – cat mint, spearmint, lemon balm, and wild bergamot (or menarda). The latter has yet to even consider flowering, but in late June we should see its buds of soon-to-be fluffy blossoms of purples and reds. These are the bee balms or Oswego teas, and our visiting honeybees will frequent their area when the flowers arrive. The brilliant red of the bee balm also attracts our hummer, who can’t seem to stay away from the red splash but evidently isn’t overly satisfied, for he moves quickly onward each time.

The mints are a distinctively summer scent, and I enjoy tearing a leaf and rubbing it between my fingers. This is doubly so for the lemon balm, as it has a pleasant smell, which I wonder if discourages mosquitoes, much in the manner of eucalyptus.

Mints remind me of the shoreline vegetation on the lake in northern Michigan, where we would travel down to the far bay and beach our boats on the sandy shore. This area of the lake is kept pristine from human intrusion for several miles as has always been, and the shoreline today is the same as it was in my boyhood explorations. We’d walk the beach, dotted with reed grass and mint, where emergent toads by the hundreds would scurry away when approached.

I think of these memories nearly every time I tear a piece of mint to rub.

Notes:

Ruby-throated hummingbird returned to feeder.