Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Eucalyptus Morning

There are certainly heavenly smells that remind me how much I love and miss California. Eucalyptus is one of them. I went out walking this morning, along El Camino and side streets, thinking of my kid and how we loved spotting the mission bells along side of the road half hidden in the eucalyptus trees, and a gardener was trimming a hedge and pruning eucalyptus trees.

A rush of the green dry perfume of the eucalyptus overwhelmed me. Gorgeous place this strange California.

It also reminds me of my first trips here, when I was just newly married, in love, walking the Berkeley campus with my first husband (his alma mater). He pointed out the large eucalyptus trees with their weird bark and unusual medicinal, healing smell. The trees are still here. Bittersweet to know we no longer walk hand-in-hand.