Soon to Worship at the Altar of the Half-Smoke

I'm emptying a drawer right now, but I need a distraction.  God, I need a distraction.

Rev. Mom, very in character, is watching some documentary on the nature of forgiveness, and how it's okay to forgive but forgetting is not part of the equation, necessarily.  It's interesting stuff, but it's not what you would call a welcome distraction, as the word "forgiveness" always makes me feel guilty.

Many things make me feel guilty, incidentally.

But as I comb through the contents of the drawer, an empty cache of stamps beckons me. 

A happy image.  I need a happy image.  And this is the happy image that arrives from the nebulous depths of my step-father's desk's drawer: 

Have you ever seen these stamps?

Just in case you don't care to follow the link, this was a 2004 stamp series on American artists.  "Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth" was the contribution by Martin Johnson Heade. (thank you USPS for the pic)

Now, it's a very pretty painting, and one which apparently was sold in some Arizona estate sale along with another one of this man's paintings for eighty-eight measly dollars.  It later sold at auction for the rather-impressive sum of $937,500.

I didn't know that until I read the Wikipedia article, really.  But that's not what draws me to these magnificent, evocative flowers.

___________

June is prime time for magnolias, especially around here in California.  Unfortunately as it never gets warm enough in this part of the state, that bright and delicious magnolia headiness seldom perfumes and lingers in the air as it does in swampy, sooty, pork-barrel-infested DC.

Did DC just win a beauty contest in my mind?

Am I yearning to sit with my thighs sticking together in the 90-plus degree heat and smelling the perfume of late-blooming magnolias while slapping mosquitoes away instead of hiding from the 55-degree weather in the folds of my hooded sweatshirt?

You bet your ass I am.

And for now, I'll leave it at that.

Comments

[Anita (Prairie Dreams)]

I've never smelled a magnolia... or seen one other than in pictures...
Your post makes me think I'm really missing out on something...

[Juanita]

Ooooo! You're be in time for the July 4th Parade??? I hope so. Too bad they know what candy is this year. :P

[Amber]

Hey, sorry I haven't been around in a while! What a beautiful stamp. I've never seen it before...then again...in Germany we only get to see boring stamps.

Sending warm weather your way!