Marcus Carey’s On the Marc: Mornings with
my ‘peeps,’ flowering locusts as good as it gets

As I opened the back door this morning for my walk through the yard to check on our new flock of chicks, I was greeted with the most pleasant aroma that seemed to fill the air. While any number of shrubs around the house have exploded with blooms, I knew in an instant what was the source of the sweet morning air. It was the annual flowering of the black locust trees around the farm.
 

There, in the light of the rising sun, I could see all around the pastures an amazing display of fragile white flower filling huge spaces that only days before had been barely broken by the thin woody branches of winter looking trees.
 

I’ve seen heavy locust blooms in the past, but this morning the display was more spectacular than ever. It seemed as if every tree was a locust. Hardly a space around the farm existed that didn’t have a towering chrysanthemum waving on the morning breeze.
 

The fragrance of the locust trees when they bloom is far more appealing than a flower or two, here and there. They rise so high into the sky that they fill the countryside with their delicious bouquet. And it’s as if they all respond to the longer days, the warmer afternoons and the cooler nights, in unison, like a vast silent stationary school of fish all flashing their colors at the same time.
 

As dawn broke over the horizon, the tops of the trees lit up like icing on a cupcake high above the greening fields. I stood and watched as the sky got brighter and the trees responded by appearing like huge cotton candies planted at the edge of the woods.
 

I know the blooms will soon start dropping. I know the ground will soon be sprinkled with soft petals that will brown and disappear, but for now, in this moment, the sweet spring balm of the locust bloom is a soothing aroma therapy for the world. Enhanced by the morning melodies of songbirds, the distant crow of a rooster, and the silence of the world before it rumbles awake and off to work, mornings in the country are rejuvenating reminders of the greatness of God’s creation.
 

It is the least I can do to share it with you, as I greet my “peeps,” coffee in hand, and begin a new day thankful for the life I have been given.
 

Drink it in my friends. You don’t need to stop to smell the roses, just step outside and enjoy the perfume of the black locust trees carried along on the morning breeze. This is about as good as it gets.
 

Marcus Carey is a Northern Kentucky lawyer with 32 years experience. He is also a farmer, talk radio host and public speaker who loves history and politics. He is a prolific and accomplished writer whose blog, BluegrassBulletin.com is “dedicated to honest and respectful comment on the political and cultural issues of our time.” He writes a daily commentary for KyForward.
 

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