How sweet it is!

Back in 1963, in a movie called Father's Delicate Condition, Jackie Gleason said, "How sweet it is."  It became his tag-line thereafter.  

I thought of that line when I was walking recently through Cranwell Park and I approached this Chinaberry Tree.  They have about the sweetest smell that I can remember ever smelling.  The flowers look to me a little like lilacs do, but the two are not related. 

It is summer here and everywhere I walk, I run into flowers that cause me to pause and inhale more deeply.

This post will show you some of sniff-worthy areas around our area. 

It is high-tide and I'm crossing Opanuku Stream. There is a breeze that seems to be coming up the stream. It's a mixture of sweet flowering things and the slightly rank odor of mangrove swamps, which we're not far from.  

Some flowers along the Opanuku.

This is certainly not a beautiful picture, but I included it because the forest litter, made up here of mainly rimu leaves, smells to me very much like pine needles do.  Passing this point reminded me of walking through the piney woods at the  the mouth of the Presque Isle River and in a park along the Cedar River, both in Northern Michigan. 

  I am about to cross the Oratia Stream. (Ore-ah-tea-ah) 

I'm looking upriver.

Another Chinaberry Tree and this is a big one. This perfume is so strong I can almost taste the sweetness in the air.  

I'm on the grounds of the Falls Restaurant. 

This artwork commemorates the early industries of Henderson.  It looks like they were largely agricultural, orchards, vineyards and logging. 

Here are a couple of details from around this sculpture. 

A grove of cabbage palms lines this side of the Oratia Stream.  

I've made a big circle during my walk. I'm approaching what I call our 'back door.'  It is an entrance on the west side of The Mews. These grabbed me by the nose as I walked by.  I don't see any in this picture, but there were lots of bees working this mass of flowers, and I'm sure they were "our" bees.  Little wonder that our honey is as good as it is.  

Although I remembered and used his tag-line at the beginning of this post, I can't say that I was ever a big fan of Jackie Gleason.  I was just a kid when I first saw him on TV, and the characters he played were way beyond my experience and full understanding.  

I did discover a movie of his though when I was an adult that made an impression on me. It was made in 1962, the year before he coined the phrase 'how sweet it is.' The movie is Gigot, and is set in Paris. (Directed by Gene Kelly)  In it, Jackie plays a mute man who befriends the young daughter of a prostitute.  I think that Jeanne and I especially liked this movie because the Parisian scenes, streets, and cafes shown in the movie brought back memories of the week we spent in Paris on our honeymoon.  The movie is heart-warming and sweet-as, but I learned when I was researching the movie later, that Jackie was not actually as sweet a guy in real life as his character was in the movie.  (not many people are) 

What I read was that when Jackie was making plans to film in Paris with his entourage, he wanted to rent the entire floor of a very well-known and prestigious hotel. He wanted no one else on 'his' floor.  

The hotel apologized and said that they very much wanted his business of course, but that there were just a few long-term customers of the hotel booked into rooms on the floor he wanted, and that the hotel could not possibly ask them to move from their accustomed rooms, during Jackie's visit.

Apparently, Jackie put his foot down and said that if the hotel wanted his business, they had better move them out, or he'd go elsewhere.  

The hotel moved them, and Jackie got his floor. So much for heart-warming....  

However, I urge you to find and watch Gigot. It is on YouTube now and is a classic in my opinion. 

-djf