Letter from Vermont: Stop and smell the lilacs

When I lived in New York I spent a small fortune every year buying bodega lilacs so that I could inhale their scent at every possible moment during their brief and fragrant annual window. Tulips, roses, irises even, you can find at all times of the year. They’re grown halfway around the world, and while they don’t speak to a particular moment or mood, they will brighten your kitchen on a cold January night.
Lilacs though, they’re only around for a few weeks in late April and ea