Spring has sprung in Austin. Every time I pass a Wysteria tree, I am instantly 9 years old. When I was growing up in West Texas, we had a wysteria bush in our front yard. It was very low to the ground, so each spring, when it put on its purple-only frock (no leaves until later), my sister and I could start our season of playing in the “wysteria fort.” Our wysteria bush was so thick with flowers (and later with leaves) that we could hide inside under all the foliage and no one could see us. We could plan our strategies against the neighborhood boys who had a real fort, with pointy wood sides and everything. But our fort was much more subtle … ours looked as if it were a wysteria bush–much better for a surprise seige! So if you happen to walk by a wysteria bush this spring, beware, there might be some plans of attack going on underneath all those petals of sweet perfume.
