Where is the app for scratch and sniff that’s what I would like to know?  I rounded a corner under the train bridge the other day and wham, my nostrils were filled with a pungent aroma wafting from a clump of flowering Silver Willow.  If your prairie roots go deep at all you will no doubt be familiar with this delightful experience.  This powerful aroma has the ability to jerk me back in time to a childhood filled with the freedom to wander the pastures and sloughs of our farm looking for bird’s nests, gophers, mushrooms, and mischief. You’ll have to use your imagination to capture the smell as I have not found the scratch and sniff for Silver Willow.

A few seed pods from last years successful flowering remained on the bush waiting for a kid to pick them, scour them clean and make a necklace from the beautifully striped seeds.