Smells...they can bring on strong surges of emotions. Have you ever noticed that? Certain scents can transport me to another place and time in an instant. Like, for instance, the smell of coconut reminds me of when Todd & I were first dating. (That's because the car he drove was a hand-me-down from his big sister, who I believe had an incident with some liquid car freshener dumping on the floor? Remember that Wanda?) Then there's the scent of tar - when you're driving down a road that is being repaved - that always reminds me of my dad (who drove dump truck and occasionally the roller for such said road work). Coffee and cigarette combinations also are strangely comforting smells to me, also bringing back memories of going somewhere with daddy.So what are the scents you associate with Spring? I love that certain whiff - I'm not really sure what it is - that you get when a gentle breeze is blowing on a warm spring day. I can smell hyacinths seemingly miles away, and it conjures pictures of Easter dresses, hats and white patent leather shoes. There's also that certain smell after a good rainfall. But the one I love most is freshly cut grass, because it says to me that it's warm, the earth has awakened - and it's all here to stay for a good long while!!
To enter this week's drawing, tell me of the best spring smell, or some other olfactory related story - favorite smells, scent associations, you get the idea. (I know this is similar to the taste one - sorry. My creative juices seem to still be somewhat depleted from the "mystery sleepover". I promise next week's question will be better...). The prize will be something to bring a wonderful springtime scent to your home...
Scent is the most potent and bewitching substance in the gardener's repertory and yet it is the most neglected and least understood. The faintest waft is sometimes enough to induce feelings of hunger or anticipation, or to transport you back through time and space to a long-forgotten moment in your childhood. It can overwhelm you in an instant or simply tease you, creeping into your consciousness slowly and evaporating almost the moment it it detected. Each fragrance, whether sweet or spicy, light or heavy, comes upon you in its own way and evokes its own emotional response. - Stephen Lacey, Scent in Your Garden, 1991
10 comments:
Mmmmm, I love the smell of freshly plowed soil. I know - I'm such a country girl. But I also love love love the smell of a baby fresh from a bath in Baby Magic, and slathered with Baby Magic Lotion and dressed in soft jommies washed in Dreft - mmmmm, I think that's what heaven will smell like.
Bets is right, there is nothing like that clean baby right from the Baby Magic bath, and it’s wonderful!
I also really love the smell of tulips; they were always the first flower to open in the spring when we bought our first house.
There is one smell that brings back not too good memories, and that is the Yankee Candle scent - Bay Breeze - - now in and of itself it's a wonderful smelling candle but it's a smell I will always relate with the smell of a sick Great Dane. I was home from college one summer and Mom and Dad's dog, Zoe was sick with some stomach thing that caused her to have diarrhea. We had a Bay Breeze candle, so that was what we used to burn to help combat the bad smell! It worked ok until Zoe got sick in the house while everyone was at work... coming home to 4 or 5 piles of Great Dane poo and bay breeze candle is pretty gross! I haven't bought a Bay Breeze candle since!
I'm glad to share such a happy smell memory my first time on your blog!
WELCOME HOLLY!! Glad to have you visiting!
(And I agree with you both about the Baby Magic...nothin' snugglier...)
THANKS! Glad to be here! Keeping up with both you and Bets by way of ya'lls blogs!
Sorry I didn't join in earlier, but happy to be here now!
From the moment I began reading this particular blog until I read Holly's blog about Zoe & the candle, I've been laughing hysterically!
Holly, some things are never to be forgotten, and that incidnet WAS REALLY awful!!! I've never bought another Bay Breeze candle since then either. LOL
First, when I think of smells, unfortunately I usually think of bad smells. I have been "blessed" with an extremely keen sense of smell, so if something smells slightly "off" to someone else, it smells horrid to me! At one point in my life, I was dubbed the "Queen of Smelldom"! LOL Living where we do, there are several chicken farms in the vacinity, and when we are within a mile of them, I begin to smell that lovely fertilizer smell. Naturally, it's worse as the weather gets warmer. BLECH!!! Thankfully, I never smell the chicken farms from our home!
Also, we seem to have an inordinately high skunk population in this area. In fact, last year we had a young one who set up housekeeping under our house & we had to hire someone to set a live trap & catch the poor thing & haul it away. We've also had the sorry experience of hitting one trying to cross the road in front of us. When we got home, the dog then found it necessary to rub all over the tire that had hit the skunk, then HE smelled like skunk!!! After several baths, Miller was still pretty stinky & it made my eyes water!
The flip side to this blessing is tht I also smell lovely things that most other people don't smell, although that doesn't happen often! I love it when we're riding down the road & I whiff of honeysuckle or lilac wafts through the window. I'll ask Uncle Glenn "do you smell that???" and his answer normally is "smell what?". The interesting thing is that I can almost never see where those smells are coming from! Particularly in the spring, the good smells pretty much outnumber the bad smells. I am so thankful for that!!
Rain.. I love the smell of the rain as it's coming across the mountains. Or to be camping in late spring and the afternoon rain showers we get here in the mountains.
It smells.. fresh, new, a beginning and a life in each drop.. it's perfect!
Ooh, I forgot to mention that the smell of Winterfresh gum and Cornhuskers Lotion always give me a little 'whee' in my tummy, if ya know what I mean (wink, wink), cause when we were dating, Joey always chewed Winterfresh, and when we were first married, Joey would always put Cornhuskers on his his hands right before coming to bed - ah - young love!
I would say that spring itself has a smell- its some combo of soil, rain, flowers, and grass.
I used to say in the spring time "hey, it smells like spring!" and my mom would look at me quizzicaly like "what do you mean? spring doesn't smell." But I would insist that it does.
So I'm guessing 2 of you are hoping that Bay Breeze candles aren't the prize this week?!?!
It would be the thought that counts!
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