My home is no longer my home, not only do I trip over stray shoes and find alien things lying around on my counter-tops (my nephew assures me they are tiny robots called Hex-Bugs) but things even smell different.
It was strange coming into the bathroom to find the familiar scent of my sister lingering in the air, a mixture of Nivea, toothpaste and just her … fresh, clean and a little bit minty. As soon as my nose picked up the scent my mind raced back to when we where both in our late teens, getting ready to go out, arguing over mirror time and reminding me of how much fun we use to have in that care-free age.
That sudden flash of a memory made me think of how funny it is that smells can take us by surprise and transport us back to places in just one instance. For me, whenever I smell hot summer air with fresh hay mixed in, I am six years old again, spending my summer holiday with my grandmother and aunt in Germany. Or if I catch a whiff of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves it is Christmas time no matter how hot it is outside. Some smells even just make me feel a certain way, the smell of grass after a summer shower makes me smile, sea salt on the air makes me content and the scent of freshly baked bread is like a happy, hungry hug.
What many people don’t know is that we smell things much quicker than we see or hear them, the nose is our first sense to pick things up. And because our hooters are so closely linked to the brain’s limbic system (this is where all our emotions are born), the nose works like a little time machine taking us back to times and places to when we first became aware of certain scents and odours. In addition to the strong impact smells make, our nose is like an elephant, never forgetting when we smelt what first, making it hard, nearly impossible to change associations.
So with the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the air and the fragrance of french toast tickling my nose I think the day is off to a wonderfully smelly start.
jensinewall 
This is lovely and evocative. There is a certain perfume that when I get a whiff of it I am transported back to San Francisco in 1966.
Cheers-bridsplace
Thanks so much, still new at this (my blog is a week old) so am loving all the nice people liking my offerings
Scent memories are the best (and worst) kind. I try to focus on the good ones, like the way my grandfather always smelled of pipe tobacco. But it is amazing how we capture a scent and unrelated thoughts flood our minds.
I know … my dad smoked the pipe and I once found myself following a man around Trinity Campus because he smelly just like him 🙂
Freesias’ and Jasmine are the scents that take me back to when I was a young child at home with my Grandparents. I can smell these, close my eyes and it is as if I am right back there again. Your right, the sense of smell is so very powerful. Perhaps Aromatherapy has something in it?
I think so … after all who doesn’t feel better when they smell their favorite scents
It was so nice of you to read my recent blog, “Smells,” and to leave a comment. (You said that my blog reminded you of one you had written; I’m assuming that this is it.) You are the first person I know of who has commented on my blog that I haven’t actually met face to face. I have no idea how you came to read my blog, but thank you for the feedback. Yours is nicely done as well.
I was just looking around wordpress and when I saw your title I thought of what I had written so I checked it out. I am a brand new blogger (not quite two weeks old) and I hope that I will keep having fun.
I am glad you enjoyed my offer too, very different from yours but with the same idea (Great minds think alike)
I see what you are up to and maybe you’ll check me out too. Best of luck