If you are new here, hi! On Wednesdays, I prompt you, the reader to answer a question so I can get to know you better!
This week, I would love to know: What’s your favourite smell?
I think mine is after it rains on a hot Australian summer day and the roads are steaming and the grass is drying and we re-open all the windows after it was coming in sideways. Delish.
I have a new housemate who is from Pakistan. On Sunday, he spent the day cooking food for the week. The whole house smelled like Indian food and I loved it.
I'm not a big floral fan when it comes to colognes, body washes, etc., but I LOVE the smell of gardenias and jasmine.
GARDENIA: My mother had a huge gardenia plant/bush on her living room coffee table--it was at least 4 feet wide/long by about 2-3 feet tall. The scent permeated the entire room and was just lovely. Over the years I've tried to grow the plant/flower but have had very little success. Most often they last part of a season though only 3 or 4 buds seem to bloom, then they refuse to return the following. This year, however, the buds on one I planted two years ago (maybe more) actually opened and stayed, springing new ones every several days. So far the plant has given me a total of 12 blossoms. I have no idea what is different but I am heartened and optimistic it will return next year.
JASMINE: When we bought out home 20 years ago, knowing how much I love jasmine, my husband planted a hedge of it along one side of our house, just outside our 3 giant sliding windows. When it begins to bloom around May, we open the windows (on the days the heat isn't too unbearable) and it's my favorite place to be! Hugs!
When I was a kid, my family took road trips during winter break, down through the US mid-west, sometimes through blizzards. Kansas often still had snow on the ground. But when you stopped in Oklahoma, and got out of the car, you'd get the smell of living and warmth and a bit of a dust maybe a touch of fertilizer but also wet (there always seemed to be puddles) and you knew you were getting closer to your destination and it was great!
Fresh cut grass 💚 Lavender 😍Popcorn 😆 coffee beans 😂 A Sunday roast 😍 Freshly baked bread 💖 I love perfumes too 😂 oh and I can’t forget flowers - wild roses for the win 🌹 you can sense I do love a good smell 😂😂😂
My gran used to make a concoction she called "asafoetida". Long before I learned it was actually a food ingredient in its own right, she would add all manner of things to it, and make it into a skin rub for aches and pains. I'm the only person in my family who could stand the smell of it - I LOVED it, and would go into her bedroom, go over to the dressing table she kept it on with the bay rum, and just open the bottle and sniff it. No-one knows her recipe, so that scent went with her, unfortunately. I also love the smell of petrol, and that dusty smell in tube stations after a train has been through.
Oh wow, the smell went with her 🧡 That is so beautiful and powerful. I wonder if you will ever smell anything similar and be brought back to that room. I hope so 🧡🧡
It would be amazing if I did, but the weirdest thing is, I don't know if I could describe the smell? It's so entrenched in my memory that if I think really hard, I can smell it now, over 25 years later, but I don't know if I could put it into words! Isn't that nuts?
I have a new housemate who is from Pakistan. On Sunday, he spent the day cooking food for the week. The whole house smelled like Indian food and I loved it.
Oh my, how delicious!
I'm not a big floral fan when it comes to colognes, body washes, etc., but I LOVE the smell of gardenias and jasmine.
GARDENIA: My mother had a huge gardenia plant/bush on her living room coffee table--it was at least 4 feet wide/long by about 2-3 feet tall. The scent permeated the entire room and was just lovely. Over the years I've tried to grow the plant/flower but have had very little success. Most often they last part of a season though only 3 or 4 buds seem to bloom, then they refuse to return the following. This year, however, the buds on one I planted two years ago (maybe more) actually opened and stayed, springing new ones every several days. So far the plant has given me a total of 12 blossoms. I have no idea what is different but I am heartened and optimistic it will return next year.
JASMINE: When we bought out home 20 years ago, knowing how much I love jasmine, my husband planted a hedge of it along one side of our house, just outside our 3 giant sliding windows. When it begins to bloom around May, we open the windows (on the days the heat isn't too unbearable) and it's my favorite place to be! Hugs!
Oh these are really lovely smells and your stories behind why you love them are beautiful. Thank you for sharing!
Coffee. The smell in the air just after it’s rained. A good hot chocolate. Freshly baked goods (especially bread). Freshly cut grass.
This list was a sense sensation over and over. Love these!
Lavender :) also a home cooked meal
Yessssss!
Lemongrass, Casablanca Lily, coffee, bakeries
Lovely list! Yes!
Oklahoma
Okay, I'll elaborate :D
When I was a kid, my family took road trips during winter break, down through the US mid-west, sometimes through blizzards. Kansas often still had snow on the ground. But when you stopped in Oklahoma, and got out of the car, you'd get the smell of living and warmth and a bit of a dust maybe a touch of fertilizer but also wet (there always seemed to be puddles) and you knew you were getting closer to your destination and it was great!
I loved reading this so much! What a delightful memory and the feeling it brings, associated with that scent. Thank you.
Night blooming Jasmine is one that comes to mind. I associate it with sultry summer nights on holidays in Spain.
I love when smells evoke memories!
Fresh cut grass 💚 Lavender 😍Popcorn 😆 coffee beans 😂 A Sunday roast 😍 Freshly baked bread 💖 I love perfumes too 😂 oh and I can’t forget flowers - wild roses for the win 🌹 you can sense I do love a good smell 😂😂😂
These are all very good choices!
My gran used to make a concoction she called "asafoetida". Long before I learned it was actually a food ingredient in its own right, she would add all manner of things to it, and make it into a skin rub for aches and pains. I'm the only person in my family who could stand the smell of it - I LOVED it, and would go into her bedroom, go over to the dressing table she kept it on with the bay rum, and just open the bottle and sniff it. No-one knows her recipe, so that scent went with her, unfortunately. I also love the smell of petrol, and that dusty smell in tube stations after a train has been through.
Oh wow, the smell went with her 🧡 That is so beautiful and powerful. I wonder if you will ever smell anything similar and be brought back to that room. I hope so 🧡🧡
It would be amazing if I did, but the weirdest thing is, I don't know if I could describe the smell? It's so entrenched in my memory that if I think really hard, I can smell it now, over 25 years later, but I don't know if I could put it into words! Isn't that nuts?
I think that is really special!
Yeah, I think so too xxx