Sweet Aroma

Do I love the scents I love because they all smell simply and divinely wonderful?  Well, I think they do.  But I am also open to the idea that maybe I am associating them with pleasant emotions or people and places that dance in my brain, remembrances in my heart of good times, sacred moments and my best life.  The things that smell good and take you back or cause a strong emotional response are worth investigating.  And seeking out.

Lists.

I decided to just let mine out in whatever order they chose to emerge.  And I have turned it into a LIST.  Because I L-O-V-E lists!  And so I not only made this list, I started a new blog category of lists.  There will be more.  Meanwhile, in compiling this one, I think I have made some discovery about why I love certain smells that not everyone would agree with.  What are your best smells, aromas and scents and where did they come from?  What do they make you feel or remember?  Here are mine…

Mmmm…39 things that smell so good

  1. a cleansing rain
  2. Johnson’s Baby Oil – Remember the 1970s, when we used to fry our skin with Baby Oil under the bright sun?  Good times.
  3. a honeysuckle vine
  4. wild heirloom roses (before they sucked all the scent out by propagating roses to bloom at command and look perfect at all times)
  5. roast beef slow cooking in the oven with garlic and onions and carrots and potatoes
  6. fresh ground coffee brewing
  7. homemade cinnamon rolls (my grandpa owned a bakery you know…I can bake, if I have to)
  8. fall leaves rustling on a crisp autumn day
  9. Bibles
  10. paste, the kind that also seemed tasty in 1st grade
  11. Rubber Cement
  12. new car tires (it all started in Western Auto when I was 4…I have never gotten enough of this)
  13. a freshly fertilized farm field
  14. a wet bale of straw in my suburban backyard so I can pretend I am on a farm
  15. black, rich soil on a hot day
  16. onions being sauteed
  17. that moment, those few seconds right after a smoker lights up – before it actually turns into disgusting cigarette smoke
  18. grass in the morning or freshly cut in late afternoon
  19. lemons (a bowl of lemons to me is like a bouquet of flowers to most women)
  20. toast
  21. clean sheets
  22. a newborn baby
  23. a newborn puppy
  24. a new car interior
  25. a fruiting tomato plant
  26. almond extract (the secret to my amazing buttercream)
  27. gasoline…LOVE inhaling at the pump
  28. a brand new box of 64 Crayola Crayons
  29. freshly sharpened No. 2 pencils
  30. popcorn-just popped!
  31. steak on the grill
  32. Love Spell from Victoria’s Secret
  33. leather – like if some one is wearing a really nice leather coat, don’t you just want to touch it to help release the scent?  And if it is soft leather, are you not tempted to bury your face in it, social norms be darned??
  34. cedar fence planks at a home improvement store in the spring
  35. really any lumber at the home improvement stores
  36. lilacs, oh lilacs…I had a home surrounded by many lilac bushes and would fill the house with 10 or 12 huge bouquets and the lace curtains would blow in the same breeze that fanned the perfume of the lavendar flora…intoxicating…lilacs, how I miss you…
  37. a campfire – burning wood is so earthy, so sensual
  38. a handful of cilantro leaves, or basil leaves…or rosemary needles, crushed between my fingers (I bury my nose in this!)
  39. a freshly painted house

What have I missed….?

9 thoughts on “Sweet Aroma

  1. Great list! I would add pool chlorine, dove soap, the beach…the water and coconut suntan lotion, the smell of my kids after playing outside. (Personally, I love the smell of my husband’s skin).

  2. Jeanie…you amaze me with your ability to “feel” or in this blog, “smell” so many emotions. I am envious. You express them so well. I loved that you listed the Bible because that would be one of my favorites. Or book pages in general. I like the smell of bacon cooking but hate the smell later. I love the smell of povetica, the bread I make at Christmas. Some on your list give me horrible headaches like the smell of most perfume, lilacs (we chopped ours down), gasoline, paint, campfires which I have to avoid or I am in bed with a migraine, cedar, new car interiors (yuck), rubber cement, new car tires.

    1. Yes, Robin, I did worry as I realized how many chemical smells I listed. I have surely lost some brain cells to these. Oh-bacon cooking-YES, one of the greatest smells in life. Bacon is my drug of choice. If I am not careful, I could OD on bacon, someday, but wouldn’t I have died happy? Mmmm…I can almost hear it sizzling now…

  3. Fresh cookies baking, Pledge, rain storms, the crispness of a snowy morning (I adore the freshness!), green chile simmering away (always makes me think of my grandma’s house), a breastfed baby’s breath (odd I know, but it is so sweet).

    1. Yes, Audrey. Neil Diamond did sing, “Honey’s sweet, but it ain’t nothing next to baby’s treat.” I have always assumed that referred to the sweetness of breat milk and yes, a baby’s breath is lovely on the stuff. God knew!

  4. A baseball mit.
    Tinker toys, they transport me back to Christmas 1965.
    Lovespell when Jeanie wears it :)
    A newborn’s head with baby lotion.
    Grapejuice.

  5. Crazy that you have this posted now, just a couple of days after I ran across my Grandma’s jewelry box while cleaning out Kaity’s closet. Still full of her costume jewelry. I opened it up and was instantly taken back to the days when she babysat for me when my mom was at work. I couldn’t believe that 40 years later I could still smell my grandmother’s perfume. At the time I probably thought she smelled terrible, like most older ladies do. But now I want to open that box every day just to breathe her in again. But I’m afraid that the more I open it the less it will smell like her. I miss my grandma.
    Smells I love? The underside of a tomatoe plant’s leaves, saw dust (reminds me of my dad’s shop), freshly cooked pasta. And most of what you have listed! Gasoline? Mmmmmm! And lilacs! I bought a bush that was supposed to be purple but it blooms half white and half purple! Love it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *