A Portrait in Smells

Smells fade in the wind eventually, but if you want to remember someone or something...some event some place there is nothing more powerful that the sense of smell... it is directly linked to being more than anything else in my opinion....it is a sensory linkage that taps right into the visceral aspects of who we are...

Meryn Cadell said it best in her Sweater song...bringing back the thrill of teenage angst when she wrote:

The sweater has that faintly goat-like smell which all teenage boys possess, and that smell will lovingly transferto all your other clothes
If you get to keep it for a few days you can sleep with itbut don't let your mom see, 'cause she'll say,"what is that filthy thing, and who does it belong tobesides the trash man?"
So you have to keep it under the covers with you
You can kind of lie it beside you,or wrap it around your waist,or touch it on your legs, or whatever
That's your business....

How else could you get close to that boy and feel like you could take a pieceof him with you...ahhh it's that smell...

So this gets me to thinking, not only why we like the smells that we do, but what smells do people remember me by, what is the smell in my home, on my clothes. I hope it is not a goat-like smell.

Anyway, then I got to thinking about some smells that I am attached to:
Estee Lauder's Beautiful - My grandmother wore this -I remember her by this smell.
Guelain Samsara - I remember Leslie and I wore this throughout University.
Oregano, Basil, Thyme - South France
Olives - Italy
Plumeria - Hawaii
Lilacs - Manor Park
Cedar - Rogers Pass/Montana
Pine and Sulphur - Banff
Eucalyptus - THe Spa in Hotel Kamp - Helsinki

Smells I love:
Orange
Sandlewood
Grapefruit
Amber
Cedar
Eucalyptus
Pepper
Cardamom
Jasmine
Patchouli (a little bit)
Ylang Ylang

I think that my attachemnt to nature and exotic food has shaped some of my preferences...warm, spicy, yummy, and exotic.