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| Wild honey nectar candle. Source: DW Home |
Mmmmmm, the sensual joy of fragrance.
To borrow from a past post, there are so many aromatic characters:
- Spicy
- Floral
- Citrusy
- Tangy
- Sweet
- Sour
- Musky
- Crisp
- Clean
- Pungent
- Light
- Sharp
- Fishy
- Metallic
- Herbal
- Earthy
- Moldy
- Musty
- Buttery
- Nutty
- Rotting
- Barnyard
- Minty
Below are scents that have delighted me in this time of COVID, inviting me to
breathe deeply,
to dwell in the moment I'm in.
- Wild honey nectar candle
- Rosemary needles captured in the wilds of residential Birmingham and Las Cruces, which I plucked, inhaled deeply of, and bit into.
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| Rosemary collected from across the street. Birmingham, Alabama. November 2020. |
- Fresh basil growing on my windowsill
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| Basil growing in my kitchen. Birmingham, Alabama. May 2021. |
- Sentimental, vintage scent of White Shoulders, an enormous bottle of which I stumbled upon in a friend's closet, who had received it as a gift, and which she re-gifted to me. The fragrance is light and pretty. In a pandemic, anointing oneself with a spray of pretty is a sweet joy.
- Community Coffee's Pecan Praline flavored coffee, mmm, delicious smell. It also reminds me of a time I shared with my mother, when I took her for a pre- or post-op check with an opthmalogist. We had a coffee together in the medical building's little breakfast bar, chatting about nothing in particular, but enjoying the time together. Pecan praline-flavored coffee was on tap that morning.
- Super-fishy essence of fish sauce, anchovies, sardines. Their aggressive umaminess brings forth a perverse pleasure in the coupling of revulsion and attraction. Somehow, their aroma smacks my senses in a way that reminds me: I am alive. As they were, once, and it is as if I smell their essence of both death and life. The joy does not come from any pleasure in their demise. It comes from a reminder to me that I am alive in this moment. And that I'd better goshdarn notice that, appreciate it, and be in it.
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| Small fish at market. Batumi, Caucasus Georgia. April 2012. |
Related posts
2020: Tucson, AZ: COVID-19 Unfolding, Part 10: Creature Comforts: Smells
2018: St. Louis: For the Senses: Seafood City
2016: Colorado: Boulder: The Scentsual
2013: On Mangoes
Joys so far this year
Joy 1: Word of the Year: Joy
Joy 2: Music
Joy 3: Surprise Vista
Joy 4: Happy, Joyous, and Free
Joy 5: The Science of Joy, Interrupted
Joy 6: Color
Joy 7: Birdsong
Joy 8: Here and Now, Boys
Joy 9: A Tomato and Onion Sandwich
Joy 10: Let in Light
