Reflecting on Scent: Living With Scents

When I was a little girl I used to play with my mother’s cosmetics; holding the metal tube of lipstick close to my nose to smell the perfumed waxy smell and opening near empty bottles of old perfume to see if there was any scent lingering behind.

Our lives are filled with scents.  I find myself noticing, isolating, and remembering pleasurable scents. For example, my first grown up girl perfume was Nina Ricci’s L’air du Temps. L’air du Temps came out in 1948 and has a floral scent, with a top note of carnation. It was already a well-known classic when my parents first gave it to me.  Later, on our first evening date, my husband asked me what scent I was wearing. In our first year of marriage he gave me a bottle of L’air du Temps topped by two crystal doves. 

My second job (first being bussing tables at the local cafeteria) was in the Meyer Branch Public Library. This was the library of my childhood and I was thrilled to work here checking out books to others who loved to read as much as I do. Libraries, bookstores, and books old and new have a scent. A reader can identify the place and perhaps the approximate age of a book by it’s scent!

With this post, I’d like to take you on a journey of some of the scents memorable to me.

I adore the smell of fresh cut grass. Sometimes after I mow the lawn I throw myself down on it close my eyes, and let the smell surround me. This is a photo of rolled grass inside a walled garden in the city of Paris. It was early morning and the gardeners were preparing to install a bit of lawn. I could hear the buzz of traffic, but inside the walls all was quiet.

Fresh cut lemon is a tart addition to a cup of tea or an espresso. I have learned to make espressos in a Mokato pot I bought twenty years ago and never learned how to use until now. My husband got me a tool to take the peel off the lemon in thin strips I can twist and hang from the handle of the cup. I like to twist and rub the lemon rind around the edge of the cup so I can taste and smell it when I drink the espresso.

Mmmm…the scent of vanilla bean and delicate chocolates! Who could resist? I keep my vanilla beans plumping in rum in an old glass decanter we had on hand. I have a long-handled pair of kitchen tweezers to help me retrieve a single bean when baking. There is nothing like the rich, warm scent of chocolate. I remember an evening in San Antonio strolling on the River Walk when we heard live jazz music and decided to buy a chocolate truffle each and enjoy them with a cup of coffee while listening to jazz late into the night.

A medley of fresh berries in a bowl is always a good thing! The smell of blackberries conjures up memories of going berry picking with my sister. We could always find a good many blackberries on vines growing near the railroad tracks on the easement at the edge of our neighborhood. Few berries made it home. Now, my favorite “power” breakfast is a large spoonful of plain Greek yogurt crested with homemade granola, and dotted with blueberries, cut strawberries, raspberries and a tablespoon of frozen pomegranate seeds.

The smell of fresh herbs is divine! I am thrilled to be living in the Texas Hill Country where the herbs thrive! I have planted upright rosemary all over the land; some have grown as large as three feet in height and width. There is nothing like brushing against the rosemary and smelling the pungent scent. I’ll write about the herb garden in another post!! This is a photo of a flower shop in Paris. I love how you can take a photo of something and bring it with you even when you certainly could not bring home a live plant from another country.

Before we moved to the Texas Hill Country we lived in a loft in a 100-year old bank on Main Street in Houston, Texas. I couldn’t grow herbs, but I read about making smudge sticks you could burn like incense to take away cooking smells, or simply to enjoy the scent. It was during the early stages of the pandemic and we weren’t going out much. My sister mailed me plastic bags filled with rosemary and lavender she was growing in her garden. I tied them up with my kitchen string and hung them from a bamboo walking stick balanced on two chairs to dry. I wasn’t too successful at getting my smudge sticks to burn like incense, but I love their unburnt smell and now keep them in a burl wood box on a table in our living room. I like to open the box and look at them laying in a row like primitive cigars. The smell of old wood, lavender, and rosemary is intoxicating.

When you think of scents and the memories they bring, flowers may come to mind. I have thousands of photographs of flowers. I use them as references for my painting and printmaking work. Looking at the photographs takes me back to the moment and I can almost recall the scent of each…

I bought this purple parrot tulip at the grocery store and kept it in a vase beside our bed. Every morning I photographed it so I would have a record of it’s unfurling.

I can’t remember the name of this flower, but I can remember going for a morning run in the city with my husband and stopping at a hotel for coffee. This flower and some pale pink carnations were in a bowl on the table. It looks as if it is made of glossy wax.

Lily of the valley look and smell perfectly sweet to me. I bought this flower from a woman selling flowers to benefit local veterans in Florence, Italy. I brought it back to our hotel room and put it in a glass drinking cup, treasuring the tiny bell-like flowers and listening to church bells chiming outside the window.

Finally, flowers without smell; these taken at a the Museum of Fine Arts Houston exhibit of clothing designed by Oscar de la Renta. I think I went to the exhibit three times!

I’ll be writing more reflections on scent in the upcoming days as I take you inside my reading about perfumery and creation of a scent lab in our laundry room!