Scents and sounds are so evocative. I loved this post - thank you. The scent of lambing time takes me back to being a tiny child. Ditto the hen house. Orange peel is Christmas. Believe it or not, diesel is holidays! We'd always hire a canal boat every October, and the smell of diesel takes me straight back to that annual week-long holiday as a family. Any repetitive sound of metal on wood reminds me of my mum rolling out pastry, as her wedding ring would meet the rolling pin.
Thank you, Ms W, for bringing these special memories flooding back. 😊
Thank you, Rebecca, for your kind words AND sharing your wonderful memories! Thankfully our senses not only provide a beautiful experience as it happens in real time, but preserves certain special moments to be enjoyed many years after they've passed.
I have these moments often. I moved near the area I grew up in over 50 years ago. The sights aren't familiar but the scents (oak and pine trees, freshly cut grass, bales of hay) and sounds (the blue jays cawing, the doves cooing "bob white", the wind murmuring through the maple trees, and the far off gunfire in the fall from deer hunting) bring me right back to early years.
But my absolute favorites are getting out the old family box of Christmas ornaments... it still carries with it the scent of old sap from the blue spruce pine trees, the scented dust from the nativity scene, and the smell of bayberry and cinnamon candles from brought out each year from my infancy. It's all I have left from those days, but the memories are strong enough to hold when I wish to remember the past.
Thank you for sharing these beautiful examples of how the senses take us back...sometimes WAY back! And thank goodness they do. As we get older our memories are locked away until a sensory trigger opens the door.
Scents and sounds are so evocative. I loved this post - thank you. The scent of lambing time takes me back to being a tiny child. Ditto the hen house. Orange peel is Christmas. Believe it or not, diesel is holidays! We'd always hire a canal boat every October, and the smell of diesel takes me straight back to that annual week-long holiday as a family. Any repetitive sound of metal on wood reminds me of my mum rolling out pastry, as her wedding ring would meet the rolling pin.
Thank you, Ms W, for bringing these special memories flooding back. 😊
Thank you, Rebecca, for your kind words AND sharing your wonderful memories! Thankfully our senses not only provide a beautiful experience as it happens in real time, but preserves certain special moments to be enjoyed many years after they've passed.
I have these moments often. I moved near the area I grew up in over 50 years ago. The sights aren't familiar but the scents (oak and pine trees, freshly cut grass, bales of hay) and sounds (the blue jays cawing, the doves cooing "bob white", the wind murmuring through the maple trees, and the far off gunfire in the fall from deer hunting) bring me right back to early years.
But my absolute favorites are getting out the old family box of Christmas ornaments... it still carries with it the scent of old sap from the blue spruce pine trees, the scented dust from the nativity scene, and the smell of bayberry and cinnamon candles from brought out each year from my infancy. It's all I have left from those days, but the memories are strong enough to hold when I wish to remember the past.
Thank you for sharing these beautiful examples of how the senses take us back...sometimes WAY back! And thank goodness they do. As we get older our memories are locked away until a sensory trigger opens the door.