Memorial Day weekend means that summer is here. Technically it begins on June 20, but everyone knows that the official start to summer is Memorial Day weekend. Summer has smells all its own. Just as the scent of pine and freshly baked cookies says “Christmas” and pumpkin pie, burning leaves and apples say “Autumn”, summer has it’s own signature scents. What are some of your summertime favorites?
My list is long, and any one of these scents can transport me. Freshly mown lawn is a smell that makes my heart sing. Just a few weeks ago, I walked by a parking lot that had a fresh coat of tar, and I sat in my car with the windows down and inhaled that smell for a few wonderful minutes before I left for home. The faint smell of chlorine can instantly transport me back to summers at the community pool. (The same pool that hit jeff noel’s recent post about favorite summer memories! Good call, my friend. Good call.) Suntan lotion is a heavenly scent, especially the kind with that slight coconut aroma. Even though some folks grill food year round, there is nothing quite like the smell of a good, smoky barbeque. Not the gas grill type, but a good old charcoal grill smell. Throw in the smell of a few after dark fireworks and you have magic. I love the smell of fresh sliced tomatoes. None of those hot house or hydroponic types; I’m talking vine ripened heirloom tomatoes. If you grow your own you know the wonderful smell your hands pick up after touching the plants. Nothing can compare to taking a walk or a drive by a cornfield in summer. Cornfields have an amazing scent that is indescribable.
This weekend I will go through my usual rituals of watching Jaws for what must be the 100th time, putting all of my shoes away till Fall, washing and storing all of the winter blankets and going for the first swim of the season no matter the temperature of the water or of the air. But perhaps my favorite thing will be to mindfully breath in the scent of it all.
