It’s been a lazy Monday. I’m sitting on the couch with a warm Magic bag wrapped around my neck. The windows are wide open and the scent of freshly mown grass is mingling with the heavenly smell of the lilies in the bouquet of roses Dale bought me for our anniversary. I’ve sent Dale to the store to buy some bubble bath. I need the calming influence of lavender to prepare me for bed.

Scent plays such a strong part in our lives. Smell is the strongest trigger of memories. The smell of freshly baked bread instantly transports me to my childhood. Mom baked bread all the time and the best treat in the world was the warm heel of the bread, all crusty and dripping with melted butter. The smell of tall, dry, dusty grass calls to mind the big old barn on Nanny’s farm where we frolicked in the loose hay. I don’t have a clothesline but I do hang up some laundry in an upstairs room. I walked by the clothes earlier today and with the window open in the room, they smell like they had dried outside in the sun and the wind. I’ve been renewed by the smell of the sea. I’ve breathed in the earthy smell of a forest. And the smell of a new baby grandson is just as wonderful as the smell of a new baby son. There are few scents that bring up negative memories for me, and I am thankful for that.

There is a huge market bringing us scents; candles, air fresheners, perfumes. Every product we buy to put on our bodies has scent, unless we search out unscented versions. Sometimes the scents carried by others are overwhelming, both in nice and bad ways. Perfume or aftershave sprayed too liberally is just as offensive as body odour. The best way to smell perfume or aftershave is in a hug. Get really close and there it is. It’s too much if you can smell someone before you see them. There are fresh scented body washes to wake us up every morning in the shower, rich scents to help us seduce would-be lovers and, as I mentioned above, scents to help us sleep. I have some friends who wear signature scents, a perfume they have enjoyed for years. I don’t usually wear perfume but the scents of other products linger on me, I’m sure. I worked with a colleague who hated the bathroom sprays that were necessary in a workplace where we shared two small bathrooms. He said the sprays just made the room smell like poop around a rose bush. Ahh yes, some smells can’t be masked, just blended with other smells to hopefully make the original smell less offensive.

I’m sure we can all list the scents we love; freshly ground coffee, clean sheets on the bed, local strawberries, bacon frying on a Sunday morning, an evergreen tree brought inside from the cold, every part of Thanksgiving dinner, the smell after a cleansing rain – the list is endless.

I remember doing an experiment in school, both as a student and as a teacher. People were blindfolded and asked to eat something. They could always identify the food. However, if they were blindfolded and their nose was plugged, they relied on texture for identification. It was funny to see them think they were eating a piece of apple when they were actually munching on a piece of potato. I saw a show once about a woman who had lost her sense of smell. She said food had no taste for her. She had to have something with a crunchy texture to get any enjoyment from her food. God, that would be torture for me! Not to be able to smell or taste chocolate? Or pizza? I know from all the cooking shows that I watch that chefs believe we eat with our eyes first, that the composition of the plate influences how much we enjoy it. That is true. But I’ve enjoyed plates of food thrown together just as much as the artistic plates. So, if it was suddenly decreed that we had to lose a sense, I would have to think about it, but I can tell you now, the sense of smell would be the first I would protect.