Smells of nature

It was an early morning, around 6:15 a.m., when I left for work this morning. It was sunny and it was fresh because it had rained at night. When I was walking in the street I live in I suddenly stopped because there was a smell. It was a smell I wanted to stop to smell for a moment.

Lilacs aren’t only beautiful flowers but their smell is enchanting. There are quite a few lilac bushes in the street I live in. When they bloom I can even smell the lilacs on the balcony of my apartment. But the smell is the strongest when I’m walking down there in the street.

To be honest, I have always been really bad at recognizing flowers, plants, and even birds. I guess I was half asleep in the biology classes in school. It may be my sight too. I’ve never really been able to pick berries of any kind because I can’t distinguish them well in the bushes or among the leaves on the ground. But also there, I enjoy the smells.

My grandma used to make juice out of blackcurrant leaves. She let the leaves soak in red-hot water, so that the aroma would come up. The smell was overpowering! Of course, the juice was delicious. But I would claim I enjoyed the smell of the juice cooking even more.

It’s very traditional that in the early summer (at the beginning of June up to Midsummer) Finns make birch switches. In the days, they come up the best because the birch leaves are fresh and young. So, the aroma is much better than stronger than at the latter part of the summer.

One way to use a birch switch is to wet it and set it on the sauna stove right before water is thrown on the stones. When the humid steam comes up it goes through the leaves and brings up strong aroma. It makes the sauna room and bit by bit also one’s skin smell like the leaves of birch smell. It’s another smell that I like a lot.

When I walk in the forest I don’t only enjoy the peace and quiet. I also enjoy the sounds and smells. In summertime when the maintenance man of the apartment house cuts the grass I always make sure the windows are open because I want the smell of the fresh-cut grass to come in. When I’m at the summer cottage I want to be the one who cuts the grass because in that way I can be surrounded by the smell for as long as the work has been done.

I often think that senses are pretty amazing. One of my senses is weaker. Long time ago, I read bumped into an examination saying that people with a weaker sense have more sensitivity in other senses. And I would claim that is true in my case especially when it comes to the smells and tastes. Just an example, I could say that when I took the cooking course in the Adult College of Helsinki my teacher was pleased for the fact how good I was at seasoning.

I have a bottle of lilac perfume. Once I found the type in a beauty shop I simply couldn’t help buying it, especially when the smell wasn’t artificial. But of course, it would never be the same as if you were out there in the forest smelling the smell of real lilacs.