Favorite Smells of Fall

What are your favorite smells of fall?

The smells I most strongly associate with fall are:

Leaf tea. The smell of wet leaves and pine needles on walks through the neighborhood or hikes through a forest are earthy and often very much like black tea and herbal teas. They remind me of how much I like hot tea as the weather turns colder.

Harvested herbs like basil and mint. I let them dry on a tray in the kitchen before storing them away for use all during the winter.

Pumpkin pie baking. The wafts of cinnamon, cloves, and ginger are so appealing whether they are the real thing or in candle form.

Roses. Roses tend to burst into bloom when the summer heat wanes. They have a wonderful last hurray in fall before the frost takes them.

What are your favorite smells of fall?

Favorite Smells of Summer

What are your favorite smells of summer?

The smells I most strongly associate with summer are:

Fresh herbs from the garden - either outdoors while I am gardening or indoors when I am preparing a meal that includes them. Mint, rosemary, and basil are my favorites.

I like the smell at the beginning of rain. In the summer - there is so much vegetation where I live that the smells are rich and vary considerably…but they always remind me of crisp greenery and warmth.

Citrus. Somehow citrus is a summer sun smell to me. I like orange and lemon. There are a lot of products that include the scent. I love to have orange zest drying in my kitchen giving the whole kitchen its smell (and then using it in a stir fry or baking….and getting the smell again).

Cucumber. It has a very light scent…but certainly one that is cool in the midst summer heat and brightness.

What are your favorite smells of summer?

Favorite Smells of Winter

What are your favorite smells of winter?

Mine are indoor smells that I associate with home…cozy and warm even when the outdoors if very cold.

Vanilla. It’s often combined with other scents, perhaps because it is a ‘comfort’ smell. There are artificial forms now but I always try to buy the natural form. It pleases me to know that it comes from an orchid that requires special care to produce the seed pods that contain the scent. It took quite a long time to figure out how to grow the plants in tropical places where they were not native! The scent can waft from cooking or tea or a candle or hand lotion. 

Baking bread. I am not a bread baker but I enjoy the smell when I am drying bread crumbs (bread going stale processed in the food processor then dried in a 200 degree F oven for a couple or hours). It makes the whole house smell like baking bread. Somehow that smell is the one I associate most with warmth. 

Cinnamon - cloves - nutmeg (i.e. the pumpkin pie spices). The smell of these spices are such a favorite that I make pumpkin custard (who needs the crust!) almost once a month and the candles I buy are most likely to be this scent.

So - are these smells among your favorites…or do you have completely different favorite smells of winter?