15 Oct Downhome Magazine: What’s That Fall Smell?
October 15, 2020. Downhome Magazine.
The changing scents of the seasons help us to interpret our world in some very important ways.
There’s nothing like the aroma of a wild rose in bloom after a summer’s rain and the sweet scent of pine trees during a crisp autumn stroll through the woods. Scents colour our world and they’re all around us.
Smell is an important part of how we interpret and understand our world, and it’s inextricably linked to our memories and emotions. During this time of year, for instance, many of us associate that fall scent of musky leaf piles with back to school, which can bring up either positive or negative emotions, depending on the person and their experiences. Just as we can see and feel the change in the seasons, we can smell them, too. But what we smell and when we smell it also depends on our culture and geographic location (snow is as much a spring scent to those who live in Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, as the cherry blossoms that bloom in British Columbia the same time of year).
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