Follow Your Nose

I was reading a book in the park, enjoying the obvious: reading a book in the park after months’ worth of freezing various appendages off just thinking about being outside. I’ve found a place next to some wooden benches and a picnic table that smells divine when baked by the sun – brought me right back to cottage vacations when I was a child.

The company my father worked for owned cottages in various areas of Denmark and every couple of years or so, we’d get the opportunity to rent one for two weeks. We preferred the one in Djursland – it was far away from our home near Copenhagen, beautiful and my father’s family came from that area. The “far away” aspect meant a long drive (during which I often got carsick), a ferry and another (shorter) drive. The cottage was traditional, small, one level, made of wood that had been treated with something that stained it a dark colour – I assume to weatherproof it. It lay back from the road a bit on a large, rarely mown lot surrounded by pine trees – a little like this. The smell was incredible. We’d run a hose out the kitchen window for showers, eat new potatoes with parsley and cold butter for dinner, strawberries for dessert and I’d sleep in a bunk bed. I have a vague memory of the road (dirt, not paved) leading down to the beach – more mind-blowing smells. The only smell better than sun-warmed wood is ocean and sand.

I get Proust and his madeleines on a cellular level.

I have no idea where I was going before I mentioned the cottage, but if I figure it out, I’ll let you know.

What smell blisses you out?