Lilacs are starting to bloom! I love lilacs. On the land where I grew up, we had some lilacs out in the middle of the pasture that would bloom every spring and smelled fantastic. I travel back to that place and time in my mind every time I get a big whiff of lilac fragrance. The lilacs in my back yard now are outside my bedroom window. I've let them grow tall enough that I can open my second story window and screen and put my head out into the flowers and inhale deeply. So soon I'll be mentally wandering through lilac memories.
I think the way smells can trigger memories so instantly is an interesting thing about us. I wonder when my dog is busy smelling the grass carpet of the entire neighborhood, what else he is able to know from the smells besides what other dogs have peed there. I imagine there is a lot of information there and he would tell us if he could. He probably thinks he DOES tell us by peeing around the perimeter of the yard. He may even think we are kind of dumb for not paying attention to this wealth of knowledge he's leaving for us. Maybe we are.
Hummus smells like garlic. That brings back memories of a family I rented a room from a long time ago. The father decided to make soup in the crock pot one morning and had no cooking experience. He put in twenty cloves of garlic. We all came home that evening to a garlic-permeated atmosphere inside.
Hummus smells like lemons. That inspires memories of dusting when I was a kid. Lemon Pledge.
Some day my kids will smell something that reminds them of these days of my hummus addiction: "Oh, that smells like the hummus my mom used to make. Ick!"
About Me
- Kim
- United States
- Getting older is not for sissies. I'm not a sissy, thank goodness. I'm a physical therapist, mom, daughter, sister, friend, and I am looking forward to "what's next?"
6 comments:
Possibility: lilac hummus.
Do you know about asparagus pee? (Not everybody is affected in the same way I am, but it is a real phenomenon.)
I drove home from a meeting topless last night (ahem, in the convertible, my clothing was all on and in the appropriate places) and I could smell the lilacs and other blooming things all the way home. It was heavenly. You may recall we planted 9 lilac bushes (5 lavender and 4 white) in our backyard last summer -- they are green and growing and thriving this spring, with tiny little unopened blossoms. My guess is they are too new to actually flower this year but who knows. I can't wait for when they do!
Well, I HAVE to answer Kathy's comment. Ted is setting here listening to Kim and I talk about the blog and I said, "Pee smells?" Kim said, "Oh, haven't you ever smelled your pee after eating asperagus?" Ted said, "We don't sit around and smell our pee!" We all three were laughing so hard. Maybe you had to be there. (This is Ellen's comment, posted under Kim's logon).
In some people, pee smells really, really bad after eating asparagus.
It is a real thing that has a name. I don't remember it, but it is not peesmellagus.
It would happen to these people if you put tiny chopped up bits of asparagus in your hummus, too.
I hate the way pee smells after eating asparagus...and I LOVE LOVE LOVE asparagus!
I have read (on the Internet, so take this with a grain of salt) that early investigators thought genetics had divided the world into "stinkers" and "nonstinkers". However, in the 1980's, researchers had had "stinkers" and "non-stinkers" smell pee after eating asparagus. The problem proved to be one not of producing the stinky pee but of being able to smell the stinky pee.
Wow, I did not realize it was a matter of smelleption*! So, you can't really say, "Wake up and smell the asparagus pee!" to Ted, if he can't actually smell it, or it would be cruel!
*smell + perception
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