The Sense of Smell

I’m often struck by how evocative our sense of smell is. Today, for example, I was taking the dog out for his lunchtime walk through our local woods. While July this year was marked by a heatwave, this August has been one of the wettest on record. So the woods are pretty damp underfoot, and this has released various scents. At one point I smelt something that was a dead ringer for the smell of fresh plasticine – something I haven’t smelled for nigh on fifty years. But instantly, I was back there in my childhood, opening the box containing strips of plasticine in different colours and smelling that same smell.

 

And of course, the human sense of smell is nothing compared to that of a dog. There he was, running around, snuffling and smelling heaven knows what all around me. He was clearly experiencing a symphony of smells, while all I was getting was a one-note samba. Still, it was a very loud note – and it did enable me to remember and revisit a time in the long gone past, so I am not complaining.