First and foremost a very Merry Yuletide to you. Today is the first of the 12 Days of Christmas. Each day between now and the 12th Day there will be a sensory challenge; part of a journey, culminating, for those who want to, in writing a ghost story. Don’t worry though, you can do the 12 Days without writing a story at the end. Each day is an exercise, a little bit of gymnastics to warm up the grey cells and prevent them from falling asleep by the fire. Along the way there will be anything from anosmia to zygomatic. Every comment you post along the way will be worth an entry into the draw for a money can’t buy prize. Today’s topic is……
Smell
From Proust and his madeleine to Gio’s socks, smells are known to conjure up images. Imagine what it must be like to be unable to smell (anosmia); the scent of pine, boiling sprouts and roasting meat all lost. But equally what is it like for those whose senses are enhanced or altered in some way; synaesthesics who may smell a colour, or those who can identify a smell-face. Perhaps the smell is a precursor to a psychotic episode, or evidence in a murder trial.
Take a deep breath…… what can you smell, is it pleasant, rank, evocative?
What is the smell of Christmas for you? Is it one thing, or a combination? Is there one smell that can take you back to a particular place or time?
So today a comment about smells please, a memory, a link, something from literature – anything smell related that will intrigue, educate or amuse.
Here is a Spotify playlist to help you along.
December 25, 2011 at 7:41 am
The Playlist for those without Spotify:
Victor Wooten – A Fresh Scent
blink-182 – Does My Breath Smell?
Bedrock – Heaven Scent – Original Mix
The White Stripes – I Think I Smell A Rat
Noah23 – Olfactory Memorial
Lonely Planet Boy – olfactory nerve
Seamus Erskine – Olfactory Nitemare
Chakra’s Dream – Pleasure Of Scent
Baths – Rain Smell
Phish – Scent Of A Mule
John Williams;Itzhak Perlman – Scent of a Woman: Tango (Por Una Cabeza) – Instrumental
Patra (Duet With Aaron Hall) – Scent Of Attraction
Solitude Aeturnus – Scent Of Death
Enigma – Smell Of Desire
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Television Personalities – Stop & Smell The Roses
Tomahawk – Sweet Smell Of Success
Michael Giacchino – That New Car Smell
Bliss – The Scent of China
Michael Nyman – The Scent Of Love
David Sylvian – The Scent Of Magnolia
John Saylor – The Smell Of Christmas
Masquer – There Was The Smell Of Grease
Howard Shore – Wolf Scent
Matthew Dear – You Put A Smell On Me
December 25, 2011 at 8:27 am
Whenever I am asked this question the first thing that comes to mind is the smell of horses hoof burning under the hot horseshoe as the farrier fits it. Although I wasn’t a horsy child my dad used to work for a friend of his in the summer holidays, who kept horses and I used to spend a lot of my days, mostly quite solitary, there. The stable girl taught me to put a bridle together, I loved cleaning the leather, and the farrier was fascinating to watch.
December 25, 2011 at 8:40 am
Wow, that’s a very powerful memory and smell. I think my equivalent is probably mixing dried calf milk, with my arm deep in the bucket.
December 25, 2011 at 11:07 am
So far today I have collected the following:
Strong spruce smell (tree in the dining room),
florist paper – I hadn’t realised how much it smells and have been using it as wrapping paper,
Sellotape
Haddock, Fresh coffee
Rotting wood, yarrow, Alexanders, wood fires, Cesspit run off – whilst dog walking, country living for you!
DNKY pink
December 28, 2011 at 6:58 am
Just had to google anosmia to zygomatic – am I allowed to define the meaning here for those others who would have to look up the definition? Now thinking I am going to need a dictionary next to me to read this blog! /well done Vivia it must have taken you ages to find all those songs with smells in it – fantastic subject for the 12 days
December 28, 2011 at 7:02 am
Of course you can define them here and it helps to remind me to do the Z word at the end! I hope you will enjoy the journey
December 29, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Bit late to the party this year but its now time to catch up on this sensory journey (what a fab idea it is too).
So smell memories….particularly Christmassy for me is the smell of the Christmas cake being baked…so cinnamon, nutmeg, clove aromas…and also whisky which will be used to enhance the cake….and the zingy smell of peeling clemintines….and chestnuts because we always had chestnut stuffing
I used to work with someone who had almost no sense of smell..it made him very adventurous food wise
January 7, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Christmas smells… oh how long ago it seems now.. but Christmas lasts until my birthday in this house, so is only over when the midnight bell tolls tonight.
So Christmas smells for me as a child were :
Starting from when you open your stocking in the morning :
oranges, the smell of the zest as they are peeled
milk chocolate , always milk chocolate in the stocking
The house full of the smell of roast turkey, it was put in very first thing in the morning, and cooked til mid afternoon
burnt brandy and raisins, the smell of Christmas pudding
The sizzly smell of the bangs in the crackers
Hot baked sausage rolls and mince pies for tea.
January 7, 2012 at 8:54 pm
Ooo cracker bang smell good one I’d forgotten that
January 7, 2012 at 9:59 pm
that cracker bang is really distinctive too, not like fireworks smell, different, sharper somehow…