Making Sense of Scents.

A few days ago I was sitting in my sunny front garden contemplating.  My clever husband had just finished building some decking with a lovely balustrade and trestle, as this little area is a suntrap.  I was contemplating because I was trying to decide if I should bother to try and grow a scented climbing plant of some description along it.  Maybe honeysuckle, lilac or a climbing rose? It would look lovely I'm sure but wouldn't smell of anything to me....but then I think I'm being selfish, other people would enjoy it, like friends and family who often come to visit.  I realise I have to be careful sometimes so as not to become thoughtless about other peoples' pleasures in life.

I catch myself being like this on occasion and don't like what I see, a good kick up the arse wouldn't go amiss right now! So instead I consider what plant to grow on there, I'll ask my husband Ruck what he thinks too...a joint decision.

My interpretation of the smell of things differs now, the smells I identify with certain things don't connect anymore. Like I said in my articles on Smell Training, I have to, for example, learn that my smell of grass isn't the same as your smell of grass, but I need to recognise that as the new smell of grass for me.
Let me give you some examples, unfortunately not all pleasant ones due to my Parosmia, which you know about if you've been reading older posts. So here is a short list that I've compiled:

• Perfume - sweet but no distinctive notes to it, i.e. flowery. musky etc.
• Coffee - Smokey, but not horrible.
• Tea - no smell.
• Basil - sweet, no really distinctive smell however.
• Onions - horrible, one of the worst in fact, sulphur, sulphur and more sulphur.
• Chicken - rotten kind of smell, not good
• Pork - nothing at all.
• Beef - cardboard!
• Bacon - burnt smell, but not horrible.
• Sausages - Sulphur, not nice.
• Smoke - again sulphur, yuk!
• Grass - earthy, so not too bad.
• Flowers - most of these I cant smell at all, but I did get a faint smell of lavender once, so I grow it all over my garden. But sadly this seems to have faded now. I wont dismiss the fact that it might return though!
• Chocolate - no smell
• Milk - no smell
• Bread - no smell but if its baking there's the sulphur back again!
• Eggs - Ugh!
• Spices - the odd musky kind of smell.
• Vanilla - this is one to celebrate as it smells like vanilla, especially the candles!

I'll end on that one as a positive note or I could go on and on so I wont bore you forever!

Now, as I stop to contemplate again...there is no smell in the air. I'm sitting in my kitchen writing this, and breathing in nothingness. I've forgotten what my house used to smell like I suppose, and often check with Ruck that it doesn't need a good old airing or air freshener spraying all over the place. I sometimes get a smell of something in the air, but cant identify it and have to ask what it is. If I'm outside it often turns out to be chimney smoke or the farm smell, which oddly enough smells ok to me.  We live quite close to a farm so this can be a common occurrence. I do miss smelling things as they should be though and not smelling the things I used to love, but I'm trying to come to terms with this. Not because I'm giving up on things going back to normal but because I'm preparing myself for the fact that they might not. Its a fine balance and I try not to get down about it.

Next time I want to talk about taste with you all, that is a weird one with more unpleasant than pleasant experiences unfortunately, but ill leave it here for now....thanks for reading as always.

To anyone suffering from Anosmia, Parosmia or related do you have good and bad smells? I'd be interested to know your interpretations. Please feel free to comment.