a mixture of in the library with a dash of burnt wood and a heaping of burning leaves. i keep nuzzling my wrist and smiling to myself. it just smells like my high school's camp grounds, where my husband and i would sneak off to empty cabins and smooch. our first kiss was on the trails by the bonfire circle, fall of '97. swoon.
i wish i could customize an all-star fall scent. perhaps i would also add hot apple cider spiked with loads of cinnamon and clove. freshly cut grass, like the kind you find on a football or soccer field. especially when it is early in the morning and still covered with dew. piles of leaves and earth muddled together. pencil shavings and rubber cement. new book smell. new textbook smell. chapstick kisses and winterfresh gum. old spice deodorant. wool sweaters and rarely, barely washed denim. but who knows what kind of calamity of opposing smells it would create. i think it sounds lovely in theory...
thank you christopher brosius for your talented nose. for being able to bring back wonderful memories with one inhalation. maybe one day i will track you down for a custom scent, if i can ever catch the elusive cb i hate perfume.
but really, what does fall smell like to you?
10 comments:
cool, clean, crisp air! and pumpkin.
Ah! why don't we have smell-a-vision yet?! i wish i could sit here with my coffee and peruse all of those scents! thanks so much!
Atlanta had its first fall smell of the season last night. The air had undercurrents of crisp, cool breezes, with a dash of firewood, damp leaves, hint of pumpkin and dark-roasted coffee. I cannot wait for fall!
gold star for excellent use of the word "calamity" -- you've covered a lot of ground, but i'd also add the kitchen scents from my mom cooking ahead for the family holiday party/using the oven way more and the smell of cooler weather moving in, particularly autumn mornings and evenings, which is the best way I can think of to describe it... maybe that's more of a feeling than a smell, huh...
Oh, oh oh! I figured out what Fall smells like the other day, and I'm so excited you brought it up!
Fall is... moss, right-after-the-bonfire-is-put-out-by-water scent, damp tree bark, icy cold river water, a wee-bit of skunk (I know, that's a bad smell and Fall is a good smell, but I swear it, you need a little bad to get good), hoar frost, and a put out cigarette. Though that last one could have been my own put out cigarette, I'm still debating it :)
what a charming picture! and your stories are always such a delight. ooh your life sounds like the best. fall smells like curried soup and tart apples and crunchy leaves and crisp evenings and wooly socks (ok... wooly socks probably smell gross, but i just couldn't leave them out!) and dried flowers!
these are soooooo good. can i also add mothball smell? something about pulling winter sweaters from the back of the closet, or out of a trunk. this smell gets me all sorts of flustered...
i am too weird.
I am obsessed with cbihateperfume! I indulged in the little bottles of mr. hulot's holiday, at the beach 1966, and burning leaves. I only use them every so often because I don't want to ever use them all up. Once I get a steady income those puppies will be slathered on and I will stock up on the big sizes!
Fall to me smells like blasting Tom Waits with the windows cracked in the car even though it makes it too cold, mixed in with almost everything you added.
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definitely wet lawns, softly mildewed leaves, clove and earth, fire and water, and that dusty warm smell that the heater gives off the first time you turn it on .
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