Once we roll around to autumn again each year, I am just naturally more inclined to be upbeat and positive. Why? Because it means that summer is gone, and that’s my least favorite time of year. It’s hot, and there are bugs. Also, there are chores like mowing the lawn, though thankfully Daniela and Denisa have taken on the lion’s share of that this year. But even with just the heat and the bugs, that’s enough to make me less than enthusiastic about a season. Is summer completely horrible? No. I mean, some of you are no doubt rolling your eyes about me complaining about the heat when the hottest it gets in Maine is typically the 90s, and that’s just for a day or two. But I really don’t like heat, so . . .
Once fall’s here, then it means that we’re back at the top of the lineup. There’s my birthday, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s and Groundhog Day. Add to that the possibility that any day I could wake up and discover work was canceled due to snow, and I’m not seeing any downsides. (Well, other than when it snows and work isn’t canceled. But we’re being upbeat here.)
Having been in Maine for my 18th autumn now, there’s a smell to it that I’ve come to really recognize as one of the biggest signs that it’s arrived. It’s specific to Farmington, really. You’ve got the scent of dead leaves, though not enough to make it nearly overpowering. At the same time, the fair is in town, and so when I’m walking to and from my car at work, that dead leaf smell is mixed with hints of cotton candy and fried food.
Bottle that mixture and make it into a potpourri candle, and I think you’d have some real aromatherapy on your hands. I know I’d buy it, and I don’t even like candles. It doesn’t last long: the fair’s only here for a week, after all. Usually, I even forget about the scent until the next year rolls around and I smell it on the air again. But when I do, it brings back a whole slew of happy memories, and it improves my mood just by walking through it.
Do you have any scents like that? Smells that make your day, or signify something particularly important?