SNIFF IT!

Ah, the pleasure of aroma!

OR

UCK! What is that awful smell?

Did the aroma of great grandmother's rabbit stew cooking in a pot in the fireplace in a soddy entice the family to come running? Or would it have been bread baking?

When great grandfather and his sons turned the soil with a single plow pulled by a horse did they breathe deeply to catch the scent of the freshly turned soil?

Did the children of my grandmother snitch freshly made molasses cookies just out of the wood cook stove? Where they signaled by the puffs of smoke coming from the chimney?


Did grand father smell the wood as he planed planks as he built the school?


Did mother know the aroma of apple pie baking acted as an alarm clock?


Did Daddy savor the freshly blown straw as I did?


When Old Trunks started on the five senses, it didn't know how hard it would be to make a decision on ONE bouquet. It would have to be babies; they have the sweetest fragrance, wouldn't you agree?


When I asked my sweet Thomas he said, "Baking bread, wood smoke from the chimney to the east of us, and burning leaves". He did not hesitate.


I can hear one of my children saying, "MMMMMMMMMMM, that smells good". Another whiffs perfume.


I wonder what my grand daughter likes?




Of the five senses, smell ranks fourth in importance for humans, although it is much more pronounced in other animals. Bloodhounds, for example, can smell an odor a thousand times weaker than humans. Taste, considered the fifth sense, is mostly the smell of food in the mouth. The sense of smell originates from the first cranial nerves (the olfactory nerves), which sit at the base of the brain's frontal lobes, right behind the eyes and above the nose. Inhaled airborne chemicals stimulate these nerves.

There are other aberrations of smell beside a decrease. Smells can be distorted, intensified, or hallucinated. These changes usually indicate a malfunction of the brain.


The most common cause of anosmia is nasal occlusion caused by an inflammation of the nasal membranes. If no air gets to the olfactory nerves, smell will not happen. In turn, rhinitis and nasal polyps (growths on nasal membranes) are caused by irritants such as allergens, infections, cigarette smoke, and other air pollutants.Tumors such as nasal polyps can also block the nasal passages and the olfactory nerves and cause anosmia. Head injury or, rarely, certain viral infections can damage or destroy the olfactory nerves.


Before I moved to the snow bank, Tom told me he would clean the cat box and do all the other stinky things because he couldn't smell well due to years and years of rhinitis. Think about what it must be like not to waft the beef stew cooking nor to be able to taste it. Think about what it must be like not to smell, taste, and it looks bad, too. It meant for me as a cook, to make the food look pretty enough to eat with your eyes. I remember the first time he said, "It can't taste good, it is too pretty". But, it did taste good because he could taste it with his eyes.


Imagine how exciting it was for him to walk into a shop where the walls were cedar and he could actually know what it was by the aroma. By experimentation, I learned that he could taste brownies if I added dry sherry. We learned he could taste dark chocolate, although he could not taste milk chocolate. We learned that the only spice he could identify was cinnamon. We also know that because his smell/taste is compromised, he eats less.

Just for the moment, play the game. Think back to your childhood and recall an aroma and think too, about the fragrances around you this morning and be grateful for the spice of your life.

Whiff, waft smell that fresh air?

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