Thursday 7 April was like Orange Blossom Day. We noticed it on the way to work - the smell. Maybe Thursday wasn't windy for a change, the scent just hung heavy in the air, but it seemed like the first day we noticed it and suddenly it was intense.
It coats the air. It is a thick scent, a dense scent, a cloying scent. It doesn't waft gently at you like a hint or a memory. It isn't a suggestion. It is an insistence. You MUST inhale this.
It is not an objectionable scent. On the contrary, most humans and cats find it pleasant, but it is a smell that coats every particle of your smell surfaces like having wax in your nose.
The orange blossoms look waxy too, but they don't last long and by Thursday 14th, a mere week later, the footpaths are coated with spent petals. The scent is still there but diluted, weaker and fading.
Spring in England is daffodils and magnolia, blossoms on the apples tree, and bright green unfurling on our lime trees. It sort of creeps up on you. It can have a softness to it. (Factoid Spring in the UK apparently move from south to north at an average speed of 3 miles an hour; slower up hills and faster down. Who do you suppose worked that out and whatever for?)
Spring in Greece arrives like a slap in the face. One day you wake up and there it is. Orange blossom.
These are neranjes (the sour ones F uses for marmalade) and some of the trees have last year's fruit still hanging on them.
Signs of Spring - we haven't been mobbed by house-martins yet but we are looking out for the day they arrive back.
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| Practising doing 'scorn' - for when I see that camera thing appear. |
Yiasou Tigger. Another classic portrait. You should be hanging in a gallery somewhere. Sorry, F.s collection of Tigger photos should be.
ReplyDeleteI noticed our orange blossom today. Delightful. We have an orange tree below the terrace where I hang the washing. The scent wafted up.
There are a lot of smelly flowers around just now. Names escape me but the their scents are wonderful.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteTigger, that was a most wonderfurs discourse on the way some spring scents can congeal the air around one. In Sydney, the one that used to set my asthma going was Jasmine, which does pretty much everything you mention here. I was reliving it as I read your words! There is also a thing called 'mock orange' which creates quite a whiff and also terrible for asthma (and hayfever) sufferers. Beautiful - yet bittersweet... Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
N=Noble
Thanks for the UK Spring factoid Mr T. I hadn't heard that before. I feel sure it must slow down long-before it reaches us up here though.
ReplyDeleteYep. You're not wrong Tigger. I have been to the Algarve in April and that orange blossom aroma is divine. By the way Tigger you are incredibly photogenic.
ReplyDeleteThat heady smell is one I adore. I see we have blossoms at bud stage on our little lemon tree, and cannot wait until they open and spread their scent around. Heavenly! :)
ReplyDeleteI’m sure orange blossom is lovely. But such a strong and persistent smell would give me headaches
ReplyDeleteTigger you look soooooo sweet and did a good scorn impersonation! love your orange rug.. if you moved here you could smell orange smells year round, we get oranges twice a year and there is a factory that when it is making ornage juice, Tropicana is the name of the place and the OJ, they cook the peelings to get the oil out and sell the oil, the smell covers the entire county of where we live. the oil smell is like blossoms but is over powrering.
ReplyDeleteBeaus says to tell you he loves boiled eggs, raw eggs, half cooked eggs and egg salad. he gets one egg a day for breakfast. about those For Good clothes we all wore way back when.. we were poor and only had one Sunday dress and shoes.. and 5 school outfits that my grandfather bought before school started. the old school clothes if they still fit, were the play clothes. one good shoes one play one school shoes. I did not want to stay in the good clothes and would have worn play clothes to school if I could.
I don’t believe I’ve ever lived (or visited) somewhere that I would encounter the scent, but I imagine it is heavenly. My wisteria is filled with beautiful long blue/purple flowers, and it does smell wonderful. It is not overpowering, but I open the doors and windows to catch it in the house, since the blooms won't thrive cut and in water! Lovely photo, you appear quite stern. :D
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are a strong smell but not unpleasant that's for sure
ReplyDelete