I’m a sniffer and have been for as long as I can remember. I smell clean laundry straight from the washing machine and line dried, I smell the pages of books both new and old, I smell my morning coffee and afternoon peppermint tea and I even smell the dishcloth (gross I know, but I need to know when it’s time to bin said cloth!)
Smells are reminiscent of a certain time and place and can transport you to that very moment. They make you pause, think and reflect and for me I love being taken back to a particular memory which can all of sudden seem not so distant.
Having missed the last two Australian summers while working and living abroad my smell receptors are back in the game and enjoying the fragrances that come with my beloved season. Feeling finely tuned to the summer smells that surround me I thought I’d share some of my favourite scents and the fond memories attached to them.
Mangoes
This orangey-yellow stone fruit has to be one of the most delicious smelling fruits getting around. The sweet fragrance rouses memories of my mum and dad slicing and peeling mangoes for me when I was little. The perfect summer treat, best served and eaten straight after a sprinkler or slip and slide session. My dad showed me the one (and only) way to prepare and eat a mango and I whole-heartedly agree with this method. So here it goes: slice a thick strip off both sides as close to the stone as possible, then slice vertically a few times, cross these vertical slices with a few horizontal ones to make a grid, then turn the fruit section inside out and voila! Perfect little cubes to eat straight from the skin. Now let’s be honest, there’s no nice way to eat one of these guys than to basically inhale and then have your way with its fleshy stone.
Before the rain
The rains are a cometh and you smell that distinctive earthy and musty scent you generally associate pre or during stormy rains or thunderstorms. It reminds me of some of the storms I experienced growing up in the Queensland bush and gazing out the window with excitement, awe and little bit of fear hearing the thunder but not knowing where and when that crack of lightening would hit. The smell was particularly strong in the country because of the dry ground, which I’ve discovered is referred to as Petrichor. The smell of rain comes from oils given off by vegetation, absorbed by neighbouring surfaces including soil and rocks and then released into the air when it starts to rain. There you have it. Now you know what brings about that before-the-rain smell.
Sunscreen
Some sunscreen products are trying to mask this summery smell with floral notes and all sorts of other sweet-smelling agents. I know it’s greasy and I know the sand sticks to you at the beach, but for me the smell of sunscreen overrides these cons and I don’t mind smelling like a tropical island. One. Little. Bit. Like most Aussie kids I was a fish and the waft of sunscreen reminds me of swimming at the beach, in the river or swimming pool. My brother and I were always covered in the thick white stuff, sporting our super cool sun shirts and hats, and the smell evokes memories of dancing around on the scorching cement waiting for the sunscreen to ‘absorb’, trying to bomb my brother in the pool and boogie boarding in the ocean during summer beach holidays.
Ocean
Sunscreen and the salty ocean smell are scent brothers and pretty much go hand-in-hand with our surf, sun and sand culture. Combined they create an instinctively summer smell and one that reminds me, and no doubt many people, of beach holidays. The way your feet squeak in the sand, the gentle ocean breeze carrying that salty smell…bliss.
Freshly cut grass
A distinctive outdoorsy and summer smell for me is the hint of recently mown grass. According to botanists the smell of mown grass is caused by gases emitted from each cut blade known as volatile organic compounds (VOC), which include the likes of methane, acetone, ethanol, and acetaldehyde. Luckily we are only taking in miniscule amounts of these so-called VOCs! On returning to Australia I couldn’t wait to take in this smell. Only once while abroad, on a trip to the English countryside, did I have the pleasure of this smell and it made me yearn for the Australian summer. This naturally fresh fragrance immediately transports my senses to games of backyard cricket. I have recollections of that fresh grassy smell after my dad especially mowed the cricket pitch, the rubber smell of the tennis ball and the earthy smell when you pull out the timber stumps after the game.
Barbeques
Is there a more Australian smell? Frying onion, searing steak, the burnt and charred smell when the snags have started to burn. Summer gives us an excuse to cook every night on the barbecue if we like, it’s an excuse to get your friends together and head down to the beach or local park, and it’s an excellent excuse just to eat really. For a nation that is renowned for it’s BBQ culture many strive to copy our barbecue exploits but it’s a force to be reckoned with. We love a barbecue and nothing says summer like a good ol’ barbie.
Frangipani
Before there were frangipani bumper stickers, car seat covers and other frangipani adorned merchandise; our family garden was full of these pretty, sweet-smelling white flowers with yellow centres. I loved them so much that when I was little I would shove a heap of them in a water-filled glass to try and create my own frangipani parfum. Needless to say the concoction reeked! Although the stickers have come and gone and we’ve welcomed (well, some of us) the family stick figure bumper stickers in their place, the smell of frangipani has always stayed with me.
So there you have it, a few smells, aromas, scents that really resonate with me, my childhood and summer. Being away from Australia has made me appreciate these summer smells all the more and now that I’m back here’s hoping we will be smelling less of the ‘before the rain’ over the next few months and more of the sunscreen. Melbourne, we’re looking at you.
What does summer smell like to you?
