The Scents of Summer

Going for one last dip in a nearby pond after a hot morning of cutting the grass, I thought, as I rounded the backside of the pond, that in summer, if you close your eyes and take a deep inhalation, you can almost tell what month it is without a calendar. The sweet air I smelled was thanks to White Swamp Azalea, which is in the Rhododendron family but smells so much like honeysuckle. It blooms along the edge of the pond and if you have some near you, you know what a treat it is. And with luck, it will keep perfuming the air from late June to August.



Swimming with the dog, laying on my back watching a Great Blue Heron pass over and, much closer, an unidentified lady dragonfly was touching her abdomen to the surface living a wee bairn here and a wee bairn there. But, also floating over the water, was the wonderful scent of the Fragrant Water Lily, likewise a June to August treat. This is the water lily that Thoreau marveled at, that something growing out of such muck could render such a sweet flower and ergo, even if our lives had some pretty mucky beginnings, they could still turn into a sweet smelling existence in the end. Ah, an emotional buck up from the edge of the pond.


Also, along the waters edge, and these are really common around here, is a stand of Sweet Pepperbush that is just now coming into bud. They also have a distinctly sweet smell that lets you know it is late July or August when you round a bend and this scent hits you. The coolest thing about this plant’s flowers is that you can take a handful of them, cup your hand in the pond water and then rub vigorously and, voila, soap! When this is in bloom I will have to give it its own little treatise, it’s such an interesting plant. You know, the water lily deserves its own blurb too, just that I am rushed for time at the moment.

There are scents galore, wherever you are. I am sure you have your own month-marking plants where you live. The parade of beauty goes on and on, and I am so anxious to see if in Croatia the “air is full of spices” as it is in Greece. And now, back to the tasks I am supposed to be doing! Keep your noses at the ready and enjoy each delightful inhalation, perhaps of something natural, perhaps of charcoal and grilled foods. Whatever, the warmth of summer carries scents like air-mail delivery gifts to us all. Enjoy, and hopefully I will have tales to tell when I return from this sojourn with our daughter. Till then, a happily scented summer to you all.