If you’ll take a pleasant moment to sniff the brisk autumn air, you’ll realize that each season has it’s own distinctive smells. Winter gives your nostrils the sharp sting of air heavy with ice and snow. Springtime features the odors of cooling rains, awakening of new blossoms and whiffs of early-sprouting meadow grasses. Summer fills the nostrils with the full, heated intensity of all of nature’s odors.
Autumn months, as they stretch out between summer’s heat into winter’s cold, often manage to capture many facets of the year’s smells. However, when we experience those wonderful annual moments in time, we realize that autumn also has very distinctive odors. Consider some of the most pleasant.
1. Dry leaves: The crackling of the colorful dry autumn leaves, as they fall from the trees and are raked and jumped into by happy kids, have pleasant woodsy smell that sharpen and perfumes the air all around.
2. Campfires: Autumn gatherings around sparkling fires produce many sniffing joys. Then, when the music and storytelling end and mealtime arrives, there are are the odors of broiling sausages and frankfurters, followed by the sweet smell of toasting marshmallows and laughter of happy kids.
3. Backyard barbecues: These wonderful autumn family occasions also have their own distinctive smells that make for long-remembered moments. There are the odors coming from the grill as burgers, chickens and hot dogs crackle over the fire. Along with them from the coals below come the different smoky smells of roasting corn and potatoes.
4. Autumn sports events: Those crowds attending football games will experience the smells of the wooden stands, big yellow mums, and wool and leather clothing. Along with the crowd cheers, vendors hawking their wares fill the stadium air with the odors of popcorn, chips, sodas and the inevitable hot dogs. Additionally, just outside the stadium, the tailgate parties are surrounded by similar cooking odors, along with sharper smells of sausages and beer.
5. Hay rides: For more intimate autumn smells and experiences, the traditional bumpy journey on the back of a wagon full of new-mowed hay can be a great way to celebrate the season. This can be extra pleasant when you bundle up with someone warm on a cool, moon-lit autumn night.
6. Wet dog shake: Not everyone would consider it a pleasant autumn smell, but nothing says it better than the doggy spray that says goodbye better to summer and introduces the next season. When your best friend vigorously wiggles off the water after your final summer swim in the lake, you know the trees will soon do the same with their leaves.
Enjoy the wonderful smells of autumn, because they won’t be back to tickle your nose for another year.
