Smellscapes

Now I know, 'smellscape' is a term that is inelegant and, let's face it,  ugly, actually, but at least it recognises the importance of smell in people's experiences of places and of times. I can still remember (well, to be more precise, I have memories of) the brand new plastic Tupperwear lunch box I took to school in infants school. Just how accurate my smellmory (oops I just made that one up) is, of course is debatable, but I do have a memory of the smell. So just as a song or piece of music can instantly create a recall to a particular time and place for people, so too, can smell.
And I was thinking about this as I was rogering the bottom paddock on Sunday afternoon. We still have a few large privet bushes in a small gully in that paddock and they are covered in sweet smelling flowers at the moment. And, as I sat there on Roger, being careful not to run over any small skinks or frogs which might be avoiding being cut to ribbons or run over (and yes I am as careful as someone can be seated on a ride-on), I was enveloped in a great cloud of sweetly smelling privet. This smell took me instantly back to the back of my parent's place, my childhood home, in Cardiff, Newcastle, searching the bush near Tickhole Tunnel (what great place names there were) with my mates Wazza and Flip for water dragons, land mullet and swamp snakes. The power of smell. Evoking memory.