Stepping off the plane today in Costa Rica, it smells like home. Not a home I ever had, but the one I always wanted – green, lush, ripe white florals, and the smell of rain. And more rain. And more rain.
It’s the rainy season here, so that shouldn’t be a big surprise, but it does shock me just how much it can rain. The result of all that rain is the smell. Rain in a rainforest is the single best smell in existence.
So this is a short post, and I don’t have the winners for last week since the wireless doesn’t reach here into my room in San Jose, and I’ll have to run up to the lobby to get this posted. I did want to thank everyone for all the planting ideas last week, I’ve got a long list of some great recommendations that it may take me five years to work through, but what a fun five years! I will have the winners of the drawing next week. We’ll be in the Osa then, and this time we are told we have internet there. I’m still confoozled by that since it was the one remote place I thought I could run away to where nobody could find me.
Weather smell, what’s your favorite? Snow, rain, warm sunshine on skin?
One of my favorites is the smell under a huge pine tree on a hot day. This can be pretty well replicated by wearing SL Filles and SL Ambre Sultan together.
Patty, I would also like to thank you for your health post a while back. because it made me do some online research which led me to information that has completely changed how I eat and feel!
Kristen
I loved the smell of the cloud forests in Costa Rica! I was there this winter and had a wonderful time sniffing through the wilderness. My favorite weather smell is definitely rain on wood and pine needles.
a hot day in the piney woods :-)
I hail from the upper Midwest where we have two seasons: construction and winter, with winter being by far the longer of the two.
My first winter in Colorado, I announced to my coworkers on a chilly morning “It smells like it’s going to snow!” To a man, their heads swiveled and they gave me looks of complete incomprehension. When I tried to tell them what I meant, I could tell it wasn’t penetrating.
It isn’t easy to describe, but it definitely exists. The scent of impending snow. And I love it.
It does indeed exist, and it is most lovely. And yes, I’m also from a place where we have just two seasons — construction and winter. I’m not sure whether my favorite seasonal smell is that of fall (rotting leaves), summer (rain on hot pavement), spring (fresh green and warming soil), or early winter (which among other things puts a stop to all that noisy construction). I love them all.
I love the smell of ozone, but I also adore the smell of the hot sun baking the dusty earth and the trees in the desert where I live in Summer. I am also a big fan of snow, although I guess that is really the smell of other things dampened, as in Winter 1972.
Ooh leaves in the autumn mingled with woodsmoke and apples- boy sometimes I really really miss New England! Olde England has lovely smells as well but not that one ..:-(
Also love the smell just before, during and after a summer thundershower. Delicious!
Like everyone said, summer rain in our humid climate, hitting the hot asphalt, a bit of ozone in the air…. and what Vasily said. Now that I think about it, fall leaves may be the ultimate. CB I Hate Perfumes’ Burning Leaves is just the ticket. In fact, I may go put some on now.
The smell of rain on hot cement in the summer. Love that smell.
The smell of leaf piles in the autumn mixed with woodsmoke; the smell of fresh snow mingled with the sulfur smell of burning coal; hot humid Carolina summer night with that peculiar mix of honeysuckle and rot; the first early spring smell of the earth coming to life as the snow melts away.
Spring evenings, just moments before it starts to rain.
Spring rain on new flowers and tender leaves…
I can see that the summer rain smell is a popular one. That’s my favorite, too. It seems to wash everything and melt all the smells together.
I second rain on a hot day. In particular the first big heavy drops, almost evaporating as they hit warm surfaces: asphalt, metal, stone, earth.
Rain on warm summer dirt I think. Mmmmm, amazing.
I hope that there will be photos.
Soon.