smells outside in nature

[Jom]

I live in the country where there are no pollutants in the air, and I just came back from going down the drive to get mail cause I saw it come. And the smells of nature surrounding me as I walked down the drive were so... um, unifying, in that my love of smells can cause deep vibrations in my upper body, that are rarely there.

[Silver]

That's a beautiful observation, Jom. I grew up in a small town like that, little to no pollution. Can you separate out the different nature 'aromas' and what they all were?

[Jom]

I live in northern Michigan, deep in the woods and close to lake Michigan. There was just a big rain fall the other day which brings out more smells in the woods and there are several types of trees in the woods that dominate the environment out front. In back I have a big garden and there is a large variety of wild flowers and weeds there. I have to figure out what smells so good outside. The woods feel like ancestry to me, before the days of machines.

[Silver]

That sounds downright poetic, Jom. I grew up in northcentral Pennsylvania, on 10 acres...I've been out here on the Left Coast so long, I've almost forgotten the smells and sounds of the trees and meadows (had a meadow in my 'back yard' literally), my mother had a large garden in-between the narrow strip of lawn and the meadow, and half the meadow behind the garden was my dad's vegetable garden, in season. The one smell I can recall readily were the two lilac trees we had, one next to the garage and the other off the flower garden.

[Jom]

I took our 2 dogs on a 4.5 mile walk this afternoon and came back to our 10 acre lot passing through a few other fields where the blue spruce are growing tall about 40 feet high and they have such a wonderful scent, but I wasn't planning on getting any smells to transform me feelings of work/play into scent bliss. We walked past a horse ranch where three horses came up to greet us by the wooden 3 foot high fence around their pasture, and they have a very definite smell around their pasture. I love horses, and dogs, and being outside.

[Adrienne]

I like the scent of rain, just before a thunderstorm ~

[Jom]

I was working with wood all day today, cutting it from our hardwood trees to supply firewood for the winter. And after I was done cutting and stacking for the day I went off for a walk in the woods to connect with the earth again, and oh, the smell of leaves and trees brought feelings of bliss and thankfulness for where I am in life. And as I walked into the woods further I would find old rusted cans that were discarded over 50 years or so, maybe longer because I have this feeling of a female spirit in the woods, like a great grandmother, or a great great grandmother from generations past, as I do not recall a face but just a spirit.

[Treehugger]

I love walking in nature! I always loved this but never knew it had a name!

[Adrienne]

Very interesting Treehugger, I didn't know there was a special name either. I wonder how they came up with that one ?

[Jom]

I just began to awaken to smells lately as I took a deeper breath through my nose as a way to stretch my lungs and ahhh... the smell of wherever I am at becomes more intense. Breathe deep through your nose and smell the life of what good it chose.