The scent of spring...

I feel like England in spring time smells crisp. The bite of chill is still in the air and there's an occasional sweet sharp whiff of cut grass or daffodils. I associate it with fairy liquid (no, not me being fantastical - it's a brand of dish-soap) and promise, tentative washing being hung out to dry.

Here the prevailing smell seems to be of mud, with the odd sniff of cat-piss. And yet it's not altogether unpleasant.

Let me explain...

The mud smell has two sources. Firstly, the bank-burst-rivers and temporary-lakes are receding, leaving behind them sodden gasping sludge which is slowly drying and emitting a dank damp dark smell as it does. Since March was the rainiest March on record ever, I'm not sure I can say that this smell equals Spring to Americans, but it will be forever associated in my mind with my first Spring in Boston.

The second source is more generalizable and that is the smell of mulch. Mulch is basically mushed (or mulched) up grass, bark, compost, leaves etc that is placed over soil in gardens. Apparently it protects the soil and stops weeds from growing. Americans use it all over the place and it has the curious effect of making everything look like it's just been planted. The smell of mulch is everywhere - rich, smokey, deep and earthy, signaling that life can come out of hibernation and things can reattempt to grow without the threat of ice and snow. It seems here, you know it's spring when your neighbour decides to unwrap her shrubs from the sack-cloth-blankets they've been covered in all winter and the air suddenly smells of smoke and earth.

Surprisingly, the cat-piss element of the spring bouquet comes from blossom trees that line the streets. The trees are so beautiful that I think I can bear the smell. It does add an interesting and slightly unsettling layer to the wafting scents around here though.

So, the smell of spring. Not quite what you might expect, but strangely appropriate given the rich heady heaviness of summer in this part of the world. The smells of mud and pee herald sunshine and warmth. Who'd have known?