It smells like Spring!

Today, as I left my car for work enjoying the “balmy” weather I smelt a season change. It is spring!

I know, I know, for some of you, smelling season’s sounds a little strange. Growing up in central Illinois, right in the middle of farm country, discerning the subtle change of seasons have become habitual. A warm, earthly, wet scent for spring, a mature green scent for summer, a lack of scent for winter and the dry, musty decayed scent for fall.
Ask a farmer; he knows the scent of spring!

Detecting the smell of spring could just be limited to my observation; my favorite scents are a freshly mown alfalfa field and the ozone right before a thunderstorm. While in college traveling with the volleyball team, I became quite nostalgic at the familiar “barnyard” scent of dairy cows!
It is odd the effect some scents have on your memory and emotion!

Several scientific studies have determined ties between the olfactory sense and memory. What is unusual are the cells that “remember” certain smells only live 60 days, but they reproduce themselves so accurately that a person can remember an event many years later. Several studies suggest that the neurons that are responsible for smell are the slowest of all the senses. It not only takes the brain longer to register a smell, odor persists for greater lengths of time than do sensations of sight or sound.

While this convoluted explanation is interesting it really has no bearing on the smell of spring in the air. That is strictly a personal observation. Go find out for yourself. Today.