“Long Winter, Sense of Smell 長い冬、においの感覚” [English and Japanese”
“Long Winter, Sense of Smell”
Who said this winter is going to be mild!? I heard someone said so before winter. I was happy to hear that. On the other hand, I was telling myself “Don’t believe that too much otherwise I am going to be disappointed.” I should’ve listened to the warnings inside of me. Hahaha.
We still have heavy snow here. We still have to do snow shoveling. I feel “Enough!” as usual around March. However, I smell spring a little through this heavy wet snow. Do you have a strong sense of smell? I do. My sense of smell is pretty strong. For example, I have sensitivities with smells of seasons, sickness, emotions, incense, chemicals, weather, houses, food, countries, flowers, plants, people, animals, nature, smoke, and more. Sometimes I can’t stand sensing strong smells but sometimes I feel good with nice smells. I also switch off this sense and become insensitive of smells if it’s too much for me.
Back to sensing the smell of seasons, this sense makes me feel good. I smell spring at the end of winter, I smell summer at the end of spring, I smell autumn at the end of summer, and I smell winter at the end of autumn. It’s not connected to food or atmosphere. I just strongly smell the change of the seasons. It’s an exciting thing when I smell spring or summer. Conversely, I feel a bit sad when I smell autumn or winter.
Anyway, I surely smell spring even though we have quite deep snow here. I can’t wait to smell spring more!
“長い冬、においの感覚”
今年の冬はマイルドだと言ったのは誰でしょうか?冬がやってくる前にそんな話を聞いて、喜んだ覚えがあります。でも、「あまり信じちゃだめ、もしそうじゃなかったら落ち込むんだから。」と、心の中の自分が忠告してきたにも関わらず喜んでしまいました。やっぱり自分の感を信じるべきでした。
まだ雪が深々と降っています。雪かきもいまだに必須です。3月にもなると「もう雪はたくさん!」と毎年のように思います。でも、このベタ雪の中、ほんの少しだけ春のにおいを感じるのです。みなさんは強いにおいの感覚をお持ちですか?わたしの嗅覚はけっこう強いです。例えば、季節・病気・感情・お天気・お香・化学薬品・家・食べ物・国・花・植物・人・動物・自然・煙などなど様々なにおいに敏感です。時々、あまりにもにおうので耐えきれない時もありますが、いい香りの時は嬉しいです。あまりに感じすぎて困る時は鈍感になって、においのスイッチのようなものを切ることもあります。
季節のにおいの話に戻りますが、季節のにおいを嗅ぐのは好きです。冬の終わりにかぐ春のにおい、春の終わりには夏のにおい、夏の終わりには秋のにおい、秋の終わりには冬のにおい。これは食べ物や環境のにおいとは違います。ただ、単純に強く季節の変わり目のにおいを感じるのです。春や夏のにおいをかぐのは楽しいことです。逆に、秋と冬のにおいをかぐのは少し淋しい気持ちがします。
というわけで、こんなに雪深いのですが春のにおいを確実に感じます。もっとたくさん春のにおいを嗅ぐのが待ち遠しいです。
Heavy clear-looking icicles are hanging near the windows.
重たくて透明なつららが窓のそばにぶら下がっています。
I’m sure that Dude also smells spring!
ドュード君も春のにおいを嗅いでいると思います!
I like to see the surface of snow after a big snow storm. It’s like a smooth cake with whip cream.
吹雪の後の雪の表面を、見るのが好きです。生クリームのケーキのようななめらかな表面です。
I can feel the sunshine is also changing little by little!
太陽の光もちょっとずつ変化してきているのを感じます!
Smells are important to me. I love cooking after all, and while tasting the soup/sauce/gravy is nice, just smelling it can give a good hint of the end result too. I think most people have a good sense of smell, but some of us don't know what we are smelling. Like a friend of mine who claimed that cucumber doesn't have a smell because it's 98% water. Well, the remaining 2% can still smell, right? So I gave her one glass of plain water and one glass which had had several cucumber slices in it, but I removed them, and asked her to sniff them.
I don't use perfume very often, and when I do it's cedarwood or sandalwood based. Which the same friend said "That woody smell, I thought it came from your bookshelves." 😹
When the snow is gone and spring really arrives, I smell all the leaves that fell off the trees in the autumn and have started to turn into soil. I know it's a spring smell, but my brain thinks "winter is coming."
Yeah, smells are very important for sure! I enjoyed reading your smell story and your friend’s story as well.
Your friend story is hilarious! As you said, they smell something but smells are not so important things for their lives I guess.
I'm sure there are things that are important to her that I'm missing too! But because they aren't important to me, I can't guess what they are 🤷♀️