Scents and fragrances are always intensified by heat, and natural heat from the sun is the best of all; the garden smells lovley, everywhere there is a new perfume to smell, a new scent wafting over. In the kitchen too, using nature's bounty at this time of year results in a very fragrant home.
This morning's scents:
Elderflowers - I've made five gallons of elderflower champagne for a fundraising function. The smell of these harvested at mid-day is unbelievable, a true summer perfume and very evocative.
Philadelphus - one of my favourites; I'm fairly sure my mother grew this in our garden in London, so I'd have been very small, but it's certainly a nostalgic one for me, very delicate and feminine.
Blackcurrants - just brushing past the leaves releases their unique and distinctive scent; take me right back to our house in Scotland, picking blackcurrants for my granny, sticky, purple stained fingers and the smell staying with you for hours.
Sweet peas - can't have too many, and their fragrance, from two bunches, pervades the whole house
Roses - all over the place at the moment, love them :) The white one is Madame Hardy, and extraordinary rose - such a pure white, and William Lobb who has stolen my heart now he is flowering, a perfect rose in every sense,the first moss rose I've grown, and fallen in love with him.:)
Honeysuckle - just coming into full blow, and there will be plenty of flowers for wine later too - a true taste of summer in a bottle.....
In the kitchen,the smell of spices in a simmering curry for tonight mingle with the elderflowers in the champagne, and the scent of the sweet peas now inv ases follows me about the house.
Just wonderful. :)
