#13 Summertime Smells

I’ve always found when the air is warm it tends to spread the smells of nature around with more umph than the cold and rainy days of winter.  This is the first of many posts, I hope, to

focus on this often ephemeral sense.  Our ability as humans to pick up these chemicals from the air and translate them into something not only meaningful but beautiful is  one that brings me such joy that it rivals my love of  the sights that the natural world has to offer. 

Today, a celebration of the smells of a summer's day upon the ridges of the Santa Cruz Mountains.  

As the morning breaks and the earth begins to warm, the air smells sweetly of grasses swaying in the breeze.  Different from the strong scent of freshly cut grass, this effervescent odor is warmer, drier, and even more welcoming.  The native grasses of this land were once an important food source for its people, and still we eat many products created from agricultural grasses today. 

Wandering down through the grasslands, patches of Pennyroyale form a cloud of clean-smelling minty fresh air about them - the sun warming their leaves and flowers.  I came across a particularly happy patch this morning that was growing next to a small Vernal Pool known as Lori’s Pond. Its minty fresh cloud drew me in from a few feet off. The light breeze carried the scent to me and me to find the beautiful patch of little purple flowers.  

As the habitats around me shift patches of Coyote Bush begin to populate the trailsides and growing low beneath their branches is one of the stinkiest of all the summer smells, Skunk Weed.  This plant is true to its namesake and can be smelled from many yards away.  You may wander past thinking someone has a secret patch of something else growing nearby.  Crouch down low, however, and you may notice these spikey little balls of purple flowers by the trailside. 

Get out there and give the world a good sniff.  It's summertime, and the smells are out to be enjoyed - though perhaps not the skunk weed.