It is amazing how, when some senses diminish, other senses become stronger.

HeeHoo says I am as deaf as a post but I swear its because he mumbles and talks to me when I am in another room!!

That aside, my sense of smell has always been good, often to my own disadvantage, but usually scents and smells bring me endless joy.

Scents are incredibly powerful, and there is some evidence that your sense of smell is actually better associated with memory than your vision or other senses.
We all have a sense of smell, and we all use it constantly, whether we realize it or not. Scent and smell are two of the most important, yet often overlooked, elements of everyday experience.

Everyone has a unique "smellprint": No two people smell things the same way because each of us has scent blind spots, meaning specific odors we can't pick up on. So that room spray that smells like cupcakes to you and like creamed sweetcorn to your friend

My favorite smell is coffee brewing on the percolator, especially Kenyan Java Coffee!! They say if you are selling a house, you should brew coffee to make people draw favourably towards your house!!

People in Zimbabwe do not need to use room aromas as they do in countries where there is always air conditioning. Our windows are generally wide open, allowing in Mother Nature's own scents, but aroma diffusers are commonplace in many parts of the world.

In the USA some folk change the aromas of their homes according to the seasons ! At Christmas time its aromatic spices - nutmeg, cinnamon strudel, and gingerbread.

At Easter time its the spring notes of lily of the valley, peonies and violets.
In mid summer they tend towards scents that contain sweet summer florals, such as roses and orange blossoms, mixed with fresh fruit scents like raspberry and peach can be a delightful summer fragrance. In addition, a tropical fragrance with notes of honeysuckle, island flowers, and sea salt can also be a pleasant reminder of sun-soaked days spent on the beach or vacation.

And in the fall when pumpkins abound they seem to look for a fragrance that contains hints of sandalwood, musk, amber, and jasmine.

Vanilla is undoubtedly my favorite if I use a room scent at all.

Then there are the old familiar family smells. My dearest mum has a chenille dressing gown, red in color and if ever Gavin and I were poorly, the only way to console ourselves was to climb under Mum's dressing gown and go to sleep.

HeeHoo has his own dear familiar husbandly musky smell, its the smell of belonging, and he is always liberal with his Aramis and his Jimmy Choo although he often reverts to his old favorite Brut.

With my strong sense of smell, too much perfume sends me reeling and sneezing, and I am circumspect with my own fragrances, preferring to spray them on the back of my neck, rather than on my wrists and behind my ears, as the beauty books tell us!!

Of course everyone's favorite scents are the intoxicating sweetness of a baby's head or the drowsy, snuffly smell of a puppy. Another favorite is the downy breath of a child as it snuggles into your neck whilst carrying it to its cot.

A dawn walk to me is my idea of heaven, the heady odours of the frangipani, the cassia trees and the morning bursts from the garden roses, turn every walk into a sensation.

Sadly as we enter into more modern markets, where refrigeration is prevalent, one seldom smells the intoxicating ripeness of a fresh peach, or the pungent spiciness of an overripe pineapple, but one can often encapsulate the scent of a home grown tomato.

Lawn clippings can drive me into a frenzy of delight, and the mouldy, mulchy leafy smell emanating from a ripe compost heap, to me as an avid gardener, is divine!!

Lipsticks are very poignant to me, one particular lipstick I wore when pregnant, would always conjure up a spot of morning sickness, but the smell of Mum's favourite petunia pink Cutex lipstick, always brings forth a smile of delight.

Household scents are so important, there is nothing quite like returning to the aroma of one's own special 'pad' after a spell away. What is that smell, its poignant, its breathtaking, is it the pungent delicious odor of one's own life

Then of course there are the 'other' smells that one has to deal with in the tropics, the unsavory body and foot odors that one has to steer as far away from, as one possibly can!!

However my 'worst' is toilet sprays, especially the pungent ones that remind one of the loo. There is nothing worse than someone emerging innocently from the loo, covered in THAT particular Jasmine odor!!

And then there are Winter Smells, the smells of wood smoke, of Mulligatawny Soup boiling on the hob, of Vicks Vaporub and Choats Extract of Lettuce Cough Syrup!!

How special are these balmy Zimbabwe Winter Days