Club circle
Seasonal smells: autumn spices, Christmas trees, clove-studded oranges, party perfumes.
The Seasons & Celebrations circle follows the year by nose. In autumn, members talk about apples, wet leaves and spices; in December, about fir trees, oranges studded with cloves, gingerbread and candle wax. They also share the perfumes they keep for evenings out and the smells of family holiday meals. The Class on the scents of Christmas explains why these smells speak to us so strongly.
20 posts · 40 active members
harriet.hayin Seasons & Celebrations · Bristol ·
Exercise
Here's an easy one while the evenings draw in. Before anyone makes mulled wine or mulled apple juice this year, put the spices on a saucer one by one: a cinnamon stick, a few cloves, one star anise, a strip of orange peel, a sliver of nutmeg if you have it.…
dex_in_brooklyn warm star anise took over the whole saucer. your cinnamon stick needs snapping or it says nothing
nell.wattlein Seasons & Celebrations · Melbourne ·
Scent diary
Okay, nerd moment: while you lot plan cinnamon and fir, my Christmas is going to smell of summer. Cherries in a bowl on the table, sunscreen, cut mango, prawns on the barbie for the brave, and the eucalyptus going sharp in the arvo heat. The Christmas bush in…
ravi.tea Brisbane checking in: mangoes. The whole house smells of them right through the holidays.
bridie.hobartin Seasons & Celebrations · Hobart ·
Exercise
Our apples come out of cold store this time of year, it's spring here and the orchards are in blossom. You lot up north have the new crop, so here's one from the stall. Cut three different apples and smell the peel, then the flesh, then the core with the…
mags.lavender A Bramley's peel is sharp and green, a Cox smells of honey and pear drops. A lot of difference for two apples.
aroha.rainin Seasons & Celebrations · Wellington ·
Snapshot
Kia ora, spring here and the jasmine on the fence by the terminal is out, it's heaps sweet after the rain. Christmas will be a beach one, sweet as.
ingrid_berlinin Seasons & Celebrations · Berlin ·
Memory
In Sweden the saffron buns come at Lucia, and I start missing them when the light goes. The dough smells of hay and warm metal, a thin high note over the butter. Nobody bakes them in my part of Berlin, so I bake them myself since three winters, badly. /Ingrid
kasia.berlin In Poland we have piernik. My grandmother made the dough weeks before Christmas, it must rest. I can help to eat your buns.
brynn.pinein Seasons & Celebrations · Minneapolis ·
Snapshot
First cold morning raking the parkway. Wet leaves like a tea bag left in the cup, and somebody's woodstove down the block.
maeve.mossin Seasons & Celebrations · Galway ·
Memory
Here's a thing. The shops in Galway have the barmbracks stacked up already and the smell of mixed spice and tea-soaked fruit caught me in the queue and I was back at my gran's table waiting to see who'd get the ring. We carved turnips for Halloween lanterns…
cormac.bog Turnip lanterns, yes. My da's always smelled scorched by the end of the night.
ambrose_leatherin Seasons & Celebrations · Northampton ·
Scent diary
Right then. The posters are up for the fireworks on the rec, and I've started smelling Bonfire Night before it's here: damp leaves, somebody's garden fire, the first wood burners going along the terraces. On the night it'll be woodsmoke, spent sparklers and…
callum.peat Bonfire Night is the one night a year nobody at home moans about the smoke on my coat.
rafa_azaharin Seasons & Celebrations · London ·
Memory
Hello friends, in my mother's house the Christmas starts weeks early, when she toasts the flour for the polvorones in a big pan. The flour goes from no smell to biscuit to almost hazelnut, and then the almonds and the cinnamon go in. In London I tried in my…
dario.bergamot In Reggio my nonna made mostaccioli with honey. Different biscuit, same kitchen too warm to stand in.
theodora.figin Seasons & Celebrations · Bath ·
TipWhen the decorations come down from the loft, the box brings the loft with it: damp card, dust, a hint of mouse. I give it an afternoon open in the shed first, then wrap the glass baubles in fresh tissue with a cedar shaving or two. The shop does the same…
wes.cedar Same at the school. The Christmas boxes in the basement smell of floor wax and cold concrete.
frankie.incensein Seasons & Celebrations · Chicago ·
ReadingFun fact: Rachel Herz's review of odor-evoked memory reports that memories cued by a smell are rated more emotional than memories cued by words, images or sounds, and that they tend to date from the first decade of life. As a choir director I take that…
rafa_azahar Hello friends, anise takes me furthest, my grandmother's pestiños. I am six years old again. Un abrazo.
ollie.grapefruitin Seasons & Celebrations · Manchester ·
QuestionWork do is a Christmas jumper party this year and I've just pulled mine down from the loft. It smells of damp cardboard and mothballs. Any way to shift that before the party without washing it to bits? And does scent go on before or after the jumper?
mags.lavender A day on the line in cold air, then a lavender bag in the drawer. Wool forgives alot.
kemi.cocoain Seasons & Celebrations · London ·
QuestionI'm hosting Christmas dinner for the first time and I've started planning far too early. I want the flat to smell right when everyone walks in. Is it the roast, the gravy, the pudding? And do I light a scented candle or leave it?
dex_in_brooklyn onions in butter, every time. first thing anyone smells in a kitchen, even if you're roasting a whole bird
mo_from_leicesterin Seasons & Celebrations · Leicester ·
Snapshot
Diwali orders are in at the shop. Ghee, cardamom, a tin of saffron behind the till and marigold garlands by the door. Everyone who comes in stops and sniffs.
amara.oud Our corner shop in Birmingham smells the same right now. Best time of year to pop in for milk.
priya.cardamomin Seasons & Celebrations · Toronto ·
ChallengeThread of the week: an advent swap for noses. December is still a way off, but anything involving a coffee date across town takes planning. 1) Pick one of four weeks: kitchen, outdoors, shops and churches, or summer, for everyone south of the equator. 2) Post…
kemi.cocoa Kitchen week, please: cocoa powder and cinnamon in a pan of milk. Saturday mornings in my mum's kitchen.
kit.clovein Seasons & Celebrations · Oxford ·
TipBefore the Christmas cake goes in, open last year's ground cloves and mixed spice. If they smell of dust rather than spice, the cake will taste of dust too.
ravi.tea Did this with my chai tin. The ground cinnamon smelled of cardboard. The club's page on cinnamon, where most of what's sold as cinnamon turns out to…