The Smell of Spring

This morning I opened our south-facing back door to check out the landscape and give my begging squirrels some peanuts when I was struck by the smell of spring. 

This time of year it is getting light before I get up. Even though official sunrise this morning was 0624, because of our northern latitude we have a longer period of twilight at both ends of the day. It was cloudy this morning so it was difficult to tell when first light began but it was at least an hour before sunrise. In another couple months at summer solstice we'll have daylight or twilight for at least eighteen hours of the day.

When I was fishing for salmon on a commercial purse seiner in southeastern Alaska a lot of years ago I remember the June days being filled with light. Even though the sun would go below the southern horizon for a couple hours we had daylight during that period and it wasn't long before the sun would rise again to make its circle around the sky. Of course a little farther north, in the land of the midnight sun, the sun doesn't even set but circles from low on the horizon around, over and back down close to the horizon as the day passes.

But back to the smell of spring. When the cool air hit my nose this morning it smelled of pollen, a little salt from nearby Elliot Bay and the beginning of the earth smell caused by the warming soil. All this was enhanced by the high humidity of the early morning dew. It is a smell that resurrects memories of similar mornings experienced at this same time of year over many years of  smelling spring air.

When we lived in other parts of the world the smell of spring was different and sometimes not even distinguishable from other smells at other times of year. 

In Panama at this time of year it was the end of the dry season with its smoke from the burning grasslands and the return to the higher humidity and frequent rains of the rainy season. Even though we lived close to the salt water I never smelled the salt in the air like I do here in Seattle. Maybe because the smells of the nearby jungle overpowered other smells.

Northern Japan, on the Island of Hokkaido, had weather similar to home but, even though further south, the weather was influenced by the Siberian air flow and we had snow and cold temperatures most of the winter. When spring came it was fast with lots of pollen and quick warming trends. We had the smell of pollen and dew but the smell of the ocean was missing.

Spring was more fragrant in southern Japan where the strawberries would just be coming on. We lived in a rural area where the farm smells were strong but they were tempered by the smells of the sea with drying fish and seaweed and tidelands.

In those days the warmer air often carried the smell of burning plastic and other garbage. Thankfully, the Japanese learned to dispose of those materials in other ways (now their recycling rate is near the top) so the smells of spring there are more distinctive.

In Saigon the smell of the city overpowered any natural smell of spring. Mostly I smelled dust and rain and the human smells of a crowded city. It seems the tropics have a distinctive smell but that smell doesn't evoke memories like the combination of salt and pollen and dew and warming earth like the backyard smell in Seattle.

I'm sure the smell of home is best for people of any part of the world, but for me, maybe it's because I'm getting older but I like the natural smells of spring and the memories they bring back to life here in Seattle.