#GBE The power of Scent

What a powerful word Scent is. 

Scent can bring back memories of times past and it can help to create new memories too. 

You have a special occasion and you decide to use a new scent to mark that occasion...maybe a new perfume/soap/body lotion/hair product. Maybe you decide to have scented flowers/candles/incense around you to help you feel calm or happy. Then later down the line you'll discover that one scent again & it will bring back all these different memories of that day. 

Maybe you have a scent that reminds you of your childhood....your mum's cooking, the open fire or the smell of the Christmas decorations being brought out of their hiding place after a year of being sealed up. 

You may have a special scent to remind you of the first date you went on, or your wedding, maybe the smell of talc brings back memories of your babies. 

Scent can create many happy memories but also it may remind you of sad times too. 

For me one scent that brings me mixed emotions is the smell of sawdust or freshly cut wood. 

Since losing my grandad whenever I smell freshly cut wood it reminds me of his shed where he'd be busy working away on bird tables or other creations he'd been requested to make. He'd always have these old worn clothes just for his wood making & when he used to walk back into my nans house he'd smell of sawdust. The scent of it would follow him as he'd go upstairs to clean up then come back to have a cuppa & sit with us. When we'd hug him goodbye you could still smell the sawdust in his hair. 

My sister and I would always wait for him to finish something before we were allowed into the shed to explore. We'd look around at what he'd been making, watch as he'd measure the wood ready to cut & if he needed us to help him bag up the loose sawdust we'd get stuck straight in. 

When he was diagnosed with Parkinson's it slowly meant that his wood making days would come to an end. His shed sat there as a reminder of what was once his happy place, taunting us all as to when he would have to say "I can no longer work safely in there". 

After a few years of it sitting there empty & decaying, it was decided that it needed to be removed. 

The first time I saw it gone I was shocked, walking down the pathway you could no longer smell the freshly cut wood or sawdust in the air. It was just an empty space that had been replaced with plants. Yes it looked lovely but it didn't feel like the same garden. It was like a big void was there. 

In 3 weeks time it will be a year since my grandad has been gone. Even now when I get whiffs of sawdust I stop in tracks & remember. 

I remember the smile on his face when he had finished a project. 

I remember the way he'd give my sister and I tasks round the garden...mainly painting their garden ornaments or helping water the plants. 

I remember how he'd hang all his Star Trek posters, clock, models in the shed.

I remember how he made my sister & I wooden money boxes that we weren't able to get into until we'd saved enough for our new bikes. 

I remember the grin he'd have when we'd take a cuppa & some biscuits up to him whilst he'd work.

Most of all I remember those sawdust smelling hugs he'd give us as he'd hug us hello or goodbye. 

Yes scent is a powerful thing.