Off-Grid in West Virginia

Friday

Linda

Have you ever the seen the commercial that asks “What does your house smell like?” I think its an add for cat litter, but when you think about it each home does have its own distinct aromas or flavor if you will. You may not always notice it as you walk through the door after an exhausting day of school or work,(for me its day in town), but its there. Its behind the scenes as you give that sigh of relief and unload yourself of keys, purse, briefcase and uncomfortable shoes.

Everybody remembers the smell of the house they grew up in or their grandmothers house. Just a whiff of a particular scent can bring back a flood of feelings or memories. The smell of pipe smoke can give me an immediate feeling of comfort and calm and reminds me of my father who would often smoke a pipe in the evening. I can picture him now, relaxing in a lawn chair on the patio with tiny puffs of cavendish smoke rising from the bowl of his pipe. Sonny also indulges in a pipe at times and it always makes the house seem cozy and comfortable. My mothers roast in the oven on a Sunday is another nice memory that I will always carry with me.

Cozy and comfortable is our style at PHF. We love scented candles, pumpkin spice, vanilla, or honeysuckle, but the best scents are the ones left behind from a good meal (fish being the exception). This afternoon when we came home from town I stepped into the house and was greeted with the aroma left behind from the bacon we cooked this morning, a slight hint of perked coffee riding on its tails. Breathing in the deliciousness of it, I felt as though the house had wrapped around us and lovingly welcomed us home. It reminded us of the breakfast we shared together this morning. Its a simple thing, but a thing that should not be taken for granted.

Every season has its own scents at the PHF  house. In spring its wild flowers and fresh breezes that blow through opened windows. Summer is vegetables from the garden and canning pots on the stove. Fall and winter are soup on the wood stove and home made bread. We do have our stinky moments though, usually because Ruby found something absolutely rank to rub her entire body in and thinks she needs to share it. Sometimes Sonny’s favorite dinner of Salmon patties leaves a less than desirable after aroma and the smells of living on a farm can often follow you into the mudroom. Thats life, sometimes it smells sweet and sometimes it stinks to high heaven.

Home… a place that represents each and every one of us, no matter wear we live. Its walls are imprinted with our lives… the times we laughed, the times we cried, the times we said I love you to someone. The scents of life are there as well floating on a filmy mist of memory. What does your house smell like?

This entry was posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Off-Grid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.