We know well that scent plays an important role in ection of a mate and that scents can trigger ries, light up the olfactory bulb, and connect with mygdala that stores memories. So the sweet smell te Alyssum in my California garden often orts me to the past, to the long, front flowerbed at mek House, edged by these long-blooming, self- gating plants. When I was homesick or “garden- or the garden I had sold, the scent of Alyssum was “Autumn” painting, as was the row of daylilies the driveway and other features. I tried to capture ur seasons in the Tomek garden. Two voluminous, graceful Spirea bushes flanked ncy front door, and, when in bloom, their sweet me wafted up to the large south-facing windows they were open. I often sat on the windowsill of an window, bracing myself between the wooden posts, ng what was below, near or far away, never ng then that their scent was being imprinted on emory bank. The smell of Johnson’s or Butcher’s wax also still s the splendid quartersawn oak floors that we ed once a year. I got to know them well: the fine the “flame,” the coloring, every carefully laid like an abstract painting and different from its bor, but often reversed and related. A treat to the
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