My Favorite Fresh Scent from Nature

The variety of scents in nature are astonishing and never fail to amaze me. It seems that any time I venture outdoors there is something to smell, and usually something good. Some scents go beyond just providing enjoyment, they take me back to other times and other places. Of all the senses it seems that smell is the sense that is best at bringing back memories.

The scent from nature that brings back the most memories for me is the scent of evergreen trees. It recalls memories of Christmas as a child, when we had a real Christmas tree in the family room. We decorated our tree almost exclusively with homemade ornaments, and always enjoyed making new ones for the tree. There were always branches left over, which we would sometimes use to decorate the mantle. We also always had live wreathes, which gave off a strong pine scent of their own.

In the past few years in our family we have been putting up an artificial tree, so we miss some of that scent and the atmosphere it brings. But sometimes practicality wins out over sentiment, and while I love the smell of a real Christmas tree I don’t love sweeping needles up for four months. But we always burn pine scented candles around the holidays to provide aroma and keep the holiday spirit strong. The smell of pine still brings me back to the days when I believed in Santa and couldn’t contain my excitement about the upcoming holiday.

Isn’t it amazing what the sense of smell can do? It seems like we overlook smell as a sense too often, since vision and hearing are much more obvious. But smell is a powerful and can awaken your mind. What is your favorite scent from nature and where does it take you?

Seventh Generation, a leading brand of household and personal care products, is excited to announce their new line of dish soaps that use fabulous natural scents, including lavender, mint, ginger and lemongrass. In honor of these aromatic soaps they are sponsoring Nature Makes Perfect Scents Sweepstakes, In this contest you can enter to win a trip for two to one of the regions where lemons, clementines and lavender grow, including France and Italy.

Disclosure: I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Seventh Generation blogging program, for a gift card worth $50. For more information on how you can participate, click here.