52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History ~ Smells

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.

I haven't been posting on this theme a whole lot, but after reading this week's prompt, I was inspired: Week 34: Smells. Describe any smells that take you back to childhood. These could be from meals, fragrant gardens, musty basements, or something entirely different.

The fragrant scent of viburnum, specifically Korean Spice Viburnum, is one smell that brings me right back to springtime at the house in which I grew up in Massachusetts.

Korean Spice Viburnum

The shrub with its rich, sweet smell only blooms for a week or so in early May.

Closeup of blossom

When I remember the birthday of one of my brothers, I know to look for viburnum to be flowering. Nowadays, when I come across a Viburnum shrub during May, I linger, enjoying the scent. It's amazing how that smell brings me right back to my childhood.

Viburnum photographs are from Nourishing Words blog. (Thank you, Eleanor!)

I also have to add that I have a similar reaction to the scent of lilacs, which brings me right back to my high school campus, where there were a couple of lilac bushes that I passed almost daily in the spring. I've been back to campus recently, and they are no longer there.


Lilac image is from Flowers Magazine.