The Peanut Crunching Crowd

Listening to Innocence and Experience - The best of Blake Babies

Why is smell the most evocative sense? You would think that sight or sound would give the most intense impressions of things past but one slight whiff of some scent from childhood can bring so many memories back. Today seems to have been marked by a higher-than normal number of such impressions. There was a plasticy burning smell, this morning, which made me, think of our front room from when I was quite small. I used to burn plastic things in the fire, which apart from being incredibly dangerous in several ways made the whole room smell disgusting. Then there was a smell of grilling peanuts (where from?) which took me back to Bali and all the Sate I ate while I was there. Of course, the problem with smell as a memory jogger is that you are often not able to tie down the proper source and so are left with a hugely disconcerting overdose of emotion without any idea where it has come from. My day is often a confused mass of smells and so many of them seem to have a link back to what I always think are important events. Maybe it is just the intensity of the recollection that makes me think it is important.

We had snow here early this morning though none stuck so no chance of throwing number one son out in the garden with his snowsuit to see if it does what it says on the tin. Well maybe it will happen. Instead, it just kept on raining. Just call me Lt. Kije. I am looking forward to a few hours just quietly reading over the next week. That was my favourite bit of Christmas when I was a kid, just being able to take whatever book I had got as a present and sit somewhere warm to finish it. I came across a few of those presents in the bookcase (there is a second row - like sharks' teeth - hidden behind the cool covers, which are allowed to be seen). There were several books by Nigel Calder and loads of Astronomy books. Anyway, my present this year is The Ancestor's Tale which promises all of the old magic though if you want the evolution/creation debate, then go the US Amazon Site. See you all later.