Scents of the Day
 

On a good ride this morning the predominant scents were:

Honeysuckle

and

Wild onion.

Made for quite a juxtaposition of olfactory stimuli, both good.

Anyone else notice any good scents recently?

2 hour ride this morning and nothing but honeysuckle the whole way. Just biking makes me smile but combined with that scent makes for an awesome ride.

Wild Lilac

****.

Aaaaaargh yellow plague.

Ahhh, the rain brings out the best. I live in heavily wooded area, and we've had nothing but fresh, cleansing rain for months now.

(Well we've had some drying sun, too.)

:D

On the other end of the spectrum:
I rode past the Akron sewage treatment facility the other day, a real treat.

My daily ride takes me by the water treatment plant. Ugh. The odor only lasts for about 30 seconds, then I am gone, until I come back on the return trip. Other than that it is a woodsy aroma all the way. The ladies perfume smells nice when they go by.

Every day I get the sour smell of silage, wood/garbage smoke, and often liquid (or natural) manure or road-ripened skunk.

But there are also those moments of fresh-cut grass, lilacs (which I'm allergic to--bah!) barbecue grilling and just pure, sweet fresh air.

Well, you guys are lucky. To get to nice smells like that I have to brave a cement factory, manure, a grain elevator (smells like fermenting beer).

I envy you!

I live in a semi rural area.. Riding over the ridges, I smell Orange blosssoms.. Great..
One of my favorite smells ever associated with riding was climbing Mt. Ventoux in Provence.. We were there when the Lavender was blooming.. It is amazing. Can't get enough of that smell. My wife keeps real lavender bath scent..
Not a bath scent person.. However, I do like that, because I associate it with Mt. Ventoux. Close my eyes in the tub and I see those lavender fields from my bike.. Think it was in late summer, I would recommend the ride.
Want the easy ride up so the smell of sweat is not too great to overcome the scent of lavender( I mean most approaches are really really difficult and I suspect beyond my ability) ride up from the east or from Sault. Sault is the Lavender capital of Provence. Unforgetable. The smell of the fields are everywhere and hang in the air for miles. Did not get tired of the smell.
ps- In the region they have Lavender Ice Cream, Lavender soup, lavender candy, lavender liquor(bought some of that home,potent stuff). I really liked the lavender honey chicken..
Now a favorite recipe..

I just came back from my evening ride and the air was scented with lilacs and the smell of the Red River. Now I am enjoying the fragrant bouquet of a nice glass of ruby port wine.

I agree with you on this one. When I cycled around France I felt like I was cycling in a flower garden; the whole country smelt like a rose. I also equate lavender with cycling because of my time in Provence and the south of Spain. This year I am trying to grow French lavender in my yard.

On friday there was a stiff wind blowing from the east ,and that always brings with it the tantalizing aroma of the Montreal Malting Factory. The smell of yeast that comes from the east!

Also, along the lachine bike path we pass through the smells of: a paper recycling plant, a pizza joint, a bakery and a distillery.

I was riding along my favorite route, and with a good, brisk wind today coming out of the northwest, I got the distinct smell of sewer... it's just one spot, but it can really knock you off your bike if you took a big 'ole whiff right at that moment.

I tend to hold my breath when I get to that spot every time.

I don't sense many smells along the way. I think the pollen is getting to me a bit. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of good stuff to smell along the way anyway, but on the ride home, there is a street where someone always seems to be cutting their grass. That's a great smell. At the moment I pass it, my nose is perfectly calm. But by the time I get home there usually is a series of sneezes. I work at a hospital...I don't know why I just don't take some allergy medicine or something before I leave.

So many smells in the air this time of the year!

The strangest I have come across in a while is when I rode past the Tyson chicken processing plant. One end smelled like chicken nuggets and the other end smelled like, well you know, the other end of a chicken!:eek:

With the few days without rain the country side here is filled with woodsy aromas and the smell of fresh turned earth and hay drying in the fields! Come on out and ride with me in the country!

Back to France again for me.

A lingering memory of the South of France in early June and the heavenly scent of the Mimosa in full bloom, the hillsides covered with yellow blossom.....unforgetable.

I ride past a good old fashion fertilizer plant on my commute, the type of place where they use what the meat packing plant didn't use.

On a more pleasant note I mark my commuting seasons with my three favorite blossom scents: lillacs (no more frost), russian olive (no more jacket), and basswood (all out summer). Basswood is my favorite.

Had three or four good blasts of roadkill on today's ride -- ugh!

fresh cut grass, you can smell summer is finally coming to Toronto.

The other day I got a scent of skunk, passing through the same overpass twice, must have been a dead skunk somewhere, ewwww!

Lilacs are out now and you can smell them everywhere.

I had a smell eminating from under the blankets this morning. I don't think it was roses.