My Smelly Neighborhood

I love walking around my neighborhood. I think I might like to be a dog because there are so many interesting smells all around, and that doesn’t even count the other dogs.

There are the seasonal smells, barbeque in the summer, fireplace in the fall and winter, jasmine in the spring. During the remodeling season, when front yards sprout Caseys, you might catch an errant whiff on the evening breeze.

There are always cooking smells, stroganoff, garlic, grease. Sometimes I pass a house with that musty smell hanging about it, as if the occupant doesn’t move fast enough to stir up the air, and it settles into must. One of the most interesting smells I catch when I’m walking is that of dryer sheets. It is a comforting smell, evoking memories of cozy sweatshirts and fluffy bath towels.

Wonderful sights and sounds greet me on my walks as well, like the purple morning glories blooming among the yellow-leafed hedges, or the delicate peach-colored rose thrusting its head through an opening in a block wall. There are the deep red velvet roses entwined around the white picket fence that seem to bloom all year. I love hearing a dog bark at me from inside its house, as if by passing on the sidewalk I’m violating their sacred territory. And the tiny wind chime that jangles joyously always makes me smile.

Come walk with me sometime. But bring a hankerchief, ‘cause you don’t want to miss anything!