He answered very quickly.
"The smells and the colours! The base had very few colours, the scenery was entirely white and grey, and all we could smell was our own unwashed clothes and occasionally penguin poo. When I came back it was like turning on those two senses again!"
Well I have (finally) noticed much the same thing about being at home with kids. It's like turning my senses on again. In fact, on weekend days when other grownups are around, I get very self-conscious about the smells on my person and the little people. Many of the smells are not socially acceptable, but only a few are actually unpleasant.
- Baby smells: clean skin; the full yoghurt spectrum of fresh, stale, and digested; freshly washed or slightly damp wool or cotton; and the smell of just having been crying.
- Food smells: squished fruit (typically banana or pear); the last meal; long-lasting cooking smells like baked bread or fried sausage or fish curry; mummy-I've-been-restacking-your-onions-again smell; banana skin that's been stashed behind the curtain for a bit.
- Inside smells: wooden blocks; playdough and textas and butchers paper; dusty toys that never get used; well worn teddies; the ladybug wheatbag who has his own smell; the various train sets have their own unique smells too. My contributions include vacuum cleaning; drying laundry; sheepy fleece and alpaca fleece.
- Outside smells: Mud; sandpit; bonfire ash; the mulch pile; wet or dry grass; woodpile; pine mushrooms; cold white rocks; agapanthus jelly strings (who doesn't love agapanthus jelly strings!); rusty metal things (thank heavens for tetanus vaccinations!); worm farm juice (blech); and, being boys, they are just starting to develop male sweat smell.
