Wake Up and Smell the Violets!!!

I was talking to my lovely friend Sam recently and for some reason the subject of Welsh Violets perfume came up. I remember my aunty having a bottle on her dressing table when I was about 3 or 4 and me thinking being allowed to have a dab of it on my wrists was the height of sophistication!! I remember having it in my stocking one year at Christmas and on another occasion as a gift from my Sunday School teacher. I loved it!! Sam knew exactly the bottle I meant and she knows where they still sell it :-) I have looked in vain for a picture of it online but alas, I can't find one. That got my mind in a whirling dervish kind of state and I started thinking of other aromas that conjure up memories of my childhood. My Dad's Brut aftershave!! The smell of crayons in school. Cherryade pop. My Mum's home made bread rolls, which she was famous for! Matey bubble bath. Beef and Onion Monster Munch!!! Chicken and Mushroom Toast Topper - I wonder how many e additives were in that???? Fish and chips smothered in vinegar and wrapped in newspaper - the best way to eat them by far!! The smell of my late uncle's pipe. Chlorine at the swiming baths we visited with school which I was allergic to. The smell of musty old moth eaten handbags - and on one occasion a wig - that I insisted on buying from St Luke's jumble sale - which my mother immediately threw out. The smell, and taste, of the salty Gower sea. Ahhhhhh, memories.

Some of my favourite smells now are - my Mum - she just has this lovely Mum smell!!! Coffee - which I used to hate. Bacon - say no more! Roses - although it's hard to find a really scented rose these days - what happened?? Old books, my wheaty lavender pillow, baby powder, peppermint tea, my Jo Malone lime, basil and mandarin perfume and ..... violets :-)

I'm not the only one .... I just found this online .....

"The sense of smell is the sense of emotion and memory. Years later, a smell has the capacity to bring out the most distant memories and make them feel real and up-to-date.And because it comes from a protective loved one, the first fragrance is often synonymous with a sense of comfort and protection. Years later, its scent will still have a cocoon effect: My first perfume was a present from my Grandmother when I was six or seven. It was a little, hand-painted bottle of violet scent. Even today, when I smell violets, I think of my Grandmother and of that present that made me so happy. It made me feel loved and pampered."

Me too!!! The world needs more violets!