Theme Day: Smell

Collage people

Today’s theme day challenge, “smell,” could take many pictorial forms: lush flowers, food, icky stuff. I choose to go to the source. What’s a smell without a nose to identify, reject, or savor it? And don’t noses take wonderful and interesting forms? Two of the noses above belong to siblings but they are each entirely unique.

Collage animals

And in the Department of Noses, humans routinely come in rather inferior to animals in what can be discerned in a sniff.

Click here to see other photo interpretations of “smell” from around the world.

Serviceberries

Saskatoon 1

The lands of the Dungeness Recreation Area are frosted with blossoms of native serviceberries (amelanchier alnifolia) these days.

Saskatoon 3

Also called saskatoons, in summertime these showy blossoms turn to tiny purple berries. They attract birds, among them one of my favorite visitors, cedar waxwings.

Saskatoon 2

People also eat the abundant berries though they can be a bit mealy. We met a Native American woman harvesting them for pies and other treats one summer and a couple of Eastern Europeans who were convinced they’d found wild blueberries. Some trees have better berries than others. I suspect the soil quality is a big factor.

Raspberry consolation

Dutch baby

I made Dutch babies the other day. I’ve posted about them before. They’re delicious breakfast souffles that I make from time to time, usually topped with seasonal fruit, and sometimes lemon curd. See the raspberries on this? I picked them fresh last summer and froze them for a moment like this, sometime long after raspberry season when summer still feels too far away.

I’m almost counting the days until berries here come into season again. You better believe it’s worth waiting for.

Roofs and trellis

Butchart Dining Room

The Butchart Gardens aren’t 100% gardens. There are buildings: places to eat, a visitor center, a gift shop. Beyond these trellises on the left is the Dining Room Restaurant where a nice afternoon tea is served. If your wallet yearns to be free there are opportunities to lighten its load.

The Japanese Garden

Butchart Japanese bridge 1

Another favorite area of The Butchart Gardens is the classic Japanese Garden. In the Japanese Garden there are classic bridges to complete the scene.

Butchart Japanese bridge 2

It’s hard to find a view that isn’t glorious. Like other parts of the gardens the Japanese Garden is enlivened with water.