The past is but a sniff away.

While I was doing my caring daughter-in-law bit, in Braintree, I became attached to that stuff you find in dispensers, fixed to the wall, just inside hospital wards (complete with large explanatory and declamatory signs exhorting you to sanify yourself both before and after approaching patients..oh, sorry, sanctify...no no, sanitise. Actually sanify was better.).
I felt that Father and I were potentially dangerous to each other and should be protected. (And sanified)I did occasionally get confused about the order in which to do the sanitising but I didn't mind too much as I like the smell.

Today I remembered what the smell reminded me of. My mother used to use some moisturising stuf called 'Glymeal Jelly'...or maybe it was 'Glyneal'. Pale greenish and semi clear it was.* And naturally I loved the smell. (Along the same lines as a certain generation loving the smell of Johnson's baby lotion. If you ever need to tame a dangerous, oldish grandparent or aunt or uncle, approach them with an open bottle of JBL**...they may become putty in your hands. Or I suppose thay might instead revert to lying on the floor, screaming and kicking their heels?)
Another smell I rediscovered (during breast feeding) was that of Kamillosan. My dad used to provide a small, brown, magic ointment for random skin damages, which must have had chamomile in it judging by the powerful (and heavenly) smell.
Then there was Dad's cough mixture which I believe consisted of some kind of herbal anticongestant in a water and alcohol base delicately laced with opium? laudanum? Whatever the medical profession used at the time. It was supposed to taste vile but it was amazing how quickly one became attached to it! Sadly I haven't re-encountered that particular scent. But I remember it vividly.
Vic! the powerful reek of camphor. The stuff that cut through the fog of misery during measles and other snuffly diseases. The only thing you could actually smell at all. The Body Shop did a bergamot (?) cologne for a while which had camphor in it. The EU regulations deprived me of that one.

On the other hand or more aptly, up the other nostril, my hairdresser sold me some hair crisping stuff a year or two ago which smelt exactly like the stuff my auntie Pellie used to smell of. In fact a lot of seriously permed ladies smelt of it...a kind of dry powdery smell with additives. It had attitude too...a starchy, bosomy kind of attitude. The kind of smell in which you feared you might permanently be buried during excessive clutching and kissing moments when such ladies arrived or left. "it's really strong stuff" said the hairdresser ( a girl of about 20) "and it's got a lovely scent". I think she must have had a dearly beloved, heavily-permed, aged relative in her past.

When we first got our dog I was tempted to feed him filler biscuits drenched in marmite and hot water..I tell you, to a small hungry child, who won't get dinner until after the dog's been fed, the hot marmitey aroma and the rising yeasty scent of freshly warmed dog biscuit is a promise of all good things under the heavens arriving soon.
Our current dog missed out though, because it's a dreadful fag mixing all that stuff and the children didn't swoon with joy when I tried it once or twice. Anyway, he gets Pedigree complete which is obviously better than my half baked memories and has plenty of vitamin B in it to boot.

Nostalgia
Is the theme of today's post***
Except for this one...I took a picture of some leaves in the water which was so clear you couldn't tell they were under it. And I used a polarising filter so it didn't show any of those annoying (but sometimes attractive) pale blueish streaks you get. So I had to put the ripples back with Photoshop.

This is nostalgic for me because its's from Bristol.
And this is a crooked tree. Grows down a crooked lane too.
Now I'm going to eat Spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese. The dog has been fed and the day has been good. Hope yours was too.

*In those days, cream was white and brown skin was common as dirt and green wasn't 'in' yet by a few decades...I can't imagine what the Glyneal Jelly's advertising people thought they were doing unless they were trying to promote an image of ethereal semi-transparent delicacy.
**One of the earlier newsworthy surveys found that a whole generation of adults were soothed and made happy by the smell of Johnson's baby lotion and it was concluded that this was because of the cooling, soothing effect on a generation of nappy-sore bottoms.
***Did I ever mention the party with a theme of cheese? That's what we were told when we arrived...the theme of this party is cheese..the information was proffered as proudly as if on a silver plate. We made the sort of noises that you make when any and all of the first six or ten things that come into your head cannot be said. And when you're stifling snorts of hysteria mingled with anxiety (as in, oops, how boring is this party going to be exactly?).
Aah! if only I'd known in advance though. I could have worn cream with a soft white hat and a small piece of ripe camembert cunningly concealed under each armpit.