What does this season smell like to you?
With apologies to our jellies south of the equator who are in spring, what does autumn smell like to you?
I’ve got a heavily seasoned chicken roasting in the oven, and it makes me think of fall. Scents from certain herbs and spices make me think of cooler weather and approaching winter. There’s lots of pungent sage, rosemary, and tarragon in the air.
While we don’t have four distinct seasons here in the Hawaiian Islands, I was raised in the South, so I remember the seasons well. I also remember the cooking by my mother and grandmothers at this time of year.
What aromas are wafting around you now?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
22 Answers
Moist, cool rain scented air.
Fireplaces burning for the first time since February.
Pumpkin bread.
Crackling oak leaves beneath my feet.
There’s a heady smell of fall leaves now on the ground, wet with fall showers and now composting back to rich earth to nourish next year’s plants. It’s a complex scent, part decay but part rebirth. It is life in the process of living, and dying, and finding rebirth from death.
Warm days and chilly mornings/evenings and breezy here in the Sierra foothills.
Mornings are great, smell dewey and crisp and like Oaks and Cedars and pine trees.
Here in the Bay Area, it’s dry and warm, so not much pungency around. A bit of pine needles and eucalyptus leaves, and once in a while smoke.
Apples, dead leaves, and cold steel.
Rain and car exhaust, the same as it does all the rest of the year.
Many of the smells in this thread remind me of my favorite fall wines. Older Riojas, really good Pinot Noirs, Barolo/Barbaresco, and Rhone wines all taste like fall.
The best of them have this sort of wet leaves on the forest floor quality plus other savory deliciousness, like leather, baking spices, mushrooms, game meats, tobacco, or pepper.
Basically, imaging the sensation of walking through the woods on a rainy late fall day. Then you come back to your cozy house and dry out in a leather chair by the fire, with the smells of pot roast and pumpkin pie coming from the oven. Imagine all those feelings and associations wrapped up in a glass of wine… that’s what it’s all about!
@ETpro what a description! I would have loved to have you as an English Literature Professor at university, I would have been mesmerized by your command of the language!
@ETpro
Way to use rebirth twice in the same paragraph, Mr. Oscar nominated screenwriter.
So many people are saying rain. Our rainy season is over, thankfully. Fall is usually pretty dry and it hardly ever gets chilly until November. It’s cool this morning (about 60 degrees) but will reach 80 by the end of the day.
The smell of pumpkin always makes me think of fall. And hot coffee with flavored creamer, for some reason. Fall and Winter are the only seasons during which I’ll drink hot coffee, so that may be it. The aroma of those pumpkin spice lattes make me feel all warm inside, but I hate the taste.
Smells like Teen Spirit.
(Somebody had to say it…)
I almost did, but chose not to, mainly because it was crap.
Gosh @zenvelo Wish I had said that, now I feel stupid…....
Decomposing leaves, wood smoke, mulled apple cider.
I feel like I can already smell the snow in the air.
Apples and smoke from home fires.
Marijuana. I like my neighbors.
Wood in a fireplace; wet leaves in the woods and apples in the orchard. And my #1 smell of this season is the faint smell of the pines getting ready for winter. If you couldn’t tell, this is my FAVORITE season——Autumn!!
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
