Scents, seasons and somewhere called home.

Scents, seasons and somewhere called home.

 

Do you ever get those sweet smells and special scents of summer that remind us of home?

And do you ever notice when the seasons are ever so slightly changing?

When its winter and dark and Christmas and we're unwrapping presents, its hard to remember summer, unless you get a special smell that reminds you and then you can picture it instantly.

But then its spring and things change again with all the tulips and skipping lambs . And then everything bursts into life in May and June and life is rich in colour.

 I hope I don't get into trouble by quoting from Evelyn Waugh, but he had such an amazing way of describing England in the summer. 

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" I have been here before" I said. I had been there before, first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June when the ditches were creamy with meadow sweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer...

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

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And that's it isn't it? It really doesn't matter where you are in the world, there's no place quite like home and England, (for me anyway) in the summer.

We sat out in the garden at a family gathering one fine evening in August and my brother commented on the rich smells at dusk.

It had been a dry sunny day with a soft warm wind and it pushed in the dusty scent of the  wheat harvest that had just begun. That smell was coupled with hay from  the meadow in front of our house that had just been cut the day before and was just like the scent you get before  sipping a camomile tea. It was also ever so slightly damp and you could smell the wet earth, as the dew was starting to rise  in the late evening air. 

Once when I was traveling up the west coast of America, I stayed in a Bed and Breakfast, miles from anywhere in the middle of winter, in some small logging town in Oregon. The owner offered me a cup of camomile tea at bedtime and all those rich and hazy scents of an English summer came rushing back. I felt homesick.

So you see wherever you are in the world and it doesn't just have to be England, I only quote it as I know it so well, there's a rich smell and a reminder of home somewhere, for all of us.

It's the first day of  September today and I've noticed the nights are slowly drawing in. The earth smells different again. The fields are getting ploughed up and there's that rich smell of the soil being turned upside down and it all smells fresh again. Its also a sign that the seasons are on the turn. Not quite yet, we are still holding on to summer but  there's a change in the air. How long before we get the smell of wood smoke and leaves slowly drifting in the damp evening air? A few more weeks yet. We'll then turn our minds to autumn and winter and being cuddled up indoors by the fire and looking forward to Christmas.

So on that note I've broken up my  self indulgent little essay and thought I'd introduce some of our new ranges that are heading your way very soon.  We've introduced lots of the quirky animal characters  onto products like oven gloves, tea towels, aprons, cushion covers, trays, etc.

Its kept us very busy producing and designing all these new products, so we can get them out and into the shops for September. So much so that this  year, (like all the Snuggly sheep) has just skipped by.

Sometimes you just have to stand still, like we did that night in August and breathe in slowly through your nose and take note of all the beauty that is around you, wherever you are in the world..... and wherever you call home.

 

Here are a few images of our new Snuggly Sheep range that will be skipping your way very soon. They might even get bought up as presents for Christmas.

 

 

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