Since my wicked bout with Covid in New Zealand I have had either no sense of smell or ALL the smells! My sense of smell comes in waves. And the other day after delivering another batch of found walnuts R – she is the BEST forager – R said her car smelt like walnuts.
And it did! I discovered that my sense of smell could be summoned and roar back into barcode life.
Delicious we thought! Maybe I will find some walnut oil and anoint myself! It will be my fall scent. Freshly fallen walnuts.
This morning the air smelt like winter. Multi faceted. Then gone as swiftly as it came.
Has this happened to anyone else? Can you train your brain to smell again. If you sniff and name scents?
Turkey Dancing
I had my speaker set on the back of the pumpkin truck. And I was playing music very loudly. So I could hear it as far as I worked.
And this track came on, (above) suddenly the turkeys puffed up their feathers, the male turkeys that is, puffed up their feathers and started to cobble. The girls joined in, and then they were all gobbling really loudly. And circling each other and getting all riled up. As though there were singing with the music. Maybe dancing. Mating dances. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
Then the music switched to a cello concerto (my music list is very eclectic) and they deflated. Funny.
The chickens are intent on hollowing out the pumpkin gourd I got from the boy down the road. I set it there as decoration but the chickens don’t believe in decoration!
Good morning!
It is Friday which means I won’t see you until Sunday at lunchtime when I publish the TKG Sunday Newsletter.
Better than politics!
Have a lovely day!
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
22 responses to “The Scent of Walnuts”
I’m not sure that there’s anything about those turkeys that makes sense…unless you’re a turkey
I could not have said it better myself!
I dreaded loosing my sense of taste and or smell from Covid. The brilliant food writer, Elizabeth David had a stroke when she was 49 and lost her abilty to taste salt and therefore couldn’t season her food. Her sense of smell was heightened to an extent that frying onions became very unpleasant to her. Fortunately she recovered.
I think the dancing turkeys are another indication of maturity and mating, relative to the bullying of the chicken yesterday…
I agree. I immediately thought of your message yesterday. But in the autumn?
It doesn’t make sense, but it definitely sounds like they are getting frisky. Gobbling and strutting are courship behaviour – they say it can be triggered by unusual warm or cold spells. They lay eggs from about 7 months old, but shouldn’t start until the following spring, if they were born in spring.
Well – these were certainly spring babies.
I may take a Tom and a female across the creek to John’s son’s place. That might calm things down.
That’s what I thought. Evidently they are teenagers getting excited at the school disco 🤣
I went through the smell thing for almost a year after I had covid. unfortunately mine were bad smells and I finally went to a doc because I though I was crazy. she treats people with loss of smell and also ‘enhanced sense of smell’ which is what I was dealing with. said it would go away on its own over time and it finally did. she also had it at one time and her ‘phantom smells or enhanced smells’ were pink grapefruit and formaldehyde. mine were spoiled meat, and must and mildew. some things just smelled much stronger, like fish in a grocery store. finally went away.
Oh – huh- that is interesting because in the plane the other day all I could smell was the toilet!! 🤪 – this must be the bad smell thing you are referring to. I had no idea!
I didn’t either and had no idea it was a post covid thing. it’s really annoying and sometimes gross.
I had temporary loss of taste and smell after covid, both times I had it. It came back over time. I hope yours does, too.
I remember reading an article about people with loss of smell (anosmia, I think it’s called) and smelling strong scents daily was one of the ways they treated it. Things like essential oils, lavender etc. Unfortunately, bad smells seemed to be heightened. The worst for me was not smelling or tasting coffee. I love my daily cuppa in the morning!
So funny about the turkeys.
Oh, hey…I’ve been rereading my blog from the start and randomly clicking on names of people who have left comments. Most of them have disappeared from the face of the earth, or their blogs have sat idle since 2013. You left me a comment in Nov. 2012 and you’re still around. Not only that, a couple of my followers apparently follow you, too (hi, Deb and Beth!). Small world. Nice to see someone still chugging along like me all these years later.
Hey Mark! Isn’t it sad how so many bloggers have given up. Nice to see someone else hanging in there! I still get lots of activity here though so people are still reading! Thankfully! I will pop over after I finish chores and visit your place. We are as rare as hens teeth now!!
Thanks, Cecilia! I’m always thrilled when I see another long-timer still going at it.
Hi Mark! C can teach you all about adding some turkeys, pigs and layers to your ginormous back yard. They would go crazy in Tara’s garden!
Something for you and your readers to look for in the evening October skies. Watch for this comet when the sky is dark. You are in the best place away from lights. By the way, did you see the aurora last night? https://jarphys.wordpress.com/2024/10/11/c-2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas/
Covid is a strange one…it effects so many people in different ways..
I was mulling over my next blog post and was thinking I’d talk about totally losing my sense of smell. Wasn’t sure whether it was bc of COVID or Parkinson’s. One plus is I can clean the cat litter no problem. Hahah! What I miss though is the smell of frying up onions and peppers … and the smell of rich earth and leaves this time of year. I had the ‘bad smell’ phase a while ago. Can’t remember if that was pre or post COVID. So strange to take a deep breath with my nose and smell nothing. Feels like my head is empty! Which … some might agree with.
Has it not come back at all? Your sense of smell?
Every once in a while I get the hint of a smell. But if I try to catch it – inhale and smell it again – gone. I did bury my nose in a giant marigold a week ago. Loved the hint of that.
There is a theory that you can train your nose to smell. Not sure how though. I need to look into it. Maybe it comes back slowly. Anyway I am naming smells as they float past to try and kick my brain back into gear. Trying it out.
I was reading tonight that people have had success retraining their sense of smell. By smelling strong scents – peanut butter, lavender, etc. Deliberately – for about 30 seconds each – a couple of times a day. I’m going to try that. When I smelled that marigold I didn’t at first. But when I kept at inhaling it it gradually tingled my sense of smell. I am going to choose a few favourite easy to have around home smells to try it out. I’ll let you know how it goes.