Background Noise: Down Where The Green Grass Grows by Jed Marum
After
my perilous climb to my office this morning (all the way up to the third floor!), I opened my office door, and was greeted by a fantastic smell - the hyacinths that I brought in yesterday are in full bloom - it smells like a little spring garden in my office now! I love it - as the days get nicer it gets harder and harder to be in an office all day - but if I open the windows and smell my flowers, I can almost pretend I'm not here. Almost. Except for the phone, the email, and the flow of students in and out of my office... I just hope no one has really horrible spring allergies. I like my plant. The other day I was driving home in the late afternoon, and I always take College Road - which consists of a 1-2 mile stretch straight through the university farms. In the spring, another rather potent odor is detectable there - the smell of natural fertilizer (ie, some kind of animal poop). The weird thing was - that I was excited to smell it! The smell of manure is the harbinger of springtime!!
3 thoughts:
Ah, yes, I drove through that yesterday as well. It always reminds me a friend years ago who loved the smell. He grew up on a farm and said it smelled sweet to him.
Excellent use of the word "harbinger". The only time I've ever used it is in choir - twice I've sung songs with the word in it. I just love vocab. :)
Thanks - I had to look it up to make sure I was using it correctly... That word actually always makes me think of the Friends episode where Ross visits the San Diego Zoo to try to find Marcel (the monkey). The creepy zoo guy says something about bats being "winged harbingers of the night." Makes me laugh. Oh, Friends.
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