Sniffing Out Fall

It makes sense to associate autumn with harvest, and a ginormous amount of delicious food (squashes! brussels! fennel!). Fall gives us a feast of other sensory enjoyments too: leaves scuttling past while you wrap your scarf over your nose, getting out your favorite scratchy red sweater, talkative flocks of crows, incredible color changes in trees.

The smells are making themselves known to me in past days:

• The smell of pine that sticks to you after you've brushed past a tree.
  
• The incredible earthiness of black walnuts while you're peeling the fruit off the shells.
  
• The inside of pumpkins when you're scraping out the seeds.
  
• Hot apple or pear cider.
  
• Wood fires.
  
• Burying your nose in a glass of whiskey. (I finally tried Tuthilltown from Gardiner, where I learned all their ingredients come from within nine miles of the distillery!)
  
• Fresh baked bread.
  
• Coming home to a warm crock pot of beans.
  
• The soil under a pile of rotting leaves.
  
• Printmaking ink.
  
• Towel-dried dogs.
  
• Thyme.

Go have a snuffle of the season for yourself.