Take Time To Smell The Roses!!!
Hi Readers
After many years on this Blog waffling on about the mediocre things I have been up to, I made a decision to switch direction and add things that I am doing with my maths work.
A problem.
I really like writing in my blog about my mundane experiences, and my new approach wasn't enabling me to do this.
If anything, if you want to see my maths stuff, just go to my website at
Or click on this QR code to go to my YouTube channel where there are over 100 maths games and clips.
I finally realised that I was just putting the same information in two different places!!!
So, hopefully I am back on track and now putting you to sleep with my babbling!!! 😴 😴
Today I took some time out to "smell the roses"
Not the roses in our backyard, but to actually get out and enjoy all that this beautiful day has to offer.
But first, some background.
Due to an illness in my family, I have been away from work for a few months, and this will continue for some time. I don't necessarily have a lot of extra time on my hands, but I do have time to dedicate to my various websites while I am at home.
Today, while I had a brief window, I decided to go for a quick ride on my motorbike (didn't Freddy Mercury sing a line about this??) and just enjoy the peace that this gives me.
I hadn't been on the bike for quite a few days due to the weather, but today was perfect.
One thing that really struck me were the smells that I was noticing as I travelled through the various parts of the city I live in.
Was it the open face helmet? Was it just coincidence? Were my senses heightened today? Was I being paranoid with my hayfever? Who knows!!!!
All I know is that as I rode around, I noticed one particular smell, then another, then another. This heightened my awareness and next thing you know I'm trying to be as aware as I can about what smells would be in each locality.
And it wasn't just the smells. It was the fact that each smell took me back to various parts of my life. They took me back in time to various experiences and memories, good, bad and anywhere in between.
As I became more aware of this I was keener to ride to different places and see what eventuates.
Also, before I went out, I had decided that I needed to begin writing on my blog again, but I didn't really have a solid idea about what to write on.
How ironic that my sense of smell jumped in and saved the day!!!
So, here are a few snaps of where I went and what they reminded me of.
I'm sure you've had similar experiences, and if so, I'd absolutely love it if you could add these in the comments box. Be totally anonymous, I don't mind, I kind of think you might actually enjoy doing it!!
I was riding past the lake in Bendigo when the warm smell of the water and weeds floated up to me. Instant memories of so many times as a child and an adult going swimming in dams, creeks, rivers and irrigation channels in the country town I grew up in. These days we are so super cautious about where we would let our kids swim, and even I would be hesitant to let them swim in some of the places my brothers and friends swam in. Nowadays it looks just too dangerous, and the things we did??? Just ridiculously stupid!!!! How we ever made it out of our teens is anyone's guess!!
Anyway, it was always fun. Some summers were so hot we were constantly in and out of the water. There was a pool in our town, but that was the last place we would go to for a swim!!
I remember doing my early swimming lessons in this pool, and the water was the same as the water in the channel nearby. A floodgate was opened to fill the pool, and then closed when the pool was full. Not uncommon to find leeches, yabbies and sometimes small fish in the water.
The best thing was that you could let your feet touch the ground and the instructor would never know as you could not see in the water!! But just about everyone in our town was a good swimmer, so something worked!!
There was something comforting about the smell of this dark water, evoking memories of jumping off bridges just before trains travelled over them, leaping from trees hanging over the water, or just sitting in water to escape the heat.
As we grew older, our pushbikes were replaced by cars and speedboats, and picnics became camping expeditions, bbq's, fishing and yabbying. (Overseas readers, Yabbies are like small crayfish. Lovely to eat!!)
Yet the constant throughout all of this was the smell of the water, the mud and the vegetation that grew in and around the water. I don't know if smells have a temperature, but when I say "It smelt warm" like today, it is the most accurate way that I can explain it.
Needless to say, I am not as much a beach person as I am a fresh water person. My wife is the opposite, as she grew up by the beach.
I could go on and on about this initial smell that caught my nose while on the bike today, but you would nod off before too long.
Do any of you relate to this????
And now for another smell ( and another token photo with my bike!!) Actually, I couldn't leave the bike out, as it is as much a part of the story and my recollections as the smells that I encountered.
The bike is my absolute relaxation, and where I go to clear my mind. There is something about riding it that is too hard to explain to someone who would not understand.
An old school friend who is a fellow bike rider once told me, "The ride that you don't take is the ride you will regret". I never understood that at first, but as soon as I started taking rides for enjoyment, rather than just to get me to and from work, I totally got it.
So, what was on the nose here??
It was a football ground near our home, and the grass had just been mown. Once again, it just smelt 'warm'.
Instant memories of the freshly mown football ground when I was a kid at Colbinabbin, a township of around 150 when we lived there. When the oval was mown, the sprinklers were often turned on soon afterwards, and as kids we would tear around like headless chooks getting knocked over by the powerful sprays. Throwing clumps of warm, wet grass clippings that just stuck to you, then trying to find the safest way to get the sprinklers to wash you clean, without getting hurt in the process.
Of course, we would get into a bit of strife if we were ever caught mucking around with the sprinklers, but that was just part of the process.
The other memory was that as the water began to sit on the surface before soaking through, it enabled us to treat it like a massive slippery slide, as we could run up and dive onto our stomachs, bottoms or backs and skid along the wet, warm, slippery surface. The more accomplished kids could do it upright on their feet.
And as always, it was the smell. The smell of fun. Also the smell of our sport, as we all played sport in our town, and the football oval was the centre of everything.
And finally, the smell of the bush just near our house. This was a total mix of smells. A recent fire had the wiff of ash still wafting through the area, also the aroma of wet areas from recent rains. Add to this the once again 'warm' smell as the day was starting to heat up a little.
There is something about the smells generated from the local bush. My primary school years were spent at a school surrounded by thick bush.
Even though the nuns forbade us from jumping the fence and playing in the bush, it never stopped us. It was just the best playground ever. Cubby huts were plentiful, hiding spots were guarded secretly, and just about everyone had their first kiss (or pash!!) in one of the many areas designated to be ideal for such memorable occasions!!!
There was even a dam tucked away in the bush near our school, forever known as 'The Claydam'. In the really hot times, we would skoot off to the Claydam during lunch ( but would have to be super quick as it was quite a trek). There would be lots of throwing rocks and whatever into the water, and even some bouts of skinnydipping were par for the course!!! We had to be super careful doing this, not because of a fear of drowning, but due to the fact we did not want to have to explain to our teachers when we got back why we had such wet hair!!!
Can you imagine it now if kids nicked off from school in the lunch break and went swimming in local waterholes???
No-one ever drowned, and I think the worst thing that ever happened was when someone stole your shorts or undies and wouldn't give them back, or threw them up a tree. Climbing a tree with no pants on can be problematic!!!!
Just writing this, I can smell that water, and the intense smell of the eucalypts on those ever so hot days.
Words cannot explain enough how much this 30 minute ride today has had an impact on me, and the memories that just came flooding back. I just must have been in a receptive mood!!
Also, I have always enjoyed this writing, and don't care if 1 or 1000 people read it, as it is very relaxing and calming.
I was just looking back through previous posts, and at one stage for a few months I was getting nearly 600 readers a day. I never knew where they were from, or why they were reading it so regularly, but for some reason they dropped off over a short period of time.
Maybe I wrote something that upset them? Maybe they just got too bored? They eventually fell asleep? All of the above??
I got around 50 the other day all of a sudden, so I hope if you were one of them, you found something that interested you, bored you, angered you, whatever! As long as it gave you some sort of response.
I tell my kids in my class when they are writing, to always prepare for an audience that they could be surprised by. I certainly have been, and I hope once again to re-commit to being more consistent and regular in my posting in the next few months, as I know I will be in a situation to do so.
So, until my next post,
Cheers 😁
