memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.

Scents carry memories with them. One whiff, and suddenly you are transported back to a significant time and place. I love those moments - so unexpected - where suddenly you are enveloped by part of your history.

I love fragrances. Perfumes, of course, but little things too - like the way the grass smells after it rains, the unmistakable aroma of a new book, and even laundry detergent. I am fascinated by the knowledge that special little moments are often encapsulated by a scent.

Thinking about this, I was particularly struck by the following paragraph.

Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.

- Diane Ackerman

What scents remind you of special memories?