Earth Exhales

On the 30th April last year, I wrote a short post called Summer Erupts. It expressed my feelings on stepping out of doors one morning and feeling nature bursting forth so rapidly that the earth seemed to vibrate. The cascades of new foliage, particularly the brilliant green of the chestnut trees pouring down to just above my head, put me in mind of lava flows.

Today, I sensed the arrival of summer quite suddenly again, but not in exactly the same way. As I walked home in the dark, I could tell that summer had begun by the overwhelming scents in the air. The sun had been shining on Paris all day long, and now the air was filled with hundreds of different odours released by the different trees, grasses, shrubs crowded along the route I walk. It was overwhelming to encounter such rich and varied scents, almost earthy, at once perfumed and acrid, as if forced from the ground.

There was not a breath of wind and the air was quite still so that the scents could not disperse. It was as if the earth had been sweating. Not an old, musty sweat, but a young sweat: hormonal, vivid, enlivening...