The night smells so great

[WallaceinAnderland]

I love it. I'm a night owl and I don't like the sun but, my god, the night right now is gorgeous. It's warm enough to sit out in a t shirt and every flower and bush in my garden is giving off fragrance.

I don't know if it's the time of year or the heat but it's absolutely glorious tonight. I love moon bathing 🌙🌸

Anyone else?

I’m abroad at my mum’s helping her move house. I spent summers here as a child and sometimes the smells make me so achingly nostalgic, I get a surge of emotion I don’t know what to do with.
Last night walking her dog the air smelled of woodsmoke, juniper and sea mist, but sometimes it’s an outlet from someone’s tumble dryer wafting a laundry product that reminds me of my grandma.

@trainedopossum scent is so nostalgic. It just transports you through time.

We have clear skies here so far, the stars are amazing. I'm sitting out with my kindle and a late glass of merlot just to savour the flavour whilst surrounded by scent. It's another glorious night.

I was just thinking this evening how much I love the month of May in my neck of the woods (quite a long way from the UK). The deadly humidity and mosquitos of summer haven't yet arrived, and the air is warm and perfumed.

It's wonderful isn't it @mathanxiety

No mosquitoes here thankfully as I am sadly prone to getting bitten alive. I have quite a mature palm tree and it's been dropping seeds pretty much continuously for the last 3 days or so. It sounds like fountain droplets. Very quiet tonight. No wildlife to observe except for moths so far but I am hearing some fluttering. Owls maybe?

I do actually have a little fountain but the water pressure is low so it's more of a trickle.

Wow, just had a flash of lightning. No rumbles yet though.

Yes! It’s amazing isn’t it - I sat out late for the same reason. There’s a huge honeysuckle and the smell is heavenly. It’s just so calming and peaceful. Outside at night is my happy place (year round TBH - crisp winter nights, wrapped in a thick blanket are also amazing).

Yes, I love it too. I’ve always loved nighttime, and sitting out on a warm night is heaven

I am very old. This is the best smelling English spring in my memory.

It must depend where you are all because I feel like we've barely had a spring and I specifically mentioned to my friend that I was missing the smell!

@backinthebox so you mean your orienteering is an organised event as well? You aren't just going for a wander in the woods on your own. With no one to tell and no one to check on you?

I'm sitting outside and it's horrible and there's no sign of rain. The bird song is good though.

May is the best month ❤️ I'm not in the UK. I've got lemons dropping off my tree, peaches just ripening and still the last load of avocados 🥑 Also the last blooms of the beautiful jacaranda trees 💜

Oh wow MN, this is a wonderful thread.
For the first time ever, with retirement a few years away, I’m working on my decent but small garden, to create just what you’re all experiencing. I wondered if it would be worth the time, effort and expense, but after reading these comments I have a bloody good reason to give it my all x

Not all mays are like this one ! I remember a cold miserable may half term DD blue on the beach and I was sheltering under a walk away with a cold and wet soggy tissues trying to blow my nose..

I’ve so enjoyed reading this thread.

I love sitting out in my garden in the evening. I’m so at peace here. Right now the nearest rose is just incredible (it’s Golden Celebration from DA and it’s got a gorgeously strong tea scent), and right next to it is a jasmine that’s just started to bloom this week and is soft and lovely. The honeysuckle has gone over, as has the Montana clematis, but they were both wonderful in April.

Our house backs on to a wide field so we’re lucky to have the most marvellous wide open sky and we get brilliant cloud formations and sunsets. In the early evening swifts and house martins fly overhead, then later the bats arrive, and then sometimes if we’re lucky, a tawny owl. A few fields away, out of sight, are sheep and cows so I can hear them baaing and mooing away. If I didn’t have a four year old who gets up at 5:30 every day I could stay out here all night, I swear.

The orange blossom has been fabulous this year so have been out every evening enjoying that. The storm did for my roses tho..

I worked at night for many years and can remember coming home in the summer and smelling the vanilla scent of my hanging baskets filled with petunias. Gorgeous.

I currently live near the sea and some nights I can smell the salty tang in the air. It's one of my most favourite smells.

2 years ago we were just coming to the end of the 7.5 months of solid rain here in the usually glorious south west of France.

I usually go out late to give my gang of cats their late supper and treats and love the smells at the moment. I have a large garden and one of the things I try and do is to have something scented all year round. The perennial stocks, the winter honeysuckle, the sarcococca, the viburnums, the choisia all give good scentage so far, the honeysuckle is smacking us in the face every morning at the moment. Plus I am watering from the well pump each night for 15 mins so it also smells of fresh water in the early evening which is very welcome at the moment.

I'm actually quite sad here. I live in a very arid country that's been stricken by a severe drought. At the beginning of the year our reservoirs were down to 13% However, it's been the wettest winter on record and the damns are now up to 50%

The countryside looked amazing, so green. But not long before the forest fires start 🤬

I used to grow night scented phlox and stock near the back door and sit with it open all evening, but my new neighbours don't clean up after their dog...

I'm covered in itchy bites from sitting out sniffing the night air! Dammit, why is no pleasure in life without it's pain?!

@EmeraldRoulette yes, I go to a few of them each year. They are held in the winter though, not the shorter nights as they want darkness and to start at around 6pm. I love them. You are not entirely alone as there are usually around 100+ entries. The other event I do I end up entirely on my own in the dark in the mountains and forest, it’s fabulous! You have to be a bit brave though. I looked round behind me once to see a pair of eyes reflecting back at me. I didn’t know what eyes they were, but there could have been boar, lynx or even wolves where we were. When I looked over my shoulder a second time they had gone, so I shrugged and carried on.

@backinthebox yeah that is a very different thing than me wanting to go to my local woods just to see what's around 😂

The worry here would definitely not be animals!

I was having a nice sit out watching moths and smelling the honeysuckle until something started biting me.
Now indoors with the fan blasting.

It is beautiful I love it, it’s one of the things every year I look forward to it coming around again and being able to sit out and just soak it in, somehow even more so this year with recent Artemis II events it feels more poignant! 🌙

@EmeraldRoulette I do go out into my local woods all the time at night on my horse. It’s well worth walking in them at night. Go with someone if you want to see what it’s like. The forest smells and sounds very different at night. It even sounds and smells different from winter to summer in the dark. Our local woodland is doing a lot of ‘ecological conservation’ atm which is quite destructive. But we get nightjars, bats, owls and glow worms. There’s a surprising amount of wildlife sounds at night, some quite alarming! Muntjac calling sound like screaming women. 😱 If you know there are dodgy areas, steer clear. We have a couple of car parks well known for certain activities! I live near the village cemetery, and I thought that would attract local teenagers being silly but in nearly 20 years we’ve barely had any suspicious activity at all.

@backinthebox as I keep saying, no one will come with me. Not that I have many people to ask, but they just think I'm mad.