Day 101: Mulch

Today I am grateful for the smells that bring back memories.

I got to a daycare about 20 minutes before my last visit this afternoon, so I decided to park in the back of the lot and enjoy the weather.  I pulled in between two other cars, rolled down the windows, and started reading. Almost immediately I was hit with the smell of mulch, and along with it a flood of memories.  This happens each spring, and somehow I always forget about the smell of mulch and how powerful it is for me.  

From as far back as I remember my Dad would have a friend of his deliver a HUGE pile of mulch to our neighbors driveway.  He would spend the weekend shoveling it and dispersing it between our lawn and our neighbor's lawn.  The smell of mulch calls to mind the many spring days I spent "helping" my Dad push the mulch around.  He would shovel a big pile under a tree and tell me to spread it around.  My hands would end up turning red, and the smell would be stuck in my nose for days.  It probably ended up taking him more time to let me "help" than it would have for him to send me away and do it himself.  But my Dad always let me help. 

I'm grateful that the smell of mulch can bring back such a strong, sweet memory.