Michelle Styles:Scents of Memory

They say that a scent  can evoke a past sensation or bring back a memory. But I wasn’t thinking about the past when I landed  for the first time in Cyprus. I was thinking about seeing my youngest son, about going on holiday with my husband and enjoying a new to me country. These feelings lasted all the way through passport control, car hire and up the steep and twisting mountain roads which led to the house in the Troodos mountains where my son had his  field research  base camp. I was looking forward to eating halloumi cheese, seeing Roman ruins, birdwatching and generally be with my son who has been away from home for awhile.

View from the balcony

When I emerged from the car to hug him, I noticed an oddly familiar pine scent hanging in the night air. Not an unpleasant one but one which called unexpectedly  to my long ago memories. As a child,  we had a cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California where we used to go and where I stopped going in about 1986. A wave of nostalgia welled up in inside me and unaccountably I felt like weeping. I put it down to tiredness and because the house was in a pine forest. The mountains can be the mountains anywhere in the world.

In another direction -- nothing like California at all.

The next morning when we went out to the field site. I looked down and saw that the soil with its faint reddish tinge also reminded me of the soil in California. All around me, a sunburnt pine resin smell floated.  A wave of homesickness interspersed with nostalgia such as I have not experienced for many a long year washed over me. After thirty plus years of living in the UK, I am normally immune to such things.

And still another view.

 As we walked around, and the terrain in many ways was very different to the Sierra Nevadas, I found myself thinking back and remembering about my childhood, and all the magical times I had up at the cabin. Things I had forgotten about. I had to sit down as the memories were far too vivid.  Luckily my husband and son were far too engrossed in birdwatching to realise. It was an unexpected chance to think about people who had long gone from my life.  But I kept quiet because I didn’t want my family to consider me odder than they normally do.  Then on the way back to the car, my husband exclaimed at how much it smelt like California. My shoulders relaxed and I explained. We both agreed that childhood scents, particularly if you have not smelt for a long while can evoke powerful memories.

Oaisis Taverna near Paphos which does
great traditional food

After the initial oh, I found the experience to be cathartic, my time in the mountains allowed me a chance to heal and renew. I found I was able to think about people who were long gone and appreciate the good times. I also found solace in simply sitting and staring out at the mountains. It made me realise how much I had missed being in the mountains. When we finally returned home, I felt rested in a way that I haven’t felt for years.

Roman mosaics at New Paphos

My question to you all  is  -- do other people have this happen? Go somewhere completely new and find old  half-forgotten memories rekindled?

As a side note: I did have some excellent halloumi cheese at a tiny taverna where I even encountered the goats who gave the milk! And the Roman mosaics in Paphos are some of the best in the world. Paphos is also where St Paul was tied to pillar and whipped in the Acts of the Apostles. Aphrodite is supposed to have come ashore near there as well.

STOP PRESS
My cover for  A DEAL WITH HE|R REBEL VIKING just arrived in my inbox. in case anyone is wondering the model's name is Carson and he is repped by Sutherland models. 

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance in a wide range of time periods for Harlequin Historical. Her next book A Deal with Her Rebel Viking will be published in December 2019. Visit www.michellestyles.co.uk to find out more about Michelle's books.