Sights and Smells

Switzerland is a very fragrant country: freshly baked bread in every grocery store or the Bäckerei on every corner, chocolate wafting out of the Sprüngli store, roses, honeysuckle, and manure.

Now, I realize that we live in a small village surrounded by farm fields, so what I experience is very different from friends who live in Zürich or any other large city region. We are between some crops currently, the canola, first crop of lettuce, winter wheat have all been harvested and now I see the farmers disking the fields and then they are treating with a good healthy application of liquid fertilizer. (Well, actually I'm not sure which way it transpires, manure then disking or disking then manure. Maybe someone with farming background can inform me of the usual order!)

But order is not really the important issue, the odor that comes into the house with the open window is. The last time they applied this liquid fertilizer the weather was cooler and our windows were closed. As it is now summer, our windows are open. As it typical for even the very expensive homes in Switzerland, we do not have air conditioning. Rather we rely on open windows and fans, which is wonderful most days. (Except for the fact that there are no screens, but I'll leave that for another post!) But there are days, like today when I am wondering if I have enough scented candles to override the incoming fragrance.

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