Last week I had little option but to seek out and buy a different perfume.  Vaara  has been discontinued by Penhaligons leaving me no option but to seek out a new scent that I can wear day and night.  Apart from dabbling briefly with a couple of other perfumes over the last decade, I have never been without Vaara, so it was with a heavy heart I returned to the store to attempt to find a replacement.

The experience of trying all the possible contenders reminded me how much a smell can bring back strong memories.  Tastes can do this too and of course music which can transport us back to happier or sadder times in just a few bars.  

T.S. Eliot captured scents beautifully in his poem ‘Preludes’ and the first time I ever read this beautiful piece of writing I understood.  I found myself transported back to the East End of London and my grandmother’s house in the 1960s as it was starting to get dark and she pulled the curtains and put extra coal onto the fire.    The words work beautifully.

The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

The smell of hospitals, schools and floristry shops can trigger overwhelming feelings and sometimes we catch the scent of something in the air and a memory is triggered before we even realise what the smell is.  Taste can trigger memories in the same way.

Historians are able to tell us a great deal about the foods our ancestors ate and we can recreate the dishes of the past although many ingredients used in the originals will vary in taste and texture  to those produced today.   Archives at the University of Leeds have a large collection of papers and documents based around food from the 15^th to 21^st centuries.   Their Digital Collection can be found online at http://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/view/cookery/ and there are over 8,000 printed volumes and over 60 manuscript food and recipe books.    The British Library also holds a rich source of manuscripts and books which offer insights into culinary and cookery matters from the 17^th Century https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/culinary-manuscripts-17th-century.

Recipes and health remedies were often handed down through the family and handwritten manuscript books will often contain additions from several generations.  My cousin has a small black book of recipes which our grandfather Lockwood kept with him during his time in the Royal Navy 1900-1921. The book may have belonged to his mother, Mary,  as he has written over the initial ‘M’ with his own ‘W J’.  He was born six years after the 1879 date.  Other recipes were added in other hands later.  

According to family legend, one of the ships Grandfather  served on suffered torpedo damage during WW1 and the and the crew were ordered to evacuate.  Family legend has it that Grandfather returned to his bunk amid the chaos to rescue the book.  A rather lovely story, which I like to think is true as it as it makes the fact that his grandson is it’s guardian today even more poignant.

I am also very impressed and grateful that my slightly younger cousin went to the trouble of finding out about the seller or shop that the little book was purchased from.  Small details like this are all part of the tapestry of the past and belong to the history of the book.

So back to Penhaligons. I eventually decided on another scent which is a heady mix of floral and citrus.  It’s rather beautiful but will take some getting used to as I don’t smell like me anymore.

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I’ve been drinking low or no alcohol beers lately and am happy that they are now vastly improved and in most cases I’m unable to taste the difference but I’ve been struggling to find a non alcoholic gin that I like for some time.   A lot of them are too sweet or tend to have an overpowering sense of botanicals or herbs giving them a slightly medicinal taste.   I think I’ve finally found the one for me and that’s Tanqueray 0.0%.  Whilst the producers recommend serving with lime I liked it better with a slice or two of cucumber.  Add a good tonic water and you can have as many G&Ts as you like without disgracing yourself.  At least alcohol won’t be to blame. This time.