12/28/10 – Russet Green

Back in Washington, DC I stayed with my parents. We went on a brisk walk around the housing development via the trails that wound around it. My mom always walks very briskly and with purpose, while my dad saunters – unless he’s with my mom – at which point he tries to keep up with her pace. On occasion their roles reverse as my father assumes the character of a fox, hunting his pray with his camera, while mom strolls leisurely, basking in the day.

Because I knew this particular walk was going to be more of a march of the troops storming the castle rather than a walk – I decided to concentrate on getting odors. Given my mom and I played by trying to outmaneuver and outrun eachother, by sprinting forward at unexpected times – dad ended up finishing the race as the march hares were tired from the revelry.

The predominant odor I got several times was a very strong putrid mixed with a rot of leaves. It was sharp and hit the nose in the far back and front of the nostrils and made me wince. It came from the stagnant catchment pools of runoff water that are built at various places around the housing development. Though these areas were mostly frozen over, the rotting of leaves and reeds was very present amidst the putridity.

Several other smells included dog manure, sharp metallic smell of snow and electrified air around power transformers. A smell of pumpkin pies in the distance. A wood fired stove, gasoline fumes, sharp oils of pine trees, dry warm oil and rancid smell of Christmas trees, burning plastic, and putrid smell of a skunk. A few others were a hard dark heavy smell of wet concrete and rotting leaves, old pine chips mixed with rotten fertilizer, and rotten bananas coming from a trashcan.