But what has struck me this visit is not the soil but the air. It is, quite simply, perfumed. I walk the familiar streets inhaling at every turn.
There are great, heavily laden lilac bushes, their flowers just waiting to be sniffed. And then there is another smell in the air. Is it apple blossoms? Spirea?
Whatever it is, it conjures up for me a childhood spent outdoors, and in the spring of the year, those first warm days, the heady plunge back into that natural life.
So it is not just the current spring I am taking in, but all the springs before.