Scent of Spring

So...watch the people walking into the Spring Bulb Show at Smith College.  Everyone walking up to the door has a preoccupied or blank look; then as the door opens and they enter, the looks shift to shock, ecstasy, utter delight, and might even  be accompanied by shrieks of, "Wow!" or, "Ahhhhhhh...!" as the scent of hundreds of hyacinths and a million other types of bulbs hits the nose.  OMG, the smell, the fabulous smell.  It hits you the moment the door opens and never quits as you view the show.  It's the scent of Spring.  There is just nothing like it.

Below are some pictures, unfortunately unaccompanied by smell-a-vision.  If only.

Walking in the door. Oh, to be able to share the scented air along with the view. I so wish.

A (dry) fountain just inside the door.

Ahhhhhhhhh...

This thing was the size of a pie plate. I felt as though we could climb in and sail away to another country inside it. Wow.

I could caption this, "Just when you think you've seen everything #1." I mean, a checkerboard flower?

Another in the "Just when you think you've seen everything #2" category. What the heck? (I should add that everything was clearly labeled but I was so drunk on the fabulous scent of so many bulbs that I couldn't bother recording names, all of which were in Latin anyway, rather than common names.)

Just plain fun.

The scent was so fabulous even the statues couldn't resist checking it out a bit closer.

And the scent was so fabulous some of the statues were getting slightly drunk from it.

...and tomorrow we are due to get a foot of snow.  But what the heck--today proved that spring is on the way.  Just outside the greenhouses I saw crocus and snowdrops blooming.  It's on the way, it's on the way!