Dogs live in their noses, so the French idiom says. Every pup in a car, every dog on a leash, every pooch in the park investigates the messages on the wind, on the leaves, by the bushes.

This morning the air was still, not a hint of a whisper of a zephyr. The sun rose full and bright. It will get hot today, as we bake in the sunshine, no matter what the forecast says (cool and overcast). Today is shaping up to be a typical summer day, though cooler now than it will be later in the year.

As I was walking, it occurred to me that the odors of the morning were quite varied, hovering as they were in the still air. I exited by the garden gate past the finch feeders smelled oily (nijer seed), like grain, and headed down the street.

A block on down there's a tree much visited by bees and the fragrance of its fluffy flowers hung undisturbed, due to the lack of traffic and wind. The bees were loud in the stillness.

As I progressed through my walk, I smelled bath soap accompanied by the sound of a shower running from one house, then, farther on, the tickle of bacon in the nose.

Roses called to me by scent from halfway up their pathways. And something in the allium family (chives?) gave off a pungent tang along a side street.

At one corner my nose was assaulted by the smell of rotten eggs (SO2). My guess is that an egg fell out of a nest and rotted in the grass. Usually the wind would whip it out of range, but not today.

When I returned, I entered the house by the front door, past the hummingbird feeder, which gave off that idiosyncratic odor of sugar, and was immediately greeted in the kitchen by the welcome aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

Dogs aren't the only ones who enjoy smells!