This time of year ...

.... is all about scents and aromas. Here, at Pissou, the night-scented stock that I sowed in front of the kitchen window fills the air with the headiest perfume every evening. The elderflowers that I collected to make cordial and champagne the other day emit a sweet, delicate scent, especially as the champagne ferments. I cut the sage bush back this evening. It is in flower so the oils are at their maximum strength and giving off a pungent aroma. The scent of freshly cut grass, of jasmine in flower, of hay drying in the fields....