About a month ago we suffered a cat attack.
A wayward cat made her way into our house when I had left the door open and then hid for two days until she was finally found, captured and returnerd to the village.

The only clue we had to her presence was that every so often we would get the distinctive smell of cat-pee.
I have now , nearly , recovered from this attack so it was with some shock that when we opened the door of the car this morning we were assailed with the self same aroma.

We searched the car thoroughly (it is hard in a small village street not to look foolish with one’s arse out on the street and ones face stuck under a car seat calling “Puss, Puss” ) but no cat came forth.

Then I found the culprit, in a shopping bag in the boot.

Now I must digress.

One of the most attractive smells which tell us of the coming of summer is the wonderful smell of elderflower.
It is a smell that I am forever attempting to turn into taste.
I have made Cordial from it, soi-disant champagne, I have a box of sorbet in the freezer made with lemon flavoured with elderflower.
Yesterday I got a notion to try making some Elderflower Liqueur.
Síle and I picked a bag full which I packed into a jar and covered with alcohol and sealed . (In a months time I will strain the liqueur from the flowers and sweeten it with liquid sugar to taste.)

I am sure that you have now got there before me.
This indeed was the smell from the bag in which we had picked the elderflower which was now infusing the car .

Any lover of Sauvignan Blanc will know this distinctive smell.

This leads me directly to a quotation from Colette which reads something like
“Why is it that that which is most delicious smells very like that which is disgusting ”
( I have searched the internet to find the correct words but to no avail )

And she is of course right, offal, (particularly kidneys as Mr. Joyce remarked), well hung game , asparagus , the slightly overpowering smell of a truffle all hang there on the edge between delicious and disgusting.