20/03/2026
Memories that live in smells and colours...
For the last few weeks, I’ve kept having these beautiful memories of “la parcela 80” and my family each time I smell sweet violets or aromo flowers or mimosa in English.
Happy memories of my childhood, when at some point during the year that huge tree in the antejardín would turn yellow and carry such a lovely scent.
It was nothing special, no particular occasion. I used to visit my family a lot.
Those were the times when I would visit my granduncle and aunt and spend time with my cousins.
Nice, simple times.
I don’t think I realised those memories were being made, or how I would return to them years later with a quiet sense of nostalgia.
When we would leave and go back to Santiago, my uncle Tito would give my mother small bouquets of sweet violets (un ramito de violetas), and an extra one for my aunt Fresia, since we always passed by on our way home.
Those tiny violets, with their wonderful smell, would fill the car as we drove back… and then make a little corner of our home feel cosier for the following weeks, until the next visit.
I am nostalgic… but it’s a gentle, heartwarming kind of nostalgia.
The kind that comes from having shared good times with people you love, even if you didn’t always say it out loud.
The kind that comes from having many places and moments that you’ve loved, and called home.
What smell or colour instantly takes you back somewhere?
Happy Spring Equinox 🌼🪻💛
Thanks you for the mimosa bouquet 🙏