It's stinky pear tree time again

This morning I walked out on the front porch.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the sky was a clear cerulean blue.  I stretched and took a deep whiff of spring!  Gag!  I turned to my daughter who was sitting on the porch swing.

“Eww, it smells like rotten mushrooms.”

She looked at me as if I should have known better than to ask such a dumb question.

“It’s the Bradford pears, Mom.”

Bradford Pear trees, an ornamental tree that in spring, have the most beautiful flowering blossoms.  The blossoms carry an indescribable odor that evokes thoughts of body odor and other unpleasant comparisons.  This odor has prompted the nickname “tuna on a trunk.”

I guess pleasant and unpleasant odors are a relative thing.  The bees don’t mind it.  Dogs like to roll in stinky things and breathe in the aroma of urine as if it were the best French perfume.  Sometimes (and I shouldn’t admit this) if I get a whiff of a skunk as I ride down the road I find it doesn’t smell that bad to me. So I guess I will just not breathe so deeply as I gaze at the beautiful spring blooms, and when a guest should ask me what in the world could that unusual smell be?

I’ll just smile and say,” What smell?”