Originally published April 2013

Ooh, that smell.
Can’t you smell that smell?
Ooh that smell.
The smell of death surrounds you, yeah.
~Lynyrd Skynyrd

When we lived in an old farm house, every spring we would smell the stench from some poor critter that died somewhere in the walls of the old house.

Now that we’ve moved, we are experiencing the same carrion smell.

We thought the putrid carrion scent was emanating from under the deck because we have predators of the feline species among us.

Upon occasion, they have been known to drag their pray under the deck only to be discovered by us humans when our noses detected  the scent of decaying flesh a few days later.

Instead, that unmistakable smell of dead meat coming from the back yard is actually from the beautiful white blossoms of a Bradford Pear tree!

The Bradford Pear is absolutely beautiful but I wish the previous owner of this house didn’t plant it so close to the house and back porch!

So every spring the smell of carrion from the tree takes us back to the good old days of spring in the old farm house.