On how ADHD taught me to pay attention, and late summer hedgerow scents.
For the last few years, we've had hot summers here in Bristol, in the south west of the UK.
For the same few years, I have been coming to terms with a diagnosis of ADHD.
I'm in my late 30s.
It has been both a challenging and enlightening experience, to say the least.
One of the things I've been trying to do is pay more focused attention to the landscapes, people and things I cross paths with.
Because ADHD is often classed as a deficit of attention. But it's more to do with a dysregulated ability to pay attention. Sometimes those of us with ADHD can focus very deeply on certain topics, and other times we struggle to maintain that focus.
So I've been making a concerted effort to channel my focus, and one of the things my brain has picked up on is noticing birds, and the differences between their different songs in my local area.
I'm also noticing the micro-subtleties of the changing seasons, and the different moods, colours and scents they bring.
We're in late summer now, 2026. And there have been months of dry heat.
The leaves from my cherry plum trees are crisp underfoot. Hoverflies and wasps seek out sweet, fermenting nectar: what remains of the sun dried plums. The last strands of drying fruit, half caramelised, half rotten, cling to their stones.
The scent is acidic, with notes of gentle warmed hay, as the breeze makes its way across seeding grass tops, yellow from the lack of rain.
I follow the route of my usual morning walk to clear the mind and breathe in, some cool air before hours at a stuffy desk and darkened room.
I enter a high-walled valley, created by six-foot brambles, berries baked, and not quite ripe, golden sun waking their scent.
I inhale.
A rich, deep aroma floods my whole being. Cooked fruit, jam, and berry pies mingle with the mown softness of the drying vegetation that lines the hedgerows.
Warm, intense, and alive with the memories of another hot summer – and a gentle nod to the golden autumn days to come.
Memories of afternoon walks by a woodland's edge, through parched meadows and cracked earth, heat radiating.
Dust clouds trail our footsteps.
The scents form an exquisite composition of aromatic chords, encapsulating late summer in their olfactory music.
They wrap me in a heady cloak, fruit-laden boughs of arpeggios soar, and woody notes add depth.
Perfumiers claim to have captured and bottled it, this blackberry scent, but I wonder if they could ever truly capture
the warmth
the breeze
the landscape.
Our memories of scent have so much to do with the how, when, and where we first make them.
Researchers at Harvard say that if a scent is experienced at a particularly emotional or significant moment, it lodges more deeply: “stored indefinitely” – a bright crystal nestled into the cavern walls of the mind, prised from its place
decades later.
Same scent
bringing back time
and memory.
But for me, they do more than that.
They bring me back to the present moment, this place, season, time, and provide a welcome anchor for my dysregulated nervous system.
There are so many ways scent can help bring balance to neurodivergent lives, and many of them are not just inside the clinic room.
So tell me, I'm curious.
Which summer scents adorn your mind?
What memories lie waiting to be unmasked by honeysuckle on a morning breeze?
Or in the wet minerality of a cherished childhood river, its banks a staircase to cool, bright waters, pools shining?
Send your comments and reflections to me at Hello@amberluna.co.uk.
I would love to read them.
Ellen xx
Herbal medicine and aromatherapy for Neurodivergent folks
Neurodivergent people often respond well to sensory therapies, especially scent-based practices like aromatherapy and herbal medicine.
This is because essential oils work especially well on the nervous system and can provide anchors for regulating emotions, supporting sleep, or reducing overwhelm, burnout and stress.
If you'd like to know more about how herbal medicine and aromatherapy can support you with your neurodivergent wellbeing and improve your mental ans physical health, book a free consultation with Ellen to find out more.