Good morning on this (finally) clear Monday.

It’s on lovely days like this that we take more time than usual to stop and smell the roses.

Or the bus fumes. Or the fresh bagels. Or the construction dust. Or the deodorant of the subway passenger holding the pole above you, armpit pressed conveniently into your nostrils.

On one recent work-bound walk to the F train, I was puzzled to meet a half dozen separate smells along just one block. Garbage, which seemed peculiar on a decently clean sidewalk; skunk, which left me wondering how prevalent the animals are in the city; cookies, which nearly caused me to detour; and burned rubber, then grass, then dish soap.

The scents may come from miles away, according to Kate McLean, a Ph.D. candidate at the Royal College of Art in London, whose research has focused on mapping urban “smellscapes.” She has led smellwalks through New York, Amsterdam, Milan and other major cities to explore how they can be defined by smell, the same way we might characterize a city by the sight of its skyline or the taste of its specialty dishes. (Here’s a smellmap she created for Astor Place.)