Nothing wrong with the smell of bacon IMO! I could handle bacon cologne & perfume. Far better than that jug perfume in which old women insist on marinating themselves. Guess they're trying to cover up the "old people" smell. I have avoided scented detergents for a long time and haven't used fabric softener for 10 years or more. I don't like my clothes to smell. When they smell, it tells me to wash them. And the detergent aisles make me cough. AFAIC they should have the detergent and sell the little bottles of stench you can add to it. But if you've ever been around old people, there's a lot of them who can't have a sense of smell. And IMO lilacs should be outlawed as a noxious weed. It's certainly an obnoxious weed. That is probably the worst stench there is.

If "gas meter thing"plumber brought is for detecting natural gas I believe you are on the right track. The utility companie's line might be leaking with gas following your servce line into dwelling. Adding propane to raise line pressure during coldest part of day is common pratice. If you feel compelled to help plumber locate the problem try this. Fold a clean cotten cloth several times and hold it against outlet of grill tank. Make certain to keep tank upright then open valve for 2 or 3 secounds. Does cloth smell similar to odor in basement?

I'm having the same issue except I live in an apartment building with central air. Depending on what, where, how, when, why --- your apartment could be surrounded by other apartments, with other people and their living habits. Typically an apartment is separated by a sheet rock wall... there could be small cracks or gaps at the base of those walls, thru flooring possibly and or other possibilities. (They are often built *cheap* for the lack of a better more beautiful word that someone won't be offended by... *usually the builder or the apt. owner*) I say this because we might draw a builder into this conversation. LOL. (fine dining, fine accommodations, contractual obligations don't spell anything good for apartment owners.) When AC / Heat turns on in your apt. as well as other apts near yours the rooms of such are blown up like balloons and in some cases sucked into a vacuum drawing air anywhere from whence it can get it. If one apt is blowing and another apt is sucking? GIGO. Garbage In / Garbage Out... the net result is more or less smells collide among other things like odd noises. This is yet another reason why apartment living isn't for everyone. Not to knock you, but to give you context as to WHY?

Well, Cath, I'm not sure about a book... but I did at one point have a one act children's ballet sketched out in in my mind in which all these characters come to life and dance and interact with a child whose mother has just been going through the garden with her, telling her all about the old roses and their names and back stories. Mother goes back indoors, and the garden kind of melts away, morphing into a grand ballroom where the little girl meets everyone 'in the flesh'. Lots of opportunities for delicious costumes, nice little 'character' solos, mimes and pas de deux's etc ensue... until, of course, she ultimately finds herself back in the garden, curled up on the garden swing, having been asleep and dreaming... KS, I must apologise again for going so far OT - I think I probably should have started a separate thread to indulge my fantasies. But there again. who knows where such delicious photos of old roses will take us... :-)