Spring autowired bean for @Aspect aspect is null
I have the following spring configuration:

    <context:component-scan base-package="uk.co.mysite.googlecontactsync.aop"/>

	<bean name="simpleEmailSender" class="uk.co.mysite.util.email.simple.SimpleEmailSenderImplementation"/>
	
	<aop:aspectj-autoproxy/>

Then I have an aspect:

    @Aspect
    public class SyncLoggingAspect {
        @Autowired
        private SimpleEmailSender simpleEmailSender

	    @AfterReturning(value="execution(* uk.co.txttools.datasync.polling.Poller+.doPoll())", returning="pusher")
	    public void afterPoll(Pusher pusher) {		
		    simpleEmailSender.send(new PusherEmail(pusher));
	    }
    }

This aspect works (I can hit a breakpoint on afterPoll) but simpleEmailSender is null. Unfortunately I cannot find clear documentation on why this is.  (For the record, my simpleEmailSender bean exists and is correctly wired into other classes) The following things confuse me:

 1. Is context:component-scan supposed to be picking up @Aspect?  If it is then surely it would be a spring managed bean, thus autowired should work?
 2. If context:component-scan isn't for creating aspects, how is my aspect being created?  I thought aop:aspectj-autoproxy just creates a beanPostProcessor to proxy my @Aspect class?  How would it do this if it isn't a spring managed bean?

Obviously you can tell I don't have an understanding of how things should be working from the ground up.
Spring autowired bean for @Aspect aspect is null
===

I have the following spring configuration:

    <context:component-scan base-package="uk.co.mysite.googlecontactsync.aop"/>

	<bean name="simpleEmailSender" class="uk.co.mysite.util.email.simple.SimpleEmailSenderImplementation"/>
	
	<aop:aspectj-autoproxy/>

Then I have an aspect:

    @Aspect
    public class SyncLoggingAspect {
        @Autowired
        private SimpleEmailSender simpleEmailSender

	    @AfterReturning(value="execution(* uk.co.txttools.datasync.polling.Poller+.doPoll())", returning="pusher")
	    public void afterPoll(Pusher pusher) {		
		    simpleEmailSender.send(new PusherEmail(pusher));
	    }
    }

This aspect works (I can hit a breakpoint on afterPoll) but simpleEmailSender is null. Unfortunately I cannot find clear documentation on why this is.  (For the record, my simpleEmailSender bean exists and is correctly wired into other classes) The following things confuse me:

 1. Is context:component-scan supposed to be picking up @Aspect?  If it is then surely it would be a spring managed bean, thus autowired should work?
 2. If context:component-scan isn't for creating aspects, how is my aspect being created?  I thought aop:aspectj-autoproxy just creates a beanPostProcessor to proxy my @Aspect class?  How would it do this if it isn't a spring managed bean?

Obviously you can tell I don't have an understanding of how things should be working from the ground up.