Heirloom Botanicals

Jamie Smith Helper is the founder of Heirloom Botanicals.


Glad I stopped by the farmer's market today, because I got to meet Jamie. I bought a bottle of Lavender Mist and her incredible Herbal Cocoa Butter Bar which melts into your skin after a shower or bath to moisturize. The bar smells fantastic as it's a blend of cocoa butter, jojoba oil and organic herbs like rose geranium and lavender. Her products are all natural, tested solely on willing humans, and are excellent. Visit Jamie's online shop at www.heirloombotanicals.com

Celebrity

This diner has celebrity. It was Andy Warhol's favorite Hell's Kitchen hangout back in the olden days. This celebrity helped those who wanted to save it from a wrecking crew. It now sits in the Catskill Mountains and has been lovingly restored. When I first saw the diner on the hill, a local knucklehead informed me that it had been moved all the way from Hollywood, which seemed ridiculous to me. He also told me the town had paid for the diner and the move, which was also not true.


Frank "Tobacco is my favorite vegetable" Zappa and what looks like a bottle of the popular fragrance Opium. But it's one of the other Opiums that use the original's celebrity name. I could never wear the original, but the lighter versions I like--they're softer without being too far removed from the original. I did see Frank once, and years later, I saw Dweezil perform. He did a couple of his dad's songs and it was an excellent show.


Here is an old news photo of the diner in it's other life. It was used as a setting for scenes in many TV shows including Law & Order and Seinfeld. Diner-loving preservationists wanted to save a bit of Americana, and they did. The pie and coffee is on Ched should any of you care to visit the Munson. (Located less than four miles from the Chedwick University campus.)

America the Beautiful

There is another cigarette outlet a mile or so down the road, and plenty o' liquor stores nearby. Why? Ever hear the phrase...Whatever the market will bear?

Kim, the blogger of Mouse Medicine, arrived in The Catskill Mountains yesterday, and the bonding was easy, because we are like twins, almost.


Kim brought me these lily of the valley from Lofty, Pennsylvania. They're from her grandfather's garden. Some have roots so they will be planted here.


Besides visiting cigarette and beer outlets, we took long tramps through the woods and fields, startled a sleeping fawn, watched a scarlet tanager, and found a small colony of *Red Eft salamanders near a stream bed. It's been a great adventure, but now we're heading back to our other lives.

*This is the land form of the red spotted newt. The brilliant orange salamanders are about 1 to 3 inches long and live in the forest, wandering for 2 to 5 years before going back to the breeding ponds as sexually mature newts. They have very soft, dry skin--not slimy at all. Very beautiful, and the easiest salamander to spot here in the mountains.

A Message from Chedwick

See ya later!

Time to Read

I thought I was reading less than I used to due to blogging, but I'm averaging 3 books a week, so I must be finding some time to read. The commuter train is an excellent place to read, standing in line at the grocery store too ~ when it's crowded they close all check out lanes except one or two.



Dennis says his favorite place to read is on the sofa. Lounging with friends... and having a human bring him a cup of tea every so often.



I read a story by Maeve Brennan where she talks about returning to a bookstore to find a book she was looking at earlier that week. In it was the recipe for Balzac's favorite thing to eat. He'd smush up sardines with something into a paste and eat it with bread. She can't find the book again, but goes to a little French restaurant and orders sardines and bread anyway. She enjoyed the meal. I thought about this and thought maybe he mashed the sardines with olives to make a paste. (I don't know) Like Maeve Brennan, I got hungry for some form of Balzac's favorite dish myself. I was all out of sardines, and so substituted anchovies. I had a nice loaf of bread on hand and some olives. And like Maeve's meal, it was delicious.

Summer: Cool

I love snow, and all the forms
Of the radiant frost
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Summer has at last become a season I look forward to. Now my year is complete ~ my love of winter doesn't spoil summer for me anymore.

You know those days when all of the seasons visit? Tuesday was one of those days, with a sunny scented morning warm enough for me to mow the lawn in my Ozzie t shirt and bermuda shorts, an early afternoon of cool almost ozonic spring rains turning into a crisp dry autumn chill, and a night that revisited winter with the temperature steadily dropping and not stopping until it felt like December and made us turn the heat on in the house.




Tuesday, May 20th: Chedwick discovers Lavanila's Vanilla Coconut.

The box says it is good for you, not tested on any animals, gives you anti-oxidants and nurtures and hydrates your skin. In fact it works overtime to nourish your skin. Well, it smells incredibly good, the slightest hints of Tahitian gardenia, fruit extracts and sugar cane are present for a while at the heart, but the fragrance is so vanilla and coconut delicious, it feels like summer at the beach ~ the suntan oil on your skin part anyway, and it's gourmand enough to cheer you up on a cold day. Finally it's not a kid's scent, having just enough sex appeal to avoid that. There are other 'flavors' ~ Their Pure Vanilla has patchouli, Vanilla Grapefruit has a sweet grapefruit with a gentle bite, Vanilla Blossom is scented with rose and orange blossom. Price-wise it costs about $10 less than most of what you find at the fragrance counter at Macy's. Since I got so much perfume for Christmas, Valentines, my birthday, anniversary, and Mother's Day, I had no plans to spend my own money buying any. I just went to Sephora to sniff stuff as usual. But this suckered me in. All those promises. I bought a bottle and have been using it every day since. Friends & family have been sniffing me more than usual... hovering and sniffing, giving very positive feedback. And they are a brutally honest bunch. If something bores them, they are happy to say so. If they dislike something, they don't want me wearing it.

But now SUMMER, the weather man said, cannot and will not be stopped. From now (Memorial Day Weekend) until you cannot take another day of it, it will be hot and sunny. Do I listen to the weather man? Like you, I know better than to trust him. Summer will be whatever it wants to be, like always.

Whatever happens, I plan to spend the summer pampering my body and soul with this Lavanila stuff. It says I can right on the beautiful art nouveau 100% recyclable box! It promises to give me 30 essential vitamins and minerals and 19 amino acids. I fully expect to look & feel younger & healthier by August.

top photo by Ched: Outside a Donegal Shop
perfume photo: Ched sniffing Lavanila (made in Los Angeles, (hence the name) available at Sephora and other places probably.

You're Just What I Needed!

I don't mind you comin' here
And wastin' all my time
Cause when you're standin' oh so near
I kinda lose my mind
It's not the perfume that you wear
It's not the ribbons in your hair
I don't mind you comin' here
And wastin' all my time...
~ Ric Ocasek


here's a great clip of The Cars singing this.



Those schoolgirl days
Of telling tales and biting nails are gone
But in my mind
I know they will still live on and on...
But how do you thank someone
Who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy but I'll try...
If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love

~Don Black

Here's a rare clip of Lulu singing this.

Happy Birthday Bob

A rerun of the old Johnny Cash Variety show aired on PBS and I took these pix of my TV screen. This episode with Bob as guest aired during the summer of 1969.

Laurier~Reglisse

Laurier~Reglisse (Aqua Allegoria, Guerlain)
I enjoy the sweet spicy scent of laurel leaves and reglise ~ to this luscious duo, add some violets, just a touch of orange blossom and amber ... the result is an elegant refreshing scent.

Reglise (licorice) is also popular in tea blends and there is a powdered form used to flavor ice cream. The natural root is nothing like the black rope candy sold in the states.
The laurel leaves and branches pictured are from the only indoor tree we have ~ it's grown like a weed and often needs trimming.

Summer: Out of Control

Sandy Duncan gets all hysterical for Skinny Dipp ~ a fragrance from the good old days when taking your date to The Dairy Queen was groovy. Skinny smelled like lemonade so it was all good.

Mr. J asked me to research this one for him. Vintage bottles of Skinny Dipp are available on eBay.

Gravel & Brine, Peach & Pepper

The gravelly soil of the Graves (Grahv) region of Bordeaux helps to create wines that capture the essence of the stones and gravel. Yes... think about it, the stones and gravel actually have an aroma and a flavor that they add to the wines. Graves are the best wines to serve with oysters they say, the crisp mineral wine with the briny mollusk. Taste and smell are so intertwined, and yet we celebrate one far more than the other. We forget just how connected they really are.

When reading novels I'm made aware of how important all of the senses are to the writers. But many of them don't bother much with the sense of smell.

I just finished reading a novel where a young woman is in a coma. She is in this mysterious murky world and can't figure out who is around her or what's going on. She senses people, as a presence, but nothing more. Suddenly she knows her mother is sitting very close to her. She cannot see or feel her mother. She cannot hear her, as her mother is silent. It isn't touch, because her mother has not touched her. She knows instantly and positively that her mother is there because her mother wears a certain perfume. Her signature scent. And it's not just the perfume, but the certain amount that her mother wears. The concentration of the scent along with the scent. It is the perfume that reaches her first, before the underlying human scent, which in a hospital, with all its medicinal and cleaning fluid odors, is very hard to catch. But the perfume glides through and reaches her, reminding her of riding in the car with her mother when she was a child, enclosed with this perfume. Mother. She recalls precise details of a specific car trip while lying there, unable to move or communicate.

I also just finished re-reading The Vagabond by Colette. Inspired to do so by Lee's River who was reading a biography of Colette. In this short novel, Colette mentions distinct aromas and slight hints of scent dozens of times. Her descriptions of colors, feelings, landscapes, and people are amazing too, but here are some of her descriptions of scents:

"One can gaze full at the tarnished sun because its light is filtered by a fine rosy mist. A quivering, silvery incense smelling faintly of mushrooms, rises from the open stretches of grass."

"... leagues and leagues of gorse in flower, wasted riches which rebuff even the goats, and where butterflies, made languorous by the warm scent like half-ripe peaches and pepper, flutter about..."

I especially like her description of the scent of gorse, as it's a shrub found all over Ireland, (leagues and leagues of it!)

Yvresse (the perfume formerly known as Champagne) by Yves Saint Laurent captures the fizzy feel of champagne, the blend of nectarine and caraway combine and are so like the high-pitched scent of unripe peach -- they almost capture the flavor of champagne. The other spices and vetiver capture the bubbly spirit of the celebratory nectar. Quite strong in an odd way, so use with care.

An imaginative work of art by perfumer Sophia Grojsman.
Yvresse (1993) The bottle was designed by Pierre Dinand to look like champagne cork.
The head notes include nectarine, caraway, heart notes include roses, vanilla, carnation, and the soul notes include spices, vetiver, patchouli, & various woods.

Photo top: Acrylic on canvas by Chedwick
Yvresse bottle photo: Chedwick

Revolution

As I was passing this bookshop, I noticed a Beatles documentary was playing on the television set. (Click image to enlarge)

Revolution
(Lennon/McCartney)

You say you want a revolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know you can count me out

You say you got a real solution
Well you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be alright
Alright...

You say you'll change the constitution
Well you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know know it's gonna be alright
Alright. ...



Revolution a Versailles Parfum by Jean Desprez (1989) A sweet, energetic revolution.
A sparkling daytime scent. This is a fruity floral with notes of plum, some sort of berry, rose, jasmine & frangipani in a vanilla, sandalwood, amber base. My sister has a bottle of this, and I like it. It's still available here and there, but might be off the market now.

Mooses for Youses

Arlo Guthrie was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1947. He is the son of the famous folk singer, Woody Guthrie. (Seen here with brother Jack) Woody is in the driver's seat.

Arlo has been performing since he was 13. He had an interesting time at the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, NY when he walked out and fell into a deep cable hole in the stage.

Over the last four decades Guthrie has toured just about everywhere, telling amusing stories, playing the piano, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, and other instruments. He has performed with his bright and talented children, Cathy, Abe and Sarah Lee Guthrie. Cathy performs hilarious naughty songs in a serious folk style with her group Folk Uke.


He was nominated for a grammy award for Best Musical Album for Children in 1997. And sang "This Land is Your Land" alongside the voice of his father Woody Guthrie.

He is also author of an award-winning children's book "Mooses Come Walking" illustrated by the talented Alice May Brock who was immortalized by Guthrie in the song "Alice's Restaurant." Brock's sweet illustrations of friendly mooses ambling around the hills and looking into the window of a house they come across are perfect for the short simple text. Little ones love this book and find the poem easy to memorize.

"Mooses come walking over the hill

Mooses come walking, they rarely stand still

When mooses come walking they go where they will

When mooses come walking over the hill

Mooses look into your window at night

They look to the left and they look to the right

The mooses are smiling, they think it's a zoo

And that's why the mooses like looking at you

So, if you see mooses while lying in bed

It's best to just stay there pretending you're dead

The mooses will leave and you'll get the thrill

Of seeing the mooses go over the hill."
~ Arlo Guthrie

Guthrie at bar with Baez, Elliott, and Dylan.

Chedwick Wears Gucci

Ched amused himself for quite awhile with an empty atomizer and funnel set from Sephora and enjoyed sniffing some Prada II. A mild mannered very elegant scent. Perfect for summer.


The bottle which is entirely made of glass (even the huge cap) would make a good paperweight when empty.

Very soft, yet lasting, I guess I'd call this one refined . True it's a fruity floral, and most of the floral notes are subdued. Still it has excellent sillage and a nice drydown. head notes include bitter orange, mandarin, violet, blackcurrant bud. Heart notes; jasmine, blackberry, heliotrope, iris. Soul notes: exotic woods, amber, musk


The atomizers are great for travel. The proliferation of small cream perfumes, roll on tube perfumes, solid stick perfumes and perfume compacts are due to the airline's restrictions. If you prefer your own liquid perfume, atomizers the way to go.

Random Notes

I was given a generous sample of Versace by Versace (2007)
and have been wearing it the last few days. The idea that there is a note called "Living Dew Drop" in it just makes me smile ~ although I don't think I could pick it out in a crowd of notes. It also has notes of Azalea, Wisteria, Lotus,Orchid, Jasmine, Amber, Musk, Woods, and Vetiver. I think I'll wear it again tomorrow.

"I like perfume and flowers."
~Donatella Versace



"I hate flowers - I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe







I'm going away for a few days, but blogger has this option of posting scheduled posts, so I may post a couple of perfume reviews to be published while I'm gone.


Here is what I found blooming in The Catskill Mountains last weekend: assorted apple blossoms,two headed daffodils, wild strawberry, grape hyacinths, dandelions. The lilacs are going to bloom soon. The blueberries have their little white bell blossoms and the plum and pear trees are gorgeous too. It's a pretty high elevation by Catskill standards, so spring comes a bit later, which is very pleasant.

Top photo: Maple pods still connected in Catskills
Next photos: Tiny Turkish tulip, Chedwick, Fleurs du Catskills

We're Bored / Quiz Relief

We're bored. We've napped and we've eaten salmon, we've watched the birds... please make us un-bored ~ let us smell some stuff.


I'm thinking that Mercurie nearly aced the quiz as he said distinctive which is close to most recognized. Close enough.

The answer to yesterday's Quiz de Chedwick was this: in several blind smell tests (one was done at Yale University) Coffee was overwhelmingly the most recognized smell among large groups of Americans that were tested. Peanut butter, Ivory Soap, cigarette butts, and the other items shown were also among the most recognizable-- test subjects recognized these scents while failing to recognize most unprocessed scents found in nature, like lavender for example. These studies will have to be updated as new generations may not have the ability to recognize scents that were common for baby boomers.

In a blind floral study, participants who claimed to be very familiar with garden flowers, and several women who named fresh lavender as their favorite smell were not able to recognize a stalk of fresh lavender, even when several slightly different types of freshly picked lavender were presented to them. Most of the women said it smelled terrible, others said it was slightly unpleasant. So much for fresh lavender being their favorite. More likely they were thinking of lilacs or a muted lavender moisturizer. Overwhelming praise for lavender until the real thing was presented to them.


Most lavender perfumes are muted by the many other notes that go into a perfume.
Penhaligon's Lavandula is the truest lavender I know in a perfume or bath oil (besides the actual essential oil or absolute.)


Another question for you~ how many different notes does the average perfume have?

Yet another question ~ who has a good recipe for lavender roast chicken, lavender lemonade, or a lavender dessert item?

Quiz de Chedwick

Trivia Question: What do these items have in common?





Photo by Ched:
(coffee, Vick's Vaporub, dry cat food, cigarette butts, Ivory Soap, cinnamon, chocolate, peanut butter, and crayons)

Evocation of a Nap

Taking the day off to just to recall past naps and catch up on reading other blogs.

Code Orange

Queen of the Mayhem has started to wear Code. (I've been meaning to review it for some time now.)

Armani Code for Her (2006) Main Perfumer: *Carlos Benaim, with Dominique Ropion & Olivier Polge.

Head Notes: A blend of sweet and bitter Oranges with Sambac Jasmine.
Heart Notes: Neroli Absolute (Orange Blossom) with Fresh Ginger.
Soul notes: Amber, Honey, Vanilla, Rare Woods.

Has enough mystery & charm to catch and keep your attention ~ with all of the perfumes out there, that isn't easy to do.
woodsy & sweet, very wearable, with a smooth drydown.





*Carlos Benaim is most famous for creating the original Polo by Ralph Lauren back in 1978, an outdoorsy yet preppy scent, which is still very popular thirty years later. He has won many awards for his work in perfumery.

Mother's Day

This bottle belongs to Kimy's mom, who just decided to save this particular bottle, rather than open it. She's an elegant woman who has had a number of favorite perfumes, and this is one of them.

The House of Caron introduced Bellodgia in 1927. The perfumer, Ernest Daltroff was inspired to create this perfume after a trip to Italy. He was vacationing in Bellagio on Lake Como and visited the gardens of Villa Serbellnio. A creamy soli ~ floral, sophisticated and romantic, Bellodgia is almost seductive, but takes a slight detour to lighthearted. Daltroff called it his "Carnation in the morning sunshine." The bottle was designed by Félice Wanpouille Bergaud.

Daltroff's love of perfume began when he was a small boy watching his mother at her dressing table. As she prepared to go out for the evening, she turned to her young son and playfully dabbed a bit of perfume behind his ear. It was a moment in time he would never forget, and these moments were like small poems to him. Each scent he created was based on a happy moment in his life.

Head notes: Carnation
Heart notes: Bulgarian Rose, Carnation, Jasmine
Soul notes: Vanilla, Sandalwood

Carnations were always considered the symbol of mother's day. Wearing a white carnation was a tribute to a deceased mother, while pink carnations honored all moms. The first Mother's Day was celebrated in 1907, where the tables were decorated with vases filled with carnations. The flowers get their name from the word coronation. (Certainly many mothers are deserving of a crown.)
In 1914 Woodrow Wilson made Mother's Day an official holiday, and later a postage stamp depicting Whistler's mother with a vase of carnations was issued.



This quote below reminded me of my own mother, who was beyond generous. (She was outspoken, street smart and tough, with a wicked sense of humor, but never had any trouble with neighbors, co-workers, strangers or in-laws. I noticed that everyone seemed to like her a lot. She was open minded and elegant, I never saw her act condescendingly towards anyone or boast about anything. She forgot her troubles by nurturing others trusting that things would work out okay in the end.)

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."
~Tenneva Jordan

(My mother liked pie a lot and was a gifted pie maker, but her specialty was éclairs .)

Perfume photo by Kimy

The Blue Crayon

How did that get there??
I really like crayons. They're fun to roll across the floor. You can spin them too.



And they smell good. They all smell good, but I think the blue ones smell the best.

Crazysticks & Pomelos

Crazysticks are stick style solid perfumes by Crazylibellule & The Poppies. I know the company sounds like it's a band from the psychedelic era, but perfumery is getting very weird.


The perfume business is getting to be like the music business was in the late 60's. ( Anyone could make an album which was sometimes good, execs making a fast buck off of anything, not so good.) Perfumes are pouring onto to the scene like Melanie Lps. Melanie's 'handlers' encouraged her to spend time practicing and messing around in the studio. Once she left them to form her own company, they took the tapes and humiliated her by pressing quite a few really bad Melanie albums. Meanwhile, back at her own record company, Melanie put out an Lp that had a scratch and sniff cover. The scent that emanated from the Lp was a light floral.


Try finding the 'bad' Melanie albums now. Some of them don't even make any of the lists on the many Melanie fansites~ and when the flower power petals settle a dozen years from now, we'll see which of the new perfumes can stand and boast: "I'm still in Production!" If 900 new perfumes flood the market this year, how many will be fondly remembered 40 years from now?

My favorite Crazystick is Dans tes Bras Crazystick ~ Pinkberry! ~ I don't know if the Pinkberry craze is still happening, but here it appears in a perfumed stick. Head notes of juniper berry and pink berry;  Heart notes of peach, cedar and patchouli; and Bottom notes of amber and musk.


Pomelo is a note I now keep seeing pop up in perfumery. I ate my first pomelo just this last winter. Someone gave me this piece of fruit and I looked at it and said "What is this thing?" they said "Whatever do you mean? it's a mango--you love mangos!" I started to peel it muttering "This sir, is no mango..." It was nothing like a mango. more like a mild and sweet grapefruity type of fruit. It was a pomelo.

A Pomelo market in Singapore, where hundreds of businessmen frantically buy, sell, and trade pomelos.

Parfum Platine by Dana

Parfum Platine had little flecks of platinum in the bottle. We used to shake it like a snow globe. My 'Martha Stewart-ish' sister received a gift set that included Platine, Tabu, Ambush, Emir and VooDoo. All of which smelled good to me, but then I was in grade school at the time. Martha took the scents very seriously, Tabu was forbidden to be worn except on a date with a boy you were going steady with. Platine was the scent of a rich glamour girl who lived on Park Avenue and wore jewelry from Harry Winston ~ a strictly special occasion scent. Ambush was for casual wear, and Emir was for models hanging out in cafes in Paris, France. This meant it could be worn to a dance or to her after school art class. As for VooDoo, it was never to be worn before midnight. My sister had many theories about perfumes and fashion and enjoyed expounding upon them in conjunction with penthouses, expensive cars, jewelry and the high life in general.

Emir was a spicy oriental and Ambush a nice floral. I'm just recalling how they smelled on my sister, and on her clothes, and by sniffing the bottles. Tabu was sweet. She remembers VooDoo as having strength & aldehydes, Platine was soapy. I used to think of perfumes as either edible, soapy or flowery when I was a kid. Not knowing how else to categorize them, I just had those 3 groups in my head. Then of course I had blends, such as the soapy floral... which was Platine.

Platine was meant to make women think of diamonds set in platinum bands or the glamour of platinum blonde hair.

Ambush and the other Dana scents came in a variety of bottles. The designs were ultra mod by the 1970s, my favorite design was a solid colored Genie's style bottle.


A scary image for any man.



I've had this little violin shaped bottle of Tabu for quite a few years. We've never been able to get the cap off. Even the strongest most self confident man is afraid of accidentally getting Tabu all over himself.

Scented Trees

I picked a blossom off of this tree and tucked it into an outside pocket on my handbag. Shortly after, a woman approached me and pointed to my bag. "Where did you get that flower?" I told her from a tree around the corner, she wanted to know where this tree was and told me it was a sacred flower. What could I say? I smiled and said it smelled sweet and too sharp at the same time. She told me it was good luck to have it, and went off to find the tree to get a blossom for herself.

Last year I was waiting for someone in a park, and started sniffing the air... the blossoms on a nearby tree smelled really good. But when I approached the tree and sniffed, the blossoms weren't exuding any perfume at all. Then I saw the source: a small woman dressed in grey sweats pacing back and forth on the other side of the tree. I thought I recognized her scent as something by Dior, so I asked what she was wearing. It was J'Adore. (That stuff is fine.) She was wearing way too much, but you can't tell a person that. Good thing it was a breezy day.

From Sephora's website: J'Adore notes:
Mandarin, Champaca Flowers, Ivy, African Orchid, Rose, Violet, Damascus Plum, Amaranth Wood, Blackberry Musk.
Style: For the confident, sensual woman who celebrates her femininity - this is Dior's golden girl.





I hope Dan the Tree Man stops by to identify these trees.