Scents for a Chilly Spring

Hi, everyone!  Musette here, filling in for Tom who took a fall RIGHT TO THE FACE! yesterday.  Luckily nothing is broken but I suspect he is feeling a bit ‘fragile’.  I would be shrieking like a 3rd grade girl!  There are all sorts of things I don’t like about my face but ‘intact’ is definitely not one of them.  Send him some ‘get better’ wishes!

poor baby!

So…about the headline.  The past few weeks we’ve seen unseasonably warm temps, which has pushed a lot of things to the fore – I have tulip and iris leaves nearly mature and neighbors’ crocuses are already abloom (mine are in a shady area so it’ll be awhile longer for me).  My seedlings are coming along like mad and tra la la, it’s Spring!

Until today. Yesterday I spent several backbreaking hours in shirtsleeves, hoeing out overwintering weeds in the original veg garden, laying down weed barrier, etc.  I was so intent on the rippage that I didn’t realize I’d hoicked up a hibernating toad!  Poor thing.  I thought I’d injured him but there was none of that telltale Nasty Shoes marine note that signals a squashed toad.  I apologized, put him back in the space.  I was worried because he wasn’t moving, then I remembered he’s still hibernating, you idiot! so I covered him up with a bit of dirt and left him alone.  I came out this morning to check and he was gone so I am hoping he went back into his toad-hole.  Good thing, too, because the weather turned blustery – then downright nasty.  We’re due to get some rain, some hail and possibly some snow.  Now, knowing how much I hate Winter you’d think I would be appalled at this sudden turn of events – but I’m not.  While I hate Winter I also like the slow progression of seasons.  Those years we’ve bypassed Spring altogether were saddening.  Lilacs blooming on Monday and by Wednesday afternoon they are spent.  Sad.  My neighbor’s tulips, which she planted along the walkway 30 yrs ago, up and dead in a day.  Ick.  Spring in the Midwest should be cool, wet, a gradual warming up of the soil so the forsythia can take its time and the toads that don’t get hoicked out of the ground have a chance to pull themselves together.   Now is the time to wear those scents that only work in the chiaroscuro of a cool Spring.  I’ve waited all year to wear them, so I’m glad I get a chance to don a sweater and have my heathery moment.

Violets and Rainwater.  Yes.  YES.  I KNOW.  Shut up about it already.  I KNOW.  But, truly, it’s the perfect Spring scent – but only in cooler weather.  Violets, for me, turn a bit woozy when it gets above 65F (max) and V&R is a true violet perfume.  And the dirt is dark and wet, like CB I Hate Perfume’s Black March.  Both of those scents require a bit of a brooding sky and a light, wet, wind.

http://comenius-legends.blogspot.com

Delrae Roth’s Mythique and LeLabo’s Iris 39.  Again with the ‘brooding’ but with these a bit of sunshine and dry weather is just fine.  Both of these are the essence of a perfect Spring day, where you need a jacket and you’re glad of a light scarf but you don’t have to wear 4 layers and 2 pairs of socks.  These are the scents that I wear for a walk up Bullycow Hill, knowing there’ll be a pot of tea and a few gingersnaps when I return.

A slightly warmer, rainy day calls for Diorella or The Different Company’s Charms & Leaves (Charmes et Feuilles), the minty jasmine scent that reminds me of little crystal windchimes & rain chains.

http://www.livinggreenandfrugally.com/

That cold snap, where you fear you’ve put out your broccoli a tad too early……is the hailstorm gonna tear it to bits?  Those days are the days for the unusual, gorgeous Ambra Grisea; I adore this scent but it’s a rough row to hoe – I can only wear this is early Spring and late Autumn when a toggled pea coat & scarf is a necessity (at least in my mind)  – and the skies have to be blustery and gloomy so I can feel all Heathcliff and Cathy and windswept moors…… it’s absolutely perfect then.  Try it in 70F and it feels like walking around with concussion (which I have done – it’s disorienting, to say the least).

people.emich.edu

There are more but these are the Big Ones – the ones I can only wear during this time of year.  And I love them to bits and am so happy we are not transitioning to 80F in March.  There really is, to everything, ‘a season’.  And this is the Season for these challenging beauties.

What about you?  What’s your weather like and what are you wearing for it?