Well! And how’s THAT for an intriguing headline, eh?
The Winners part: La Pays de la Fleurs d’Orange giveaway from Beautyhabit! Spring..Pansy! Koyel! Akatchoom! Gmail the Evilauntieanita with your details and I will get the lovely scents out to you!
The Whiners part: Me. Me. and …well, me.
After the lovely, hot-as-balls trip to Santa Fe I came home to a garden that looks like something out of Jurassic Park. And a new bedroom window. Note to self: never leave in July. It’s one of those weird gardening months in that Everything Happens. One of my peach trees ripened all in a day and we had to get them picked NOW! before the Japanese Beetles found them; we lucked out – only 1 in 10 had beetle damage. Those vicious little freaks are the bane of my existence and the only thing I enjoy more than killing them is killing a LOT of them! They are tearing into the tender skins of my nectarines and it’s hand-to-claw combat each evening, trying to rip their shiny little heads off before they can burrow into the ripening fruit. I’m not squicked out enough to destroy fruit that has a few JB chunks taken out but it would be nice to have at least some blemish-free to give to friends. So I’m up at o’dark-thirty, taking almost ready nectarine off the branches and bringing them in to finish ripening. The flies are loving that but at least I don’t have ants, right?
Scent of the Day: Stone Fruit. Sticky, cloying, gorgeous, glorious – and an ‘unusual’ scent. I sprayed some vintage Mitsouko, hoping to identify the ‘peach’ note that is so celebrated. I love Mitsouko but I confess to not being able to deconstruct it – but perhaps that’s the beauty of it! I catch elusive whiffs of a peachlike note but I can’t identify it alongside an actual peach. Perhaps it’s the blossom? They are fragrant, indeed, but not easily identifiable – at least not to this pedestrian nose. Real peaches? Don’t wanna wear them – but I’m in the middle of peeling a bushel of them so I’m wearing it whether I want to or not.
Meanwhile…during my week away we had 100F heat and torrential rains which is why T-Rex is out there stomping and roaring in the vegetation. My lilies went freakin’ BONKERS! Casa Blanca, never the shyest in the bunch, threw a fit with at least 12 blooms. Twelve. One of the most fragrant of lilies with 12beautiful12 blooms. Because of the intense heat I cut the stems and brought them inside. ‘Does your house smell like a funeral home?’ I was asked. ‘No. No it doesn’t. It smells like a brothel’ – and it does (my mom’s aunt ran a high-end brothel and my mom used to describe the scent of that house). Imagine all that perfumed flesh, with a hint of powder, a touch of rank sweat, floral soap and intense sexuality. All in my living room. I feel like I should break out the Manolos and the red lipstick!
Oh! The window. Why am I whining about the brand-new window that I asked for? Well…it’s in, it’s gorgeous. But El O took down the hardware for the blinds….and I can’t find the Summer curtains! Um. It’s….weird. Sleeping in front of a not-covered window. On the ground floor. It’s just weird. I’m that creeped-out gal who closes the blinds at the first hint of dusk. Can you imagine? This is really freaking me out. I can’t find ANY of my Summer curtains. This is a very small house. They are not upstairs and the only thing in the basement is a disoriented toad and the remnants of my shattered dreams (it’s kinda spooky down there, though I suspect it is now bug free!)
Tell you what: drop a comment re where my curtains might be (and/or whether I should maybe sleep on the floor until I find them) – I’ll pull a couple of winners and send out some goodies! How can you lose curtains in a tiny house?
I hate when I put something away so that I will find it easily when I need it, then I forget where I put them? The most logical place I think would be in the linen closet, prob under all those winter blankets.