Spring is springing?

It was glorious here. Then, it wasn’t. Now, it appears we’re returning to glorious. Hoping it sticks this time.

Perhaps the week and a bit of sun and warm, then three days of colder and rain, and now back to sun and warm have spawned proper spring though. Besides the wildflowers, we’re now heavy into lilacs, wisteria, clematis and something very fragrant that may be crepe myrtle. And somewhere on the dog walks I can smell hyacinth, though I can’t see it anywhere. I’m very curious about the output of the two big jasmines in the little garden of the rental, but will have to wait a few months, I think.

(See weird lilac growing within another tree.)

I went to visit the house-house the other day. It’s totally gutted. No back wall in one place (where there are going to be French doors from kitchen into garden and a partial glass roof). You can see through the former kitchen straight up through the former bathroom into the loft space.

My garden there is working on opening up. The Etoile d’Hollande red rose is out and looks glorious. I should have clipped a few blooms to bring back here. Next visit. And I didn’t even manage to look to see how the yellow climber is doing.

In fact, roses are out all over the place in this village except the climber on the right side of the front here. I guess I’ll get a surprise. The wall is west facing so doesn’t get sun till afternoon. Does this seem early for roses?

My tuberoses are all in (fingers crossed now), I’ve got mint and some basil plants. Onward.

This is an old village. Per the village website the more ‘modern’ incarnation is based on a number of Domesday Manors*. Interestingly (or nor) a fair number of Grand Designs**-type houses have been built. Sometimes they work with the older housing stock; sometimes they don’t. But I think the ones that don’t work could be camouflaged adequately with lots of climbing roses, wisteria and clematis.

Anyway, it’s sort of too bad you can’t distil the smell of the village because it’s wonderful. But having said that, a lot of the time when perfumes aim to do just that (eg, ‘get’ the smell of a flower shop) they miss the mark. Some candles seem better at this (eg, Dans l’Atelier de Cezanne [no longer available] really ‘gets’ a painter’s studio; l’Artisan’s Parfum de Feuilles [also no longer available – sigh, these are two of the three candles I brought with me to the rental house] smells of the garden: green leaves, sap, bit of fresh tomato fruit).

Finally, there are horses here – or should I say people keep horses to ride (which they do through the village). I love the smell of horses plus hay etc. In fact, along with that travel size of Carnal Flower I’m still contemplating whatever is the smallest size of the Cartier L’Heure IV Fougueuse. Actually, that’s a fragrance that does fully ‘get’ the smells it set out to capture. Sadly, the 70ml (well, the 2.5 oz) is priced around £240. So, really not happening right now no matter my yearnings.

So, is spring springing where you are? If yes, what does it smell of and are there any perfumes/candles it makes you think of? Finally, which outdoor smell that hasn’t been tried as a perfume do you think should be?

PS Yeast reappeared here (after weeks of nothing anywhere). So, I made soft pretzels. Came out well – appearance: ok; taste: great.

*Domesday Book was compiled in AD 1086 for William the Conqueror. It records the number of households, the economic resources, who owned the land, and the tax paid to the king, for almost every settlement in England.

**A UK Channel 4 programme about self build projects.

Sourcing for all pics: cinnamon’s great camera skills.