Ah, Joni

I had the Joni Mitchell song Circle Game in my head this morning when I was writing this. I love a small portion of her stuff (California, Blue, River – clearly mostly from the album Blue). I’m an optimist by nature and inclination, but right now that’s being tested for a variety of reasons (see below). I expect many of us are having our boundaries pushed currently and personally I don’t think late autumn into winter and the holiday season is a great time for such things to happen.

Last week was irritating and stressful. Just as I was thinking about perhaps a graceful descent to the winter solstice and the holidays one of the other people who covers the client I work for Monday-Tuesday early shifts said she was unwell and couldn’t work the Wednesday-Friday shifts she covers. She gave no notice (ie, she did this Tuesday afternoon) and said she needed to be off for a month. And, no, she doesn’t have Covid.

The guy I work for is nice but in some ways inept – he sets systems up and then goes on to the next thing. Meaning that if something goes wonky he doesn’t have backups (when discussing this situation he did say, to his credit, “this is my problem” before we rescued him). Thus, the third person who works this client (and works US daytime) and I have divided up the Wednesday-Friday shifts for the next month. We did make it clear though that if second person bails totally neither of us is prepared to continue in this vein after the new year. So, he needs to keep on top of whether person two is returning and if not figure something out before 2021.

At least I’ve gotten further on the garden. Moved the wisteria to the shadier side, where a clematis used to live (it expired in a very wet winter) and a rose to the other, sunnier side (not where the wisteria was). Cleaned up the base of both the sunnier and shadier fence sides; made a space for a new, spring-blooming clematis. Sorted the side area of the shed at the back where the bikes live under a tarp. Pushed the ivy and nettle shoots back under the fence to number 3 (I’m number 2) where they originate.

Doing that helped with things. That and returning to yoga (managed three Zoom sessions last week) plus the longer dog walks.

The only things I smelled in the madness post Tuesday were candles. The Dayleford tomato one is grand – very earthy but fresh; the Diptyque Thé is mediocre as tea (I bought it because the Feu de Bois was so good, but it’s not black tea at all – how do they get away with describing this as the smell of Russian black tea?) but smells fine and candle-ish (you know what I mean); the Marie-Stella-Maris Objets d’Amsterdam (which is supposed to smell of things in Amsterdam) smells like an upmarket hotel which is fine as well; and the l’Artisan Traversée du Bosphore smells of Turkish delight, which is distracting and happiness-inducing, and reminded me I need to buy some from the farm shop.

I’ve been thinking about holiday smells as well. I’m pretty much sorted what with the Diptyque Feu de Bois mentioned earlier and the Tauer l’Air candle. I have a fig candle somewhere as well.

My DIY guy comes on Thursday to help hang pictures. We know where the Xmas tree will be placed, though I refuse to get one until earliest second week in December.

The winner of the Cartier l’Heure Fouguese sample is Ariel. Please send your details along. Click on the Drop Us a Note at the top with a reminder of what you won and your mailing address. Just be aware that I’ll probably include the durian candy to mask this being perfume…