Brief

Life’s been busy – both good and worrying. Which has meant I don’t have much.

One of the nice bits was celebrating my birthday. Which was done with a lovely lunch. I had meant to take pictures but we got too involved. It’s not a ‘major’ birthday (ie, number doesn’t end in either 0 or 5). And the weather has been lovely – far better than last year when my birthday fell during one of the worst storms for the past 50 years.

I am reminded of where I live being one of the ‘bread baskets’ of England. It amuses me when going up to London to see fish and produce etc from here features with lots of faff written on menus. A birthday lunch here means line caught fish, various bits of veg that are local, and the wonderful ice cream from the farm shop.

A few birthday things will make their way into posts in next few weeks.

As for today, the feature is the candle the dog gave me (he’s considerate that way).

I’ve read about Cire Trudon stuff for years but it always seems quite pricey. However, 1) I discovered some fragrances are offered in petite version (as with perfume, at this point I prefer having things in smaller sizes) and 2) the candles aren’t that more expensive than other ‘high end’ ones.

Joe the Lab (with human help apparently) got me a small Abd el Kader candle that I’ve been hankering after. He even managed to wrap the box, and compose and sign his own card.

This is one of the company’s (it now appears to be called only Trudon) more well-known fragrances and it’s a real standout. And very strong.

Pitched as Moroccan mint tea, the notes list includes (variously) black current, lemon, clove, ginger, mint, tea, apple, tobacco, jasmine and vanilla. I get mint, of course, but also unlisted basil is very strongly.

In any case, it certainly does smell of mint tea – the proper stuff of mint leaves steeped in boiling water.

When I looked on the website for their notes list iteration I saw the company also offers spray perfumes now. So, those go on the curiosity list.

Other birthday treats included an awful lot of chocolate – like I won’t need to be looking to buy chocolate for weeks – and I probably won’t want to bother in a week or so given how much chocolate is being consumed. Also got a box of marrons glaces and looking forward to their lovely stickiness. Haven’t had these in years.

So, that’s it. I need to do a lot more walking and yoga to counter all this indulgence. Hope your week was pleasant.

Oh, I wore Kilian Dark Lord to lunch.

Pics: Pexels and me