Time off

Happy September? I’m emerging from a week’s holiday at home. As I said last week, it’s been more than a year since I’ve had time off. So, this past week was really really necessary.

About half way through it I received my Eris Perfumes samples, a purchase precipitated by Portia’s recent post on Bell de Jour. These were purchased from another new-to-me website here, this one called Sainte Cellier. Interesting offering and very good CS.

One of the fragrances I got was Delta of Venus (2023). That’s what I wore for the rest of the week.

It is luscious. Per the website (the guff for once isn’t half bad): “… guava-centric that reimagines the Garden of Eden’s Forbidden Fruit”.  Notes are bergamot, grapefruit, guava, violet leaf, galbanum, jasmine sambac, vetiver and sandalwood.

The opening of this. Good Golly Miss Molly! Totally gorgeous fruit bowl, clear and defined, juicy, with a green undercurrent. I definitely get grapefruit and guava, sharp and slightly tropical, with a whisper of pong. Incredibly, incredibly attractive.

As it opens up, I get a softer grapefruit plus violet leaf. It’s still a bit tropical but really more green-citrus. It’s quite soft and close to the skin at this point. Maybe jasmine in a very gentle way.

The drydown is soft and gentle, with a hint of vetiver and some wood. The longevity is ok.

This is a lot more than pleasant, but the most intriguing and attractive part is that fruit bowl opening. I plan to try this on fabric to see what happens with the opening.

So, what did I get up to? A fair bit of eating out. Holidays are meant for little cooking.

Had a great lunch at a pub on an isthmus near the town with my favourite bakery. To get there you either drive right round the estuary, park a half hour away and walk; have your own boat and dock there; or take the local ferry. We did the ferry. Joe the lab came along. He decidedly did not like the ferry, having to be lifted in and out (no little gate – this is a very small boat, taking no more than 12 people). Once we got there though he was happy with being outdoors, having a burger and taking a walk on the tow path. For people, it’s a lovely location with really good food.

Another lunch where he came along was a fish place on the Atlantic coast. That entailed a car ride and walk. A much happier dog. Plus, there were three other labs on the covered terrace when we were there. Food was nice – ie, good fish. I want a house with that kind of covered but also open terrace overlooking the water.

One day was spent sorting family papers and painting areas of the house where there had been leaks that had been fixed.

There was a dinner at the Turkish café in the nearest big town. Also got my hair cut that day and it rained cats and dogs till late afternoon, which wasn’t fun. But food was great. This place has been around for donkeys years and offers lovely baklawa. Oddly, however, they are now understaffed and food took a long time.

Final meal out was a lunch at a local farm to table place that gets really good reviews but felt really odd. The food was fine but in mid-middle age I was one of the youngest people there. Plus, the evening dining room, which I passed on way to toilet, smelled like boiled cabbage – ie, like a 1960s place in the Catskills. Won’t be returning there.

Otherwise, time was spent doing not much beyond gardening, listening to the third segment in my current book series (book is too expensive in book form – oddly, audiobook was much cheaper), wandering vaguely around local villages, and I rewatched the 1999 version of The Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo which was incredibly enjoyable – and her wardrobe is to die for. I actually wish I’d booked two weeks off. But, I didn’t.

So, back to normal life tomorrow.

Hope US peeps are enjoying Labor Day. Have a good week.

Pics mine