Let us proceed

Happy, and welcome to the, new year. 2025.

It’s been raining – and uncharacteristically cold. However, we had a couple of days of brilliant sunshine and early frost which looked so completely otherworldly and gorgeous.

I started this post on New Year’s Eve while wearing Shalimar parfum… New Year’s Day was gale force winds which shifted to heavy rain. Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle was a good way to thumb my nose at the weather.

On New Year’s Day eve, I made flat breads to go with the remaining Indian food. Surprisingly easy. Will become part of the repertoire.

(Looking right to left above shows me getting better)

A something new to me and a couple of look backs to 2024.

First off, there’s what I think is an interesting perfume concept here that I’ve been watching, called Ffern (yes, two F’s, https://ffern.co/). It gets verrrry mixed commentary. But, I was curious and finally bit the bullet – a bit of ‘I’m doing this so you don’t have to’ – and added myself to the waitlist (it appears to be popular) with no expectations of hearing anything before late this year or early 2026.

But, low and behold, a few days ago I got a text saying there’s an opening on the list, are you interested? Of course, I did the deed.

Ffern is basically, per them: “A new model for perfumery. Natural, limited-edition, blended in the English countryside”. The structure is: 1) Join the waiting list; 2) They’ll text you if a space on the ledger becomes available; 3) You choose (or not) to take up the space and they send you the latest perfume; and 4) Thereafter, they blend you a bottle for each season (this is seasonal – ie, 4x a year) delivered on the solstice/equinox. Clearly, that idea is right up my alley.

Each parcel comes with a bottle – but it also comes with a sample so you can try the fragrance before committing to it. Very intelligently done. Yes, you pay for the bottle but if it’s a no go and you return it you are refunded your payment. At £89 for a 32ml (weird number) bottle, this isn’t cheap. The fragrances are created by François Robert and a protégée. Robert is a fifth generation master perfumer (if his name sounds familiar, maybe you’re thinking of Guy Robert, the nose for some Amouage, Hermes, Dior and Rochas perfumes, among others).

The perfume I’m starting with is Winter and I’ll report on it as soon as I get it – and so on through the year.

Next up is a book series I discovered and read all 20 available (note to William Kent Krueger: please please release another Cork O’Connor in 2025). The series is set in the north woods of Minnesota. It is incredibly atmospheric and weaves through the lives of Sheriff/ex-Sheriff Corcoran O’Connor and his extended family, which is a mix of white and Ojibwe first nations members. The stories are great – and the author doesn’t shy away from difficulty and tragedy. But there’s also enormous joy and optimism running through the stories. And the writing is great. Oh, and they are basically mysteries. Sort of.

Also, I noticed that the cookery writer Nigel Slater, who I’ve mentioned before (I really love his food-related diaries), had published a new book: A Thousand Feasts. As he describes it, “small moments of joy … a memoir of sorts”. It’s sort of fairly short (several paragraphs mostly) memory tableaux of experiences he’s had over the years – of travel, food, etc. It’s beautifully presented – snippets of mundane and not so mundane things rendered with emotion and beauty and humour. Examples: an experience of buying bread in Iran; an early morning sweet (“a crème caramel topped with a ball of ice cream”) along with a thimble of coffee in Osaka; dealing with potential ghosts during the renovation of his London house; eating breakfast in a Seoul hotel — all sorts of sashimi, miso soup, pickled radishes – while sitting next to an American businessman eating multi-coloured Cheerios.

So, that’s sort of me beginning this year. I hope it’s starting well for you with perhaps some good intensions and a positive outlook.

NB: a tidbit of joy. A group of wild rabbits is called a ‘fluffle’.

Pics: Mine and Pexels