Hot, Muggy & Aromatic

It's been unseasonably hot and humid the past couple of days, with today promising to be the worst for the week. I'm so over summer, can I have some autumn now? Please?

My favorite tea shop is moving from just down the block to halfway across town, which, to be fair, isn't very far considering 'town' is small. I'm hoping for some opportunities to teach in their new location, which is bigger, grander, and more holisticky (?) than the wee shop they're in now. I've spoken to the owner a time or two about classes and workshops there, plus perhaps using her commercial kitchen to whip up some sellable (?) perfumed dishes. The owner has also shown some interest in obtaining some kopi luwak (civet coffee) for her shop, which I will be purchasing from her to distill for oil and hydrosols -- I'd go it on my own but I don't need much for my purposes, and I think it would be kind of fun to take something from the tea shop and bring something else back made from what I took from the tea shop. I'm happy that they have this wonderful opportunity for growth, but I'm a bit bummed that I can't just drag my bum down the road for a cup and a chat anymore. It's time to get the bicycle now, don't you think so?

The tuberose enfleurage has been put on hold again -- with the trips back and forth to Fresno and just the general schedule of who is doing what when has thrown a monkey wrench in my ability to be at the market where the tuberoses are being sold. The tuberose lady told me she sells well into October, so hopefully I'll get a few more rounds before then and have this super densely scented pommade to play with. So far it's pretty well saturated. I can smear on a wee dot of the stuff and it smells for a good hour or longer, pretty good for a pommade. I've been using it to hold down a couple of the perfumes I've been building over the summer -- the layering makes for an exquisitely classic floral bouquet perfume. Maybe I'll sell the perfumes with a wee tub of tuberose pommade for just that purpose.

I just evaluated a gorgeous valerian absolute from India, circa 2005 -- beautiful! Smells of sweet pipe tobacco, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, and has kind of a cola back note -- fizzy and tickly. So unlike valerian root -- none of the ripened cheese, dirty, sweaty feet essence is here at all. The left nostril perceives a coolness to it, like high mountain ponds filled with desiccated conifers and wet moss -- life! The right nostril finds the brackish notes, the tobacco and the caramel and molasses, the darkness that resides there. Valerian absolute is a surprise in its complexity and lack of valerian root ugliness.