Day 17 ~ One Year, One Nose

The Mardi Gras celebrations in the Tower have ceased being the topic of interest 'round here, so I can get back to posting.

Jasmine grandiflorum

I've been searching the stores for hanging baskets of jasmine but they haven't put them out yet, just the tall stands of jasmine that are meant to be trained to crawl up a post or wall. The weather here has turned to spring and I'm itching to get some bloomers on the garden porch. The neighbors jonquil have popped up and they remind me that soon -- very soon -- planting will begin, but first we must do the flowers.

Jasmine grandiflorum 30% dilution is almost like no dilution at all, though the dilution allows some of the more delicate and elusive tones of scent to escape. The scent of jasmine grandiflorum is intensely sweet and heady, oily, deeply floral, poopy and warm (perhaps I shouldn't have paired those two words together that way . . .)

I cannot help but think of spring while smelling jasmine grandiflorum, there is something old fashioned about it, something nostalgic and sad, like forgotten bottles of perfume left to evaporate away leaving only the faintest hint of jasmine behind. The headiness can be compared to that of hyacinth and tuberose. The scent is mouth-watering. I make a cake using jasmine grandiflorum in the batter and in the cream cheese frosting -- it is delicious when paired with fresh strawberries. Eating jasmine cake with strawberries -- can you think of anything more olfactogustatorially (ha!) decadent?

Jasmine grandiflorum has great tenacity, even diluted to 10% -- at 12 hours on a scent strip the 30% is still heady and sweetly floral; at 10% it is less so, but there is a delicious delicacy about it, like fine lace or spider's webs -- there but ever so fragile.