Day 81 ~ One Year, One Nose

Kunzea oil ~ not necessarily a perfumery oil as it is astringent and bitter, along the lines of eucalyptus and tea tree, but gentler, not as medicinal. I add it here because is it lovely despite its obvious medicinal scent -- it possesses a lavender-like quality of softness, and peaky lemon notes as well. It is touted as a kind of miracle anti-infection oil, used to cure resistant staph and resolve sinus issues that may be related to mold or bacterial infection. I like it. I mean, I wouldn't want to put it on my skin because I don't want to smell like I spent an evening hanging out with a koala, but I would use it in a steam to help with recurrent sinus bugs.

Elderflower absolute ~ yummy! Elderflower absolute is sweet and green and hay-like, but also possesses this weird cherry note, like syrupy cherry cough medicine. I am a huge fan of elder anything -- as a child living in and around the Sierra Nevada's, elderberry picking was common in the fall. We'd run amongst the elder bushes, clipping off the loose clumps of elderberries into a gunny sack, then run off to the gooseberry coolies, slip on leather gloves that were borrowed from people with big hands, and clumsily pull the spiky berries off and toss them into the gunny sack with the elderberries. Then to home when the sacks were full to boil and mash and strain and create the stock for jellies and syrups and wine. It's been years since I went elderberry picking. The last trip was made when all my children were still living at home and it was a lesson in futility -- not having been raised in 'the wilds' as I was, my children didn't understand what they were doing and we made it home with only enough elderberries to make a very small batch of winter syrup. In the spring people I knew in the hills would pick the flowers for tea, though I never acquired a taste for the stuff, I always loved the scent of the flowers, fresh and dry.