I've been gone...

...and Nature has been busy.




...which led to...

What is this?  Why, it's the "thumb" of Michigan, with the "mainland" of the Michigan mitten to the left/west.  Saginaw Bay.  

Ask again:  What is this?

Somebody's knocking at their door.

The winds blew hard across Lake Huron, blowing ice off the lake and onto the beach, pushing right into lakefront homes in the Saginaw Bay area.

Was I affected?  No.  Would have been a great excuse for why I haven't been blogging of late.  But it *is* a wonderful metaphor for what I've been dealing with, so I'll leave it at that.

Winter threatens to depart, and so does Spring.  It's been an interesting battle to close the short days of the year around here...have been sorely wanting spring, but have not yet dared to fully break out the spring time scents.

I have found a few things to tide me over until the ceremonial Diorissimo and Apres L'Ondee come out.

Parfums de Nicolai  Le Temps d'Une Fete

Nathan called it "oh so pretty," and it was nearly damning praise.  But I love that it smells of quality ingredients, that there is not too much white flower and a smidge of green, which means that while it is no jolly romper for me (more green, a hint of dirt would do that), it is a reliable no brainer makes me happy at the end of winter I can wear it for a full day of teaching scent.

Frank Los Angeles  Frank (aka Frank #1)

Oh, I'm happy I pulled this one back out.  I had remembered vaguely "fresh green," but not the hint of flowers.  Again...flowers?  Wouldn't seem to be my cup of tea...except that there's closer to the ground lily of the valley somewhere in there (maybe? I think?) and when I spritz it on the back of my hand to revive ye olde memories from last week, I get a whiff of carnation, which AGAIN would not be my cup of tea except it seems just right in here, and for this time of year.  I am going to have to try this out again when it is truly warming up, and not just bright and sunny but cold outside.  Wonder what it will bring then.

(This scent earned FB purchasing early last summer, and earned that spot on the list due to green freshness.  I've become more chypre happy since then; perhaps nose has evolved?  Then again, maybe this is one of those climate related things??)

Donna Karan  Gold (edt)

I have Gold in both concentrations.  It interested me enough to get FB of it from the controversial online auction which shall not be named...and, truth be told, that purchase was as much motivated by the deal I got and my admiration for the bottle as for the juice itself.  I had found the juice, especially in edt, sharp and metallic, and wasn't sure what it was about.  Into the recesses of the closet it went.  Out it came last week, on a whim, and voila!; just right.  It had become a...well...a creamy floral, just like those "crazy" posters I had read a year ago said.  And, once again, not generally my cup of tea...but it hit the spot when it came to this awful nether time between the end of winter and the start of spring.

What is this?

A reminder that revisiting can yield interesting renewals and/or revisions...re-visioning being key.  And perhaps that climate can affect "vision," too; I know my *inclinations* change based on season, but perhaps what my nose picks up changes, too.  

I may have also learned that while I am a fan of earth/dirt in scent, perhaps it is just too, too cruel to enter that into the olfactory picture just yet.  Just as any gardner knows only heartache will come of setting plants out too early for your climate, perhaps I need to know that I cannot enjoy an earthy perfume *too* far ahead of me actually being able to smell it outside.

We're still a little frozen around here.  

But not forever.

Toes, or all in?

For those of you who have only swum in oceans or swimming pools, a few notes on lake swimming:

"Inland" lakes (aren't they all? but no, trust me, there are the big lakes, the Great Lakes, which I have come to realize need emphasized are really, really big--those of you who think of the middle as "flyover" would do well to think about a body of water that takes much time to cross on a boat, and remember it takes even your jet some time to cross over) are smaller lakes of various sizes, which generally fall within state boundaries, and can be seen across and traversed easily by boat, sometimes even rowboat.

Point being, the swimming is different. Not only do you float differently, but there can be ginormous temperature differentials on the inland lakes: water temperature varies according to season, according to depth, and even sometimes according to weather conditions. On the big lakes, the water is, generally, cold. The question for any lake is: do you go carefully, trying to discover and/or acclimate yourself to the temperature, or do you just charge?

No matter what your approach, your experience in the same pocket of water may be different one day to the next, one visit to the next, one year to the next.

And so it is with Kingdom. What I am about to say is not "I was wrong." My experience has been, almost every time, panties. But today I was decanting a generous sample for a friend--a friend who has enjoyed this, and so I was happy to share--and a generous splot of McQueen's controversial juice ended up on my hand.

Surprise! Today the cumin was nearly woodsy, and clearly just a layer among the package. I was getting a quick impression of something that was interesting both as quoting some vintage references, and also quite of the times. Cumin, woody spice, something floral...it was all there, and it was interesting. Not "beautiful," as some receive it, but really, really interesting, in a pleasant way. Meanwhile, I had just decanted DK Gold (following a tasting principle of increasing intensities), and THAT was also different than any of my previous experiences. In this cool/cold weather, Gold edp was almost creamy, with jasmine clearly coming through as much as the lily, and much less sharp green. (That green is sharper, and more metallic, in the EDP.)

So, today, I liked Kingdom. No promises for tomorrow. And honestly, I'll probably be more likely to reach for the Gold on an overall percentage basis. But I had to come clean about the experience, considering how adamant I am about the nasty element I usually get.

BTW, you already not to trust when somebody says "come on in, the water's fine," right? One swimmer's tepid is another's chilled. In the lake, or out of the bottle, your mileage may vary.

*****

UPDATE 11/23/08:  Kingdom is back in the chatterstream.  See the gents over at PeredePierre for their take on it, and hear Denyse at Grain de Musc place it according to her sensibilities within the comments section of her lovely review of Schiaparelli Shocking.  Yup, that's me, asking her opinion--I love to learn from better noses than mine.  But despite my bowing to Denyse's more experienced nose, I have to say that, for now, for me, Kingdom's "gousset" is still sewn into panties and not a blouse.  Never a better example of Your Mileage May Vary than an individual's experience of cumin in Kingdom.