Welcome to the Friday Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, April 14, and we had a lovely Easter. All three kids were here, and I cooked and cooked to my heart’s content. We had salmon en croute on Saturday night, and roast lamb for a mid-afternoon Sunday dinner, with the obligatory (at least in my family) asparagus with hollandaise sauce. This week, my upcoming retirement at the end of this summer was finally announced to all my colleagues, and I’ve been getting lots of very nice emails from them.

My beloved David Austin roses are in fine form, with more blossoms popping open every day in spite of the ongoing variability in our weather. We’ve returned to chilly and rainy, with periods of sunshine in between but still very moderate temperatures. Luckily, the roses seem to be happy — they are English roses, after all!

We’re looking forward to a quiet weekend with no scheduled obligations. And yes, we filed our taxes months ago, so the upcoming US deadline isn’t an issue.

Please remember to check in on Monday, when Portia and I will post another “Counterpoint” post about a specific fragrance and our different experiences and perceptions of it.

I got a lovely compliment on my perfume today — I stopped at a supermarket on my way to work, to get cupcakes for the class I teach on Fridays, and as I was stepping away from the checkout line, the young woman called to me “Ma’am! Ma’am!” I turned around thinking I had left something, and she smiled and said, “You smell so nice!”. Made my whole day. Have you gotten any fragrance compliments lately?