New Blog Feature: Fragrance Fridays

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One of our Blogging 101 class assignments this week was to create a recurring blog post feature. I already had one, What Went Well Wednesdays, but I think I’ll add another, consistent with my renewed interest in fragrance and perfume, and lifelong interest in flowers and gardening. So welcome to Fragrance Fridays! I will post stories with a common thread of fragrance, scent or perfume — but not necessarily the kind that comes in a bottle. Here’s my first, about the rare blossoming of a Titan Arum, also known as the “corpse flower” at the Denver Botanic Gardens: Thousands Stop To Smell A Flower (And Hope Not To Gag), as reported by The New York Times. It gets its common name from the usual reaction that its blossom smells like rotting meat.

Okay, not a pleasant smell — but how fascinating! And it is really interesting to read how differently various visitors perceived the smell of the flower. Some smelled rotting meat but others smelled stinky cheese, gym socks, etc. The purpose of the scent is to attract specific insects that will then carry its pollen away, which is why most plants have evolved to emit fragrance, although some seem to use fragrance to repel. LiveScience.com explains more at: Denver Stinky Corpse Flower Blooms.

What Went Well

I’m a day late on this one because 1) it has been a very busy week; and 2) it has been harder than usual to do this exercise. Which, of course, is the whole point: to refocus one’s mind on the positive, on the blessings, and away from the negative. So here goes:

  1. My son started school this week in advanced classes and won a starting position, the one he wanted, on his team. Because he works hard and gives his best efforts both to schoolwork and to athletics, and he has been blessed with a good mind and healthy body.
  2. My daughter has been spending a lot of time with us lately, just hanging out, before she goes back to college. Because she is a loving young woman who was a big help all summer and who knows she is lucky to have a happy family and loving parents.
  3. My students have turned out in high numbers for my programs this week and have expressed a lot of appreciation for what I do for them. Because I put a lot of thought and work into meeting their needs, I’m very good at that and I make their wellbeing and growth my priority.

There, that wasn’t so hard. Enjoy the rest of the week, friends!

Scentbird?

Scentbird?

One of the tags I follow is “Perfume”. I have always loved perfume and even saved up my money in eighth grade to buy my mother a small flacon of Chanel No. 5, her signature perfume. An early memory of mine is sitting on her bed watching her get ready to go out with my father, as she sat at a real dressing-table whose lid, when lifted, revealed a mirror and a deep compartment filled with mysterious bottles of fragrance, lotion and makeup. I am firmly convinced that scent and fragrance can help transport us to a different (better?) state of mind, as the sense of smell connects to the most primitive, unconscious parts of the human brain, the ones that process emotions and memories. Let’s use that power for good!  Serenity now!

Today, another blog featured a subscription service called “Scentbird.” I loved that name so much, I had to read more just to find out what it was. Turns out it is a service where you pay a monthly fee to receive a decanted sample of a different named fragrance each month. This has clearly been given a lot of thought; subscribers get a special container to hold their samples, which come in small glass vials. Very creative! I had heard of another subscription for beauty supply samples — “Birchbox” — but not for fragrance. Where do they get these great names, by the way?

Anyway, Scentbird also has a blog where contributors comment on various fragrances: Scentbird. And today’s post included a fragrance I just tried myself in a store and liked very much: Hermes Jour d’Hermes. The blog aptly describes it as taking its wearer into a beautiful garden — and you know how much we love gardens here at Serenity Now. It was very appealing, with its white florals, green notes, sweet pea, citrus and water notes. And yes, it made me feel more serene.

Next up for me to try: Hermes Jour d’Hermes Absolu, pictured above with my favorite roses!

jourdhermes-bottle

Not Creepy

Not Creepy

Russian Revolution in Color

Today’s Blogging 101 assignment: respond to a prompt. Today’s Daily Post prompt is a photo challenge: show us something creepy. Coincidentally, the most interesting thing I’ve read this morning was a post on Mashable about a Russian photographer, Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, who devised a process for creating full-color photographs in the early 1900s. He won a commission to travel throughout the czarist Russian empire, capturing its many peoples in photographs. They are stunning!  It is amazing how much more immediate and contemporaneous photos seem when they are in color. These long-vanished people look out at us from a century or more ago and they come alive.

I don’t like creepy things and since the purpose of this blog is for me to focus on the positive, I’ve chosen to adapt this prompt and share these photos which I find fascinating, not creepy.

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Creepy.”

Liebster Award and Nominations

liebster award sticker

Thank you to Fun Simplicity for nominating me for the Liebster Award!

Here are the questions I am to answer:

  1. Who/What inspires you to start a blog? I started Serenity Now because I wanted a routine to capture my observations about the many beautiful things I encounter in life and to remind myself to notice and appreciate them; and because I love to write and am trying to get back in the habit.
  2. Who is your favourite author? I have many favorite authors, as anyone who read my post on favorite childhood books knows: Too Many To Choose Just One. Favorite authors of books for adults right now are: Hilary Mantel, Ian McEwan, David Halberstam, Robert Caro, Elizabeth Goudge, Taylor Branch.
  3. What is your favourite pastime? Reading.
  4. Which country are you from? The United States.
  5. What is your favourite season? Spring, but I also love autumn.
  6. What is your most memorable moment? My wedding day; and the births of my children.
  7. If you’ve won a free trip, which country would you like to travel to? Japan.
  8. If you are alone in a haunted house, what will you do? Leave. Quickly.
  9. If you meet an alien, what will you say? I think I’d be speechless!
  10. If  you have a time machine, which era will you travel too? Tudor England.
  11. What is your Christmas wish for Santa this year? A yearlong sabbatical with a generous travel allowance.

My nominations for the Liebster Award are:

1. Expat on ACK; a recovering lawyer, she blogs about life as a British expatriate living on the unique island of Nantucket off the shore of Massachusetts.

2. Newshound to Novelist; Donna-Louise Bishop is a journalist who is trying to complete and publish her first novel. She’s a gifted writer and deserves a wider audience!

3. The Hopeful Herbalist; a former nurse and city resident, she blogs about the move she and her husband made to a cottage in the country, near the sea, where she is restoring a derelict garden after having retrained as an herbalist in Scotland.

4. The Perfume Magpie; she has a wonderful blog about perfume, which she illustrates with her own beautiful drawings. Seriously, her illustrations are gorgeous.

5. The Introvert’s Dictionary; Charlotte Latvala blogs a rotating list of alphabetized word definitions from an introvert’s point of view. Speaking as a card-carrying introvert myself, they are hilarious and she is spot on.

Here are the questions I ask my nominees to answer; some are the same as above:

  1. Why did you start a blog?
  2. What is the best book you’ve read this year?
  3. What is your favorite pastime other than writing?
  4. What is your favorite smell?
  5. What is your favorite season?
  6. What is your most memorable moment and where did it happen?
  7. Which country would you most like to visit?
  8. If you could meet any author, past or present, whom would you choose?
  9. Do you believe in fairies?
  10. If  you could be any character in a novel or film, who would that be?
  11. If a genie gave you three wishes, what would you wish?

The Rules:

  1. Once you are nominated, make a post thanking and linking the person who nominated you. Include the Liebster Award sticker in the post too.
  2. Nominate 5-10 other bloggers who you feel are worthy of this award. Let them know they have been nominated by commenting on one of their posts. You can also nominate the person who nominated you.
  3. Ensure all these bloggers have less than 200 followers.
  4. Answer the eleven questions asked to you by the person who nominated you, and make eleven questions of your own or your nominees or you may use the same questions.
  5. Lastly, COPY these rules in the post
A SeaGlass Carousel

A SeaGlass Carousel

What wouldn’t I give to be able to be at the opening of Battery Park’s long-awaited SeaGlass Carousel! I love carousels but I prefer the more creative ones that aren’t limited to pastel-colored horses. This is just about the most imaginative carousel I’ve ever seen: New York’s New Carousel. They have done some lovely sound and light shows there, even before the carousel itself opens. Five dollars a ride? Sold! I’ll be there, next time I’m in New York.

 

Photo: Filip Wolak, http://www.timeout.com

Inspired By A Newshound

Today’s Blogging 101 assignment is to write a post inspired by another blogger’s post on which we commented earlier.Donna-Louise at her blog “Newshound to Novelist” wrote a post called Follow the Literary Brick Road, about turning 30 and wanting to publish a novel instead of continuing in the journalism where she has found success. By leaving her a comment, I hoped to encourage her to persevere. That, and a recent story on the BBC about J.K. Rowling, got me thinking about the various paths so many writers take. Continue reading

What Went Well

Today’s “What Went Well” Wednesday is more of a test than usual. It’s shaping up to be a challenging week at work, for many of the reasons that prompted me to start this blog. So if you’re reading this, please send serenity vibes my way!

What went well this week:

  1. One of my children started her senior year of high school, with lots of enthusiasm and anticipation. Because she’s an engaged, energetic young woman with a bright future, who works hard toward her goals but keeps her sense of humor and joy.
  2. My daughters and I came home from a lovely break in New Hampshire, refreshed in body and spirit, but happy to be home with the rest of our family. Because we are blessed to have family in that beautiful part of the world and blessed to have a happy home to which we always return.
  3. I returned to my office after working from home because of a bone fracture, and was warmly welcomed back by many colleagues. Because most of the people with whom I work are very nice.
Guilty pleasures

Guilty pleasures

Until recently, it had been years since I immersed myself in a romance novel. Really, years. Maybe even decades. My taste in reading had turned more to history, biography, other non-fiction like books about gardening and bonsai. And then I discovered Philippa Gregory. I had seen the movie “The Other Boleyn Girl” and enjoyed it — I love Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanssen. So when I saw a copy of the book on sale, 3 for the price of 2 at a chain bookstore, I took the bait. Bought that and two other Gregory novels. Can you say, hook, line and sinker? I’ve just finished another one — “The King’s Curse” — and you know what? I enjoyed the heck out of it! It made a nice break between “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies”, also on my bedside table.

I should have known. I went through a phase as a teenager when I ripped through books by authors like Victoria Holt. There is something so comforting about living vicariously through the travails of a fictional stranger.

Blogging 101: About

About me and my blog: I am a lover of beauty, a happily married introvert, an empath and INTJ. I have an inquiring mind and thousands of books. Many things make me happy. I’d like to share some of them.

Mindfulness is something I am trying to cultivate in my life. There are many competing claims on my time and attention: family, work, etc. As my children are now in their teens, I am working to carve out some time for peaceful reflection and creativity in my life, in spite of a demanding, sometimes pressured job. Blogging is one way for me to do that. I am also using this blog to cultivate positive thoughts through practices like “What Went Well Wednesdays”, when I write down three things that went well that week.

I also blog about gardens, gardening, garden books, art in gardens and garden photography at Old Herbaceous.