Checking in…

You’ve probably heard that Napa, CA had a rather large (6.0) earthquake last night, waking people up at 3:20 in the morning with shaking, damage, and power outages. It woke us up in Sonoma too, with quite a bit of shaking and rolling. My cottage is on stilts on a hillside, so the swaying can be scary. All is fine here though — we didn’t even have any bottles or items tossed to the floor (with all the bottles in my workroom, that could be a nightmare). My heart goes out to those in Napa who sustained damage.

I also wanted to mention that I am back to work on the all-natural amber incense scent. So far the notes are bergamot, elemi, Sichuan pepper, frankincense, cedar, New Caledonia sandalwood, jasmine sambac, rose absolute, beeswax, clove, cinnamon, ginger, oakmoss, patchouli, benzoin, heliotrope, and vanilla. I have a small sample that I like, so I’m scaling up to the next level. I’d like to finish this, if possible, before putting the cart back up. The Sichuan pepper is new to me but is yummy; it has opening notes that are fresh with a zingy citric (almost lemony) feeling, and then the far drydown becomes woodsy.

The first signs of fall are starting to emerge. We still have tomatoes and zucchini, but the plants are looking tired and the maples are already showing some red leaves. The mornings have been foggy and cool while the afternoons are still hot, which is typical late summer weather here.