Wow, it was in the upper 90s today! I ran some errands and it was a hot one. Last evening was warm but not quite as hot and we had gorgeous light on the hills. I took the quick snapshot above off the back deck; it’s hard to give the feeling but my cottage is on the side of a hill surrounded by oaks like a little treehouse and then beyond the oaks is the neighboring winery’s vineyard. The oaks are always special when backlit in the late afternoon. The deck has a big planter box in the middle where ferns are happy, plus a few heuchera, a begonia, and some campanula and geranium.
I went back through my box of gardenia testers today and have a plan for the next step. I still like the simple creamy jasmine/gardenia floral heart the best and had gone too far afield in the last few trials. I want to backtrack a bit to simplify, but still keep some of these new elements so I can keep the musk lower than in those early trials. I tried some ambrette seed CO2 in it that may help with that goal.
I’m happy with the Ambre and Winter Woods updates and am starting to get feedback from testers — so far so good! I hope to get those back on the site soon and move on to working the new moss into Fireside Intense.
