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the first rose

Today’s picture: The first rose blooming here, in Zurich, on a sunny spot next to the house, including (hard to see as it is small, though) a plant louse. Mother nature is generous, also for plant louses, I am not. Every morning, when watering my plants outside, I do a snail check, and a louse check, especially on the tomato plants: Catching them early prevents bigger damage, as these louses multiply on a daily basis. Mature nature is generous, but a rough tutor.

This particular rose is, however, pretty scentless. But you can’t have everything. Actually, there are supernatural roses here inside the house, inside flacons. That compensates. There was a shortage, though, of rose absolute  for a while. But today, I got another batch delivered. I do not need it really, right now, but rose absolute is one of the things I want to have, all the time, … you never know. The same is true for jasmine absolute. My fragrant workhorses, so to say.

I mentioned it a couple of times on this blog, but it amazes me every time again: When I buy rose absolute, about 60% of what I get is actually phenylethanol. It is one of the major ingredients of the perfumes that roses exhale. Phenylethanol is cheap, like: super cheap! Therefore, buying expensive rose absolute translates into buying very expensive minor components that make a rose a natural rose.

Work today: packing some stock. And -having finished the workshop preparations- thinking about a presentation that I will give Sunday, at the Smell Festival in Bologna.

I can talk about me, my philosophy, processes behind the fragrances, dreams, projects. That’s quite open, really. I can also spray some fragrances and have people smell while I talk. This helps. Maybe I will talk about roses. We will see…