DRAWING FOR A SNOWSTORM

Today, after a short break, the snow continues coming down hard. New snow falls on top of old in a cycle that has reached the point of absurdity. As the snow event has progressed, I’ve found myself going through stages of relating to it. When the first snow came, I was happy and excited like a little kid because we don’t get to experience much snow, so it’s a novelty. I love to watch it falling even when it doesn’t stick (usually), and it’s even more exciting when it does stick and everything slowly turns white. What I didn’t like was the cold temperature, but I went out and ran a little in it twice anyway. The next snow was bigger, and by then I was kind of blasé about it, to say nothing of being concerned about the state of my orchid greenhouse, which, by the way, is still in lockdown mode. 

The third snow came yesterday, and by then it was mostly just annoying, although there was a little of the morbid curiosity that one feels looking at an accident or a natural disaster (How much more can it snow?). I think the third snowfall raised the total depth to about 14-16 inches (25-30 cm). Today’s snow will pile on top of that. By now I’ve become fatalistic about it and given up on even going outside, let alone going anywhere. Given that we stocked up on groceries last Saturday and our power hasn’t gone off, I can just sit and laugh at it. 

The bright side is that I am getting a lot of perfume-making done, putting together a big wholesale order. Who knows when it can be shipped, but at least it will be ready.

It’s time for another drawing of 100 g of perfume samples, so just leave a comment saying whether you have ever experienced mass quantities of snow, if so, how you relate to mass quantities of snow, and if not, whether you would like to have the experience. 

[Both photos are mine. The top one shows the condition of our street, which has just been getting worse for at least a week. ]

WINNER OF THE NO EXCUSES NO RESOLUTIONS DRAWING

The snowstorms continue to roll in one after the other. After a break yesterday it is again snowing like mad tonight and accumulating on top of the old snow. At least it keeps things looking pretty. 

The most important thing is to announce the winner of the first drawing of 2019. 

The winner is LISHYPANTS. 

To claim your big bag of samples, just send an e-mail to olympicorchids at gmail dot com or leave a message on the Olympic Orchids Facebook page. I am more likely to see an e-mail because things sometimes disappear from Facebook, or are hidden. 

Tomorrow I will be just as snowed in as I am tonight, so will start another drawing. Watch for it!

[Photo is mine, just a few days ago, showing the path down into our ravine after the first snow] 

Weather disruptions and an orchid-growing business for sale

As last week’s polar vortex subsided east of the Rockies, the weather was predicted to warm up significantly for a few days, which it did. For most people this wouldn’t really affect their lives, but as an orchid grower who has to ship plants, it was a big deal. It meant that dozens of plant orders that had been sitting around on hold for weeks suddenly had the green light to travel. My assistant and I spent all of Friday and Saturday packing plants nonstop, assembly-line style, and my poor husband Michael had to transport them all to the post office on Saturday, where the avalanche of “live orchid plants” packages was quite the center of attention. There was another batch to pack and go out on Monday, but how quickly things can change!

Sunday afternoon it started to snow here, and it continued to snow through noon yesterday. Sunday night the temperature dropped into the 20s F and last night into the teens F! (It should be teens C this time of year). It has not been above freezing since the snow started. Fortunately I had seen the weather forecast, which as a grower I check obsessively, usually with regard to shipping, but our own forecast looked alarming. On Saturday afternoon I watered the greenhouse, turned the water off and allowed it to drain, turned the heat in the greenhouse all the way up, sealed every opening with bubble wrap, closed the door, and crossed my fingers. The greenhouse has been in lockdown mode since Saturday, and will continue to be until the weather warms up. Luckily there has not been a power outage here, although many people did experience one.

Yesterday and today classes at the university have been cancelled. I haven’t been able to go anywhere except on foot, and I have gotten an amazing amount of work done at home. This episode has once again made me realize how weather-dependent anyone who grows plants is. I knew this already, but periodically go into denial when a particularly choice orchid blooms. The thing about perfumes is that they are (mostly) not weather-dependent, so they fit my scattered lifestyle much better. 

I have definitively decided that I want to sell the orchid-growing business, for a number of reasons. First, it has grown by leaps and bounds, and is now to the point where I need a much larger greenhouse facility if I want to take it to the next level – which is where it’s going, like it or not. Second, I don’t like to be shackled by plants that need care at certain times and have to be protected from weather extremes. I’ve learned that I’m just not cut out to be a farmer, even a farmer of plants that need minimal care like orchids. In case you wondered, Michael takes care of the regular garden.

 I’ve been thinking about selling the orchid business for years, but it’s come to a critical point now, so if you know anyone who would like to become an orchid grower, please send them my way. They would need a greenhouse, but everything else is in place for someone to have a turnkey business. 

[All photos are mine except for the last one, which I grabbed from the local ski area webcam - always a good source of snow pics!]

No Excuses, No Resolutions

January is gone, so it’s just as well that I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions. I wouldn’t have kept them anyway, and it’s nice to just chug along keeping the day job and businesses going and enjoying the fact that we don’t have below zero weather as most of the US does today. 

Even though I have no real housecleaning or de-cluttering strategies, I still want to continue divesting myself of the enormous piles of perfume samples and other samples that have piled up in my studio, taking up space that should be used for work. I know other people can enjoy the samples, so will keep offering the now-traditional drawings for 100 g of samples, and occasionally other things. 

The one form of self-discipline that I will try to follow starting in February is to spend no more that one hour every morning on e-mails, social media, and reading the news, and no more than  another hour at night. I know that it’s all too easy to just sit at a screen for hours, idly surfing from one place to another. After a while it gets redundant, and not even enjoyable. I also know that it serves as a displacement activity that blocks my doing something more useful that takes more effort. 

Here goes with the first random drawing in a long time. Just leave a comment saying what activity you voluntarily do to such excess that it becomes unproductive and no longer enjoyable. 

The drawing will be held and the winner announced on Sunday, February 10. 

[Photos of snow on tree from several years ago, and photo of our cat spending time on my laptop are mine.]

WINNER OF THE FIRST OCTOBER DRAWING

When I don’t post the drawing on Facebook, not many people enter, but that’s OK. 

The winner of the first October drawing is TRINITI. 

Just e-mail me at olympicorchids at gmail dot com with your current correct address to claim your winnings. 

It looks like the majority of people who commented want to hear about how I get inspiration or ideas for perfumes, so I’ll write about that later this week. Other topics were materials, so I’ll continue that series, and the effect of weather (or more broadly, context) on perfume perception. All of those topics are coming up soon! Thanks to those who commented with suggestions that will help keep me from writing about sociology and politics. 

[Photo is our woods, taken a little later in the season last year, but representative of our autumn  foggy mornings and sunny afternoons]

THE FIRST OCTOBER DRAWING

The seasons march on and we are on the dark side of the fall equinox. Halloween and the US midterm elections are only about a month away, so it’s time to … have another drawing. No matter how much excess stuff I give away, it seems like more accumulates. 

This giveaway includes the usual 100 g of samples plus an assortment of miscellaneous cosmetics, all in pristine (i.e., unused) condition. Just leave a comment. 

I will be writing some regular posts this month, so the question you should answer to be entered in the drawing is what general topics you would like to read about.  


[Photo was grabbed from the webcam feed of the local ski area.]

THE WINNER AND RUNNER-UP OF THE GIANT DRAWING

For quite some time I have been feeling guilty about not posting the winner of the last drawing. I have no real excuse except to say that I’ve been busy with teaching demands and, with the same sense of horror and fascination that one looks at a car crash, watching the farce that our government has become. It takes all the strength I have to keep politics out of this blog, so am going on the assumption that it is better not to post at all than to post my opinions, which are irrelevant to the stated topic of perfume. 

In any case the blog has been cleared of spam, the drawing has taken place and the winner of the GIANT drawing was JEN.

No, it’s not because she was the first to enter – this really was the random name that came out of the pile! I decided that, because so many people entered this drawing, I would also choose a runner-up who will receive 100 g of samples. 

The second-place winner was RICHARD FORTIN. 

Congratulations to you both. To claim your goodies, please provide your complete, current, and correct shipping address via an e-mail to olympicorchids at gmail dot com or send a PM to the Olympic Orchids Facebook page. 

[The photos are mine, taken in Hawaii]