WHO KNEW RECYCLING COULD BE CUTE?

Having two businesses and a day-job provides an opportunity for me to recycle leftovers from one enterprise for use in another. I wrap orchid plants in recycled copies of the student newspaper. I pack perfumes in recycled styrofoam peanuts from my department and from shipments of materials that I receive. I use cut-off paper grocery bags as carry-out boxes for drop-in customers who buy plants from the greenhouse. I shred the ugly advertising flyers that come to our mailbox several times a week to make padding to use in shipping delicate plants.

It recently occurred to me that when I pack perfume boxes in colored tissue paper and trim the ends off to make a neat package, I can save the trimmings and add them to the shredded paper stash that I use to pack the orchids. I drop the shredded tissue in a paper bag, letting it accumulate until the bag is full and then adding it to the shredded advertising flyers. It looks nice and colorful, and keeps the plants safe as they travel.

Little did I know what a treat this bag of shredded paper would be for our big cat, Jasper! He loves to tip the bag over, rake the shredded paper into a comfy bed, and sleep half in, half out of the bag. The more paper there is in the bag, the better he likes it. What could be cuter than a 20-pound cat sleeping in a grocery bag, surrounded by bright-colored paper streamers? I can only imagine what a feeling of luxury it gives him. 

[Photos are mine]

“BEST OF 2013” LIST

It seems to be a customary end-of–the-year ritual for bloggers to make their “best of” lists. I’m not sure I could do that because singling out one thing as “best” automatically relegates a whole host of other equally good things to the category of “second-best” or “not so good”, depending on how you look at it. So this is not my “best of” list, it’s a list of random things in different categories that I enjoyed and/or discovered in 2013.

Fruit: The second crop of Brown Turkey figs (higos) that appeared on our tree this fall by the hundreds. They were the biggest, juiciest, sweetest figs I’ve ever eaten. I highly recommend this variety of fig tree.

Cat: Our Maine Coon cat, Jasper, has just completed his first year with us, and settled in nicely. He has all of the good features of a dog and none of the bad ones. He comes when he’s called, follows us around without being needy, wakes me up in the morning with a gentle mew and pat on the face, and comes and goes as he pleases, occasionally catching a rat or mouse.

Drink: The home-brewed ginger kombucha that one of Michael’s relatives gave us last week. It’s fizzy, it’s tasty, and it’s got to be good for you! I may try brewing some myself.

Tincture: The tincture made with dried fig leaves turned out wonderfully sweet and tonka-like. I'm going to use it in a perfume this year. 

Orchid: Laelia rubescens, with its big snowballs of purple-throated white flowers on crazy long stalks. It’s blooming now, with an interesting fragrance reminiscent of Ben-Gay, a sports rub that contains methyl salicylate. The photo is from a couple of years ago. This year it has two big spikes, each with a dozen flowers. To pollinate or not to pollinate, that is the question. 

Perfume show: The San Francisco Artisan Fragrance Salon sponsored by Taste TV is quickly becoming the premiere perfume event on the West Coast. It’s grown and prospered since its inception at a small art gallery two years ago, and will take place for the third time on March 15, 2014, with nearly two dozen participants, including Olympic Orchids.

 

Oud: Chinese Exclusive from Ensar Oud. To me, this is the prototype of oud, the ultimate woody fragrance. It’s an indescribable scent to meditate to, sleep on, or just inhale for pure pleasure.

Perfume discovery: A long-neglected and untried sample of Complex by Boadicea the Victorious. For the first few hours I imagined it as being what an ancient, defunct cave-dwelling would smell like, discovered during the clear-cutting of a hillside evergreen forest, complete with the dark mineral scent of the rock walls, the slightly sooty scent of old fires long extinguished, and the pungent smell of mortally wounded trees and herbs all around. A lot of people who post reviews seem to hate it with a passion. All the more reason to love it.

Bird sighting: A few days ago we walked down to the park at the bottom of the hill, where we heard some excited chirping. When I looked down, there were two of the cutest little birds I’ve ever seen, scratching in the leaves. They were a patterned olive color with bright, broad, neon-yellow stripes on their heads. Both birds seemed to have no fear, approaching us as if they were curious to see what we were doing, looking up at us. Back at home I looked them up and discovered that they were golden-crowned kinglets. I don’t recall ever seeing these birds before even though they must be native. 

Natural sound: The sound of palm-leaves rattling in the wind. It’s somehow disturbing and reassuring at the same time.  

I could keep going all day, so that’s probably enough of a “best-of ” list for one post. What are some random things that you enjoyed in 2013? 

[All photos are mine except for the golden-crowned kinglet, which is adapted from Wikimedia] 

THE EMANCIPATION OF JASPER AND THE MAKING OF A FELINE PERFUMISTA

Just when we had made up our minds not to have another cat, Jasper appeared on our doorstep and in our lives. It wasn’t as if he just showed up out of the blue, as his predecessor had done, walking calmly out of the woods one day after living on his own for an indefinite period of time. Michael actually found him intentionally. After Rosy died, we started seeing critters in our yard. Most bothersome were the opossums and rabbits that came at night to eat the veggies from our garden. Michael found out about a cat whose owner was moving to California, and couldn’t take him with her. We discussed the need for a “guard cat” to keep the wild animals at a distance, and agreed that it would probably be a good idea. He went to interview Jasper, and they hit it off.

Jasper Rasputin Kathan arrived at our house in December in one of those plastic pet carriers. The first thing to come out was his huge head, followed by an equally huge body. I have no idea how he ever managed to squeeze into the carrier. He proceeded to frantically rub against every object in the room as if he needed to take charge and immediately wipe out all olfactory traces of his predecessor. He never seemed to question the fact that he was coming to live with us. He said goodbye to his previous owner, and that was it. After the marking frenzy, his next order of business was to eat a huge quantity of food.

Up until the time Jasper came to our wilderness-farm, he apparently had led a sheltered life, mostly in the house with short excursions into a city back yard. I think he was intimidated by the vastness of his new kingdom. It was two weeks before he would venture upstairs, and only now, after nearly 6 months has he started venturing into the woods unaccompanied.

Jasper has long, dense fur, with an impressive mane. The collar he wore when he arrived obviously bothered him, because he kept scratching at it, trying to remove it. After a week he was comfortable enough with me to let me take it off. This was the ritual of the emancipation of Jasper. At that point he became a free farm cat. Within that first week he also learned to use the cat door so that he could come and go as he pleased. At first he spent most of his outdoor time on the back deck, but has gradually expanded his horizons to encompass at least half of the property, maybe more. One of his favorite activities is running full tilt and jumping out of the woods at us when we’re outside. We haven’t seen a critter in the yard since he’s been here. He may have no hunting skills, and a “mew” that sounds like a newborn kitten, but a 20-pound Maine Coon cat looks scary enough to make anything from a shrew to a raccoon run the opposite direction.

What has surprised me most about Jasper is his apparent love of perfume. Whenever I’m working in my studio he comes and hangs out, as if he wants to help me. When I’m testing materials, he comes and sniffs them, his nose quivering at a million miles a minute. When I’ve filled my big black transport bag with fragrant packages to mail, he comes and lies down on the bag, or next to the bag. If I put perfume on my wrist, he always checks it out. He shows an inordinate, obsessive amount of interest in materials that I’m tincturing, and I’ve had to double-bag and hide some tinctures to keep him away from them.

The most surprising evidence that Jasper has become a hard-core perfumista happened last night. I put a tiny dab of pure, high-quality oud on my wrist as a special treat after a long, hard day. Within less than a minute Jasper came running as fast as he could. He sniffed and sniffed at my wrist, obviously in olfactory heaven, and then started licking the oud oil off! I had no idea that oud would appeal to a cat. I think I should appoint Jasper as my official oud tester!

If you have a cat, does it pay any attention to perfume? If so what is its reaction?