SECOND DRAWING WINNERS AND SCENTS OF A ROAD TRIP PART 2

It’s been a while, including time spent reorganizing an old storage shed and putting stuff in a new one. It’s been a lot of work, but having two functional, organized, storage areas will help a lot. One will be for orchid plant-related items and the other for perfume-related items. I finally managed to do the drawing for three surprise packages. Here are the winners:

 

BECKY

ANGIE

JOHN F

 

To claim your prize, just send an e-mail to olympicorchids at gmail dot com. You could also try DM on the Olympic Orchids Facebook page, but it’s less reliable because I don’t check it every day. 

 

Here’s the next chapter in the Bend road trip account. 

On the Tuesday of our road trip, we went to the Newberry Caldera national volcano park, which is just southeast of Bend. Newberry is a huge shield volcano with a lot of interesting features.  On the way there, we stopped at an overlook where there was some sort of aromatic bush with leaves that smelled like herbes de Provence. I haven’t managed to identify it, but it smelled good enough to cook with. On the way up to the summit, the first scent was ponderosa pines in the sun, then firs in the sun. The caldera at the top has two lakes separated by a small expanse of lava that includes the topmost crater. 

When we got to the east lake we were greeted by a strong sulfur smell that led us to the hot springs. The springs were at the edge of the lake, with gases bubbling up through the sand. I could feel that the ground around the hot springs was warm, even through my sandals. The water in the pools that had been dug out by previous visitors was quite hot, so hot that I could only keep my feet in it for a short time. Once we were back in Bend, looking for something to eat, a small thunderstorm hit, raising a powerful smell of rain on pavement that had been dry for weeks or longer. We sheltered under an awning and ate lemon sorbet while the giant drops of rain fell. 

 

The next day we went to the town park that runs all along the Deschutes river. At one point along the river we encountered a grove of beautiful birch trees with the smoothest, whitest trunks I’ve ever seen. They were emitting a powerful birch-leaf scent. I had never actually smelled birch leaves before, and was struck by the acrid green character of the scent, and pleasantly surprised to find that Birch Leaf Givco (a commercial accord) is a close match for the real thing. At the farmers’ market that afternoon, the predominant scent was fresh, sun-ripe raspberries. 

That evening, back at the ranch where we were staying, there was a violent thunderstorm and hailstorm. It dumped a flood of water and ice on the dusty ground, leaving puddles everywhere. Afterward, when the rain stopped and the sun came back out, there was a unique and penetrating scent of rain-soaked earth and dry grass, along with wet junipers. The whole medley was accompanied by a background note reminiscent of black currents. What was particularly fascinating was when I watered the bone-dry garden beds back at home, I detected the same black-current note in the water-soaked dried ground and vegetation. This rehydrated desert scent of the northwest is very different from the “petrichor” scent that everyone talks about, and is absolutely unique. 

I am starting a new giveaway of three big boxes of fragrant items - samples, decants, mini bottles, and a few larger things. To enter, just leave a comment. 

[All  photos are mine]. 

WINNERS OF THE LAST DRAWING, SCENTS OF A ROAD TRIP, GIVEAWAY CONTINUES

 First things first. The winners of the drawing are:

ANNE

MERMAID

MARY M

CRAFTILY

SNEK

To claim your prize, just send your complete, correct name and shipping address to olympicorchids at gmail dot com, or PM me on Facebook.  

We haven’t been on a road trip for at least a year and a half, so decided it was high time to go on one. Our destination was Bend Oregon, by way of Portland. We got out on the road kind of late in the day on Sunday  so driving through the countryside there was a strong coumarin smell from the hay fields, and maybe some  clover fields. I had noticed this before when driving on the same route, but was very conscious of it that afternoon. Once we were in Portland, walking around the neighborhood where we were staying, the scent of jasmine wafted in from a yard, and the rubbery-sweet smell of privet was everywhere. 

Monday morning we headed south and east on Highway 26, which goes via Mount Hood. It was warm to hot, so we had the windows open for the whole trip. Near the pass, I smelled damp, live mushrooms and saw lots of bear grass, which is a plant with tall white columns of tiny flowers. Growing along with the bear grass were wild rhododendrons, blooming with a profusion of pink flowers. As we made our way down the southeast side of Mt Hood, we encountered the smell of fir trees, with new asphalt in places where the road had just been repaired. At some point the firs and asphalt started to be mixed with smoke. I smelled the wildfire before I could see the smoke, which eventually formed a dense curtain across the road and turned the sky a light orange.  The wildfire smoke was no more than  a couple of miles from the road, which was closed shortly after we passed through and continued to be closed into the next day.  It was a relief to finally exit the worst of the smoke and smell the dry grass, sagebrush and stones of the high desert. 

 

Walking around downtown Bend we smelled a cloyingly sweet floral scent everywhere as we walked down the streets. It turned out that the city has lots of hanging baskets on the streetlights, and all of them are filled with some variety of mixed-color petunias with such a powerful scent that it diffuses over the whole block. It seems like the hot weather intensified every smell, including the pinot noir that we enjoyed in the outdoor café area of a small wine shop. 

There is another drawing for three boxes of miscellaneous samples, decants, mini bottles, etc. To enter, just leave a comment. 

[Photos are mine, from our trip]

THE SHAPES AND COLORS OF THE PANDEMIC

The pandemic disrupted a lot of things, including shipping, and the sources from which I get materials for perfume making. Because of delays, I’ve run out of things, and because of unavailabilty of items that I routinely use, I’ve had to improvise. 

The first improvisation occurred when our bottle printer moved to a new location, was shut down for some time, and we ran out of printed bottles for the 30 ml size of some popular fragrances. To keep up with orders, we started putting new labels over the name on existing bottles, and quickly realized that using generic bottles for the 30 ml size, as we had been doing for the 100 ml bottles, would save space that would otherwise be used to store boxes of bottles for less popular fragrances. By customizing all of the bottles, we wouldn’t have to guess about demand and potentially keep things sitting around that we didn't use. We have added the classic picture labels to the back of the 30 ml bottles, so now the appearance of the two sizes matches perfectly. Discontinuing the old flat, rectangular bottles also saves storage space, eliminates the need for more than two types of sprayers, and helps conserve space on our stock shelves. When I have time (good luck with that!), I will post new photos of all of the bottles in all sizes on the website. We are currently using up the old stock, but pretty soon everything will be standardized. 

 

The second surprise came when the clear vials we use for samples became unavailable. The supplier said that they were being used for Covid vaccine, but that doesn’t seem probable. I think it’s more likely that the clear glass was all being used to make a different size and shape of vials for vaccine. Whatever the real story, we could only get amber glass vials with black tops, so we are using those until the clear glass becomes available again. I like the clear glass because the juice inside is visible, but I may stick with the black tops. 

 

Several materials that I use in perfumes have also become unavailable, so as I use up the last of the supply on hand, I’m working on coming up with acceptable substitutes. This is considerably more frustrating than any changes in packaging, but in the end, everything should work out. 

 

During the pandemic, I’ve been wanting more than ever to downsize my chaotic stash of fragrance samples, decants, mini-bottles, and even some full size bottles. To help with that process, I’m offering another batch of surprise packages to five readers of this post. Each package will include a mix of things, probably some junk, but also some potentially valuable items. Of course, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, so I don’t really know which is which in your eyes, so it will all be there to sift through. Just leave a comment saying that you would like to be included in the drawing, which will happen after we return to Seattle on the 26th. Unfortunately, at present I can only offer shipping within the US. 

[The gratuitous but seasonally-appropriate photos are mine, one of the peonies that got beaten down by the rain, and one of a small fraction of the amazing crop of strawberries from our garden] 

WINNERS OF BELATED SOLSTICE GIVEAWAY

The drawing has taken place, and the winners are:

DIMI

JULIETTI

KATHLEEN

ARCHIVIA/KATIE

ROB

If you are a winner, please send me your complete name and shipping address so that you can receive your big package of fragrant goodies. The best way to reach me is by e-mail: olympicorchids at gmail dot com. The written-out symbols are to prevent spam. 

A BELATED SOLSICE AND BIG GIVEAWAY

Where to start? A lot of this fall was taken up with adapting a large class to strictly online format. That’s over, but I’ve got to do it again for another class in January. 

Anxiety about the elections, and now the insane aftermath of the elections, has occupied a lot of mental space for me and everyone I know. If n politics this year were a satire, it would be too far-fetched to work effectively. I just hope we can get through the next month without a major crisis of some kind. 

 

Apparently the covid epidemic has greatly increased online shopping, because we’ve had unprecedented numbers of orders for both orchid plants and perfumes. I ran out of boxes for the 100 ml size bottles, and it took over a month for the new batch of boxes to arrive, so shipping of many orders was delayed and I’m still dealing with the backlog. We are running out of small sample vials, and can’t get the usual ones because they’re all being used for covid vaccine. 

The solstice is over, so the days will at least start getting longer, if not warmer. Crocuses and daffodils are starting to come up, and the hellebores are in bud. On Monday we had torrential rain, then on Tuesday it snowed. The Pacific Northwest is the only place I know of where it can snow – and the snow can stick – when the temperature is well above freezing. On Wednesday I finally had to bring inside all of the orchids, tender succulents, and other tropical plants that had been having such a good time outside. Today I’m planting the last of the bulbs that I ordered when they were on sale, hoping that the squirrels and moles don’t eat them all. 

 

I’ve been going through all of my perfumes, eliminating anything that I don't think I need to keep. For that reason, I’m offering a series of big giveaways to all US readers. The items in the giveaways include small samples, larger samples, decants, mini bottles, and a few full-sized bottles. To enter, just leave a comment about your fall. To make up for lost time, up to 5 readers will be winners of this drawing. 

[Photos are mine]

EVERYONE’S A WINNER!

 

For the first time in many months I took a look at the blog, deleted a big accumulation of spam comments, and decided that I need to reward those of you who left comments on my last post. I still have a big box of old samples and small bottles that I want to give away, so if you left a comment on my last post, you’re automatically a winner, no drawing needed. 

Just send me an e-mail with your name and shipping address olympicorchids at gmail dot com), or as a Facebook message and I’ll send some perfume-y stuff your way. There will be enough in the box so that I hope you can find some things you want to keep and use, some to give away, and there will probably be some that you have my permission to throw away because they're not usable. I have not checked through all the samples to make sure they’re full, etc, but I think most everything should be in decent condition. 

 

Being home during quarantine has made me realize that I need to identify things I don’t want to keep any longer, and pass them on to others. I’ll try to post some more giveaways as the weeks go on. Maybe even write some real posts. 

[The photo is of flower buds on one of our pear trees - they look just like candy!]

LIVING IN A SOCIETY ON HOLD AND A BIG GIVEAWAY

First of all, let me wish good health and financial stability to everyone who is being impacted by the coronavirus, wherever you are. I know that the pandemic has changed all of our lives in numerous ways, and that it is a constant process of adjustment. 

Ever since university classes stopped meeting in person and schools closed at the end of February, we in the Pacific Northwest have been going through increasingly stringent stages of isolation and suspension of public activity. Like everyone else, I’m in the strange situation of suddenly being freed of all outside obligations. I can do what I need to do from home, on my own time. It’s limiting, but it’s also freeing, and gives me some time to do things I would probably not have done otherwise. I’ve set up an online class for spring quarter, so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve purged my e-mail of over 100 thousand old messages, so it’s about as lean and mean as it can get. I’ve started running again after a long hiatus, so am going to get some outdoor exercise. I’ve weeded the entire front garden and started back on the battle of the blackberries, which take over everything if not controlled. I’ve been making perfume samples and filling bottles to get stock back up to where it should be. That’s not finished, but it will be before too long. I’m updating my websites and thinking about some new perfume releases. I’ve been cooking with the aim of emptying our pantry of old stuff over the next few weeks. I’ve been taking care of the orchids and shipping out orders to help keep people sane while they are shut in. Plants and perfumes are important for mental health during this time. 

This week I’m taking up blogging again, and this is the first post in a very long time. To kick it off, I am giving away a huge box of fragrance samples that have been in total quarantine for a months or years, so all you have to do is leave a comment about how you’re dealing with the coronavirus situation and you will be entered in the drawing. 

[Coronavirus image is from King County; other photos are mine.]

WINNER OF THE NOTHING IS FOREVER DRAWING AND ARTEMISIA TRIDENTATA

The winner of the latest drawing is CRYSTAL. 

To claim your box of samples, send me at e-mail at olympicorchids at gmail dot com or leave a comment on the Olympic Orchids Facebook page 

I will be away from the blog, traveling in Europe from September 4-17, so would like to get this drawing finished up and the prize sent off before I leave. 

There will be a new drawing once I’m back in Seattle, once again for a big box of samples and anything else related that will fit in the box. 

Several years ago I wrote about Artemisia, but have become newly fascinated with Artemisia tridentata, also called big sagebrush. You can read a little bit about it here. I have discovered that it grows everywhere east of the Cascades, and last month harvested some, thinking we might want to distill it. Life intervened and we waited too long, but I took the dried-out leaves and tinctured them, thinking it might be interesting. 

Much to my surprise, within a day the alcohol had turned a bright green, and within a week it was dark emerald green, so I removed the plant matter and filtered it. It is so dark now that it is hard to photograph. I think you can see it best when the bottle is turned on its side and the light shines through. The bright green color was surprising given that the plant itself looks grayish. Best of all, the tincture has quite a strong scent that really captures the fragrance of the fresh plant. I think this tincture would make a great perfume!

To enter the next drawing, leave a comment about where you would like to travel in Europe or some association you have with sagebrush.

[All photos are mine] 

WINNER OF THE PHALAENOPSIS BELLINA DRAWING AND: NOTHING IS FOREVER

The winner of this week’s drawing is EMILY.

To claim your winnings, just send me an e-mail at olympicorchids at gmail dot com or leave a comment on the Olympic Orchids Facebook page. 

Years ago I started trying to keep an archive of perfume samples. I carefully tagged and recorded them in a database, put them in baggies with cards, one for each brand, and put the baggies in alphabetical order in shoebox-sized plastic carriers. It’s probably been 8 or ten years since I started collecting samples, and I have recently been dismayed to find that many of the samples are not in good shape. A lot of them have leaked or evaporated, and there’s not a lot of juice left. Some may have experienced other ravages of time – I haven’t checked. 

I discovered this when I took some of the samples out of the archive to send out to winners of my drawings and free up some shelf space. Because of the preservation problems I’m slowly dismantling my archives and sending out the samples “as is”. Some are in perfect condition, some are pretty good, and some are not good. Some are cheap junk perfumes, some are the average stuff, and some are really beautiful, interesting, expensive, or rare. You take what you get because I don’t choose what I send, I just weigh out a couple of handfuls at random. Pick through them, enjoy whatever appeals to you, and use what’s left over to scent your laundry or your bathroom, give away, throw away, use up, do whatever you like with them. Like everything else in this world they won’t last forever, much as we would like them to, so enjoy them while you can. 

To enter this week’s drawing for at least 100g of samples, leave a comment about the transitory nature of perfume or other things. 

[Perishable flower photos are mine]

AN UNINTENTIONAL EXPERIMENT AND A NEW DRAWING

For the past few months I have been posting on Facebook whenever there was a winner of one of the drawings, and the winner usually responds right away. This last time I got busy with a lot of things and didn’t put anything on Facebook. The winnings are unclaimed, and there were far fewer comments than usual on the post for the new drawing. It seems that a lot of people don’t see the blog unless I put an alert on Facebook. I’ll do it this time and will try to remember to do so in future. 

This week’s winner is TRINITI

Last drawing’s winner was PARROT. Parrot has one week to contact me, otherwise everything will go to Triniti as a jackpot. 

To claim your winnings send an e-mail to olympicorchids at gmail dot com or leave a message on the Olympic Orchids  Facebook page. I will need your complete shipping address. 

This week’s photo is Phalaenopsis bellina, which is blooming right now. The fragrance is amazing, kind of a citrusy floral, but unique. It diffuses its fragrance all day. 

To enter this week’s drawing for a big box of samples, just leave a comment about how your summer is going, or any other random thoughts that you have. 

[Photo is mine]

WINNER OF SERVER FARM DRAWING AND A NEW ONE

The winner of the last drawing is:

PARROT

To claim your winnings, just send an e-mail with your full name and shipping address to olympicorchids at gmail dot com, or leave a message on our Facebook page. 

Yesterday I spent almost the entire day packing perfume to ship and supervising the new person who was packing orchid plants. Such a lot of busy work. I’m still trying to sell the orchid business, even as it grows, so that I can spend more time with the perfume and other creative activities. 

In the evening our neighbor invited us over to sit on her back deck and drink a bottle of prosecco. We made a fire in her clay chimenea using wood scraps picked up in the woods. The high point was when we burned parts of an old, decommissioned bird feeder that was so dry that the flames leaped up immediately, crackled, popped, and sent up showers of sparks. The fire eventually settled into a red glow that just took the chill off the night air. We watched the stars come out, and the moon come up. Everything was perfectly quiet. It was like sitting around a campfire, and about as relaxing as it gets. 

There’s something magical about watching a controlled open fire. It invites contemplation, clears the brain, and brings people together in a friendly way. The smell of the wood smoke is part of the magic. 

To enter this week’s drawing, leave any sort of comment about fire. The prize will be at least 100g of perfume samples. 

[Photos of chimenea fire and rising moon are from Wikimedia. We had no devices of any kind with us last night. Moon and campfire painting by Albert Bierstadt, 19th century.] 

WINNER OF IRIS DRAWING AND A NEW ONE

Finally, I’ve done the drawing, and the winner is 

JEN

To collect your goodies, just send your full name and shipping address to olympicorchids at gmail dot com or leave a message on our Facebook page. Facebook has been having some issues, so e-mail is probably more reliable. 

I was recently reading an article on the US obsession with air conditioning, which pointed out the obvious fact that running all those air conditioners to keep people refrigerated is a significant contributor to global warming, which would ultimately lead to a need for more air conditioning. What should be even more alarming, also pointed out in passing in the article, is that all of the server farms that store our data rely on air conditioning to dissipate the enormous amounts of heat generated by the servers. If the air conditioning should fail, the servers will go down, and who knows what will be lost. Any operations that depend on the server farms will come to a screeching halt. 

I’ve always had my doubts about keeping anything I valued on the “cloud”, so I have jpeg files of all my photos and mp3 files of my music library on my laptop, backed up on an external hard drive. All of my documents are backed up as well. 

It’s only a matter of time until some major server farm fails, either through hacking or through natural causes like a natural disaster and/or power failure. Luddite and jack-of-all-trades that I am, it should not affect me all that much. 

The next drawing will be for a massive haul of samples of all sorts, probably at least 200 g for US shipping, but 100 g international. To enter, just leave a comment about air conditioning, server farms, or how you back up your important data. 

[Fuschia photo is mine, freezing baby and server farm are from an internet search.] 

WINNER OF COTTONWOOD DRAWING AND A NEW ONE

It’s been way too long and the cottonwood snow is long gone, but finally here is the winner of the drawing:

LORENZO

If you are the winner, please send me an e-mail (olympicorchids at gmail dot com) or a PM on the Olympic Orchids Facebook page.

I will need your full and correct name and shipping address. If I have not heard from you before I post the next drawing, the goodies will go into the jackpot for the next one. 

Now that the academic year is over, I will have time to get back to posting regularly, at least over the summer. 

Last weekend we were east of the Cascades, admiring the meadow full of wild iris flowers in the photo. 

There is a new drawing for 100 g of assorted samples, so leave a comment about your local wildflowers to enter. 

[Photo of Rocky Mountain iris flowers is mine]

WINNER OF LAST GIVEAWAY AND NEW COTTONWOOD GIVEAWAY

The winner of the last giveaway is:

NATHALIE MORIN

To claim your winnings just send me an e-mail: olympicorchids at gmail dot com or leave a PM on the Olympic Orchids Facebook page. 

As usual, when one giveaway ends another one begins. Right now I’m just trying to get through the last three weeks of spring quarter at the university, all the while keeping up with shipping out plants and perfumes.

This week the cottonwood trees are doing their thing, releasing flakes of white material that look just like snowflakes. The cottonwood snowstorm always reminds me of Fellini’s movie Amarcord, where the old man looks at the floating white particles from the trees and says, “vagano, vagano, vagano …” (they drift… and drift … and drift). Around where I live, there are so many cottonwood trees that the white fluff accumulates on the ground, just like snow. 

Do you have any similar phenomenon where you live? Leave a comment about it, or just leave a random comment to be entered in the next drawing for 100 g of perfume samples and anything else that I decide to throw in. 

[Photos of accumulated cottonwood "snow" in a local parking lot are mine]

SWITCHING TIME ZONES DRAWING WINNER AND A NEW GIVEAWAY

What with two orchid shows in April, it’s been crazy and I’ve let the blog go for a while. However, now that they’re over, I did get back on long enough to do the drawing for the last giveaway. 

The winner is ROBIN BRENNAN. 

To claim your goodies, please send your full shipping info to olympicorchids at gmail dot com or leave a PM on our Facebook page. 

I have so much stuff left to give away that this series of drawings will be going on for some time. I am just going to do the easy thing and say that anyone who leaves a comment and says they’re interested in getting some samples will be entered in the next drawing for 100 g of assorted fragrance samples and other stuff. No need to think!

[African violet photo is mine. The flowers sparkle like fine glitter in the sun]

WINTER FLOWERS WINNER, SWITCHING TIME ZONES, AND A NEW DRAWING

The winner of the winter flowers drawing has been randomly chosen, and the winner is:

GINA TABASSO

To claim your 100 g sample bag, please send an e-mail to olympicorchids at gmail dot com (quickest way) or leave a PM on Facebook. 

Well before the spring equinox, Big Brother dictated that we would once again switch time zones, from Pacific Standard Time to Mountain Time (one zone to the east). This arbitrary change is euphemistically known as “Daylight Saving Time”. Logically, nothing is saved by cutting a segment off on one end and adding it to the other. The amount of daylight is the same no matter what you call it. 

What the legislated time switch accomplishes is unclear, but to me it’s depressing to go from finally having it nice and light when I wake up to go to my “day job” to having it still dark. This is not quite accurate in my case because the cat usually wakes me up at dawn no matter what, but now that feline wake-up call comes an hour later in the official scheme of things, I’ve lost an hour of what could have otherwise been productive time in the morning before I have to be somewhere, and/or I’ve lost an hour of sleep. Do people really want to get up an hour earlier so that they can finish work an hour earlier? If so, then why don’t the morning people just do it without calling it something else? Why force everyone to do it?

Time zones were designed to coordinate with the daily cycle of the sun and, with a few exceptions, generally provide the best approximation to it. I know there are movements afoot to do away with changing the time twice a year, but please, let’s not have a permanent move into the wrong time zone!

This week I’m offering the usual 100 g of samples and whatever else I decide to throw in as extras. To enter the drawing, just leave a comment giving your thoughts on “daylight saving” time. 

[All photos are mine. The colors of the crocuses were especially bright this year, maybe because they bloomed a month late.]

WINTER FLOWERS DRAWING WINNER, REDUNDANT PERFUME

The drawing has been done, and the winner of the winter flowers drawing is: 

LEAH

If you’re the winner, please contact me by e-mail at olympicorchids at gmail dot com or PM on Facebook with your full name and shipping address. 

This past week we’ve had nothing but beautiful blue skies and sunshine during the day, but the down side is that it’s been horribly cold at night, in the 20s F (below 0 C), well below freezing. We still have snow on the ground in shaded areas, and the typical ugly piles of snow and sand on the sides of the roads and in the parking lots. This is completely abnormal for March, and all the plants are about a month behind schedule. We are still cleaning up broken branches and beaten-down bamboo canes from the heavy snow. I hope things will warm up as we get into what should be spring. 

As should be obvious from the giveaways, I always have a huge number of perfume samples on hand. I view sampling other companies’ perfumes as part of my continuing education as a perfumer, partly to learn what is possible, and partly to avoid duplicating what’s already available. I don’t know about you, but the more I sample, the more everything seems the same. These days it is rare that I experience that beautiful flash of discovery when something really new and surprising comes along. It’s all déjà vu (or rather déjà senti) I think part of the problem is that a huge number of new perfumes are released every year in a futile attempt to keep brands in the public eye, and this number seems to increase almost exponentially every year. It’s easier just to recycle the standard scents and try to push them on the public through advertising and gimmicks than it is to be innovative in terms of the perfumes themselves. It’s actually depressing to think of how superficial all of the marketing is and what a glut of products are sloshing around.  

This week there’s another giveaway of 100 g of samples plus whatever goodies I have sitting around that will fit in the box. Just leave a comment about your experiences with perfume sampling. Do they all start to smell the same after you’ve sampled a lot? 

[Pics are mine, all types of flowers that are blooming now, but should have bloomed a month ago.] 

WINNER OF THE SNOWSTORM DRAWING + NEW SPRING FLOWERS THROUGH THE SNOW DRAWING

The winner of the snowstorm drawing is MIM.

Because the last prize was not claimed, you will win double the samples (200 g) plus some extra bonuses that depend on your shipping address. Please contact me with your full name and shipping address. You can e-mail olympicorchids at gmail dot com or leave a message on the Olympic Orchids Facebook page. 

After two weeks the snow is finally melting, and there are now patches of bare ground. They look so pretty after the solid white! I’m continually seeing new surprises from under the snow. Who would have thought that cyclamen flowers could stand having the weight of two feet of snow on top of them, let alone the cold temperatures? Yesterday, for the first time, I saw the cyclamen flowers that had been blooming before the snow started, slowly uncovered, apparently with no ill effects. Similarly, the crocuses, daffodils, and tulips that have been uncovered seem not to have minded the snow too much. The hellebores, which were in full bloom, got beaten down a little, but the bent stems make nice cut flowers for inside the house.

A week before the show we planted a sarcococca bush, seduced by the strong fragrance of the little flowers. It was completely buried in snow, with not a leaf showing, and I was worried about it. However, now that its covering has melted away, it looks perfectly healthy. The jasmine we planted last year didn't fare so well. It was completely covered, too, and now the leaves look brown. However, the leaves near the base are still green, so maybe there’s hope. Spring will reveal what’s left of it, if anything. 

We’ll have a new drawing for 100 g of samples, so leave a comment saying what surprises you have found when snow melted, or when other natural events changed the landscape. The winner of the new drawing will be announced in about a week.

[Photos are mine from this week]

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]