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]

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]

COMPLETING CONSTRUCTION AND WINNER OF THE DRAWING

The winner of last week’s drawing is:

MARTIN

To claim your package of samples, send me an e-mail at olympicorchids at gmail dot com, or a PM on Facebook. 

Everything takes at least 3-4 times as long as you think it will. The reconstruction project that we started at the beginning of June is now complete except for staining the deck, which is not urgent. The best part is that I’m not the one who will be doing it. I spent the last few days painting walls that had been impacted by the construction, and the new trim that was put in. The ants are nearly gone, and at least the ones that are still around are living outside under a paving stone, where they belong. 

Last night I moved the first two racks of plants back into the space, and tomorrow will do more. It’s a relief to have the worst of the disruption over, but now my project is to clean, purge, and reorganize my perfume studio. Late last night I hauled out several big boxes of things I no longer want or need, and will try to find a home for the lot of it. Wish me luck!

FINALLY A WINNER!

I've been negligent about keeping up with the random drawings, but finally got around to doing it today. The previous batch of samples was unclaimed, so the winner gets a double portion plus some carded samples.

This Monday's winner is NELLE 25.

To claim your big jackpot, just send me an e-mail at olympicorchids at gmail dot com or PM me on the Olympic Orchids Facebook page.

Look for a new drawing next Monday.