Update

A lot of things happened while I wasn't posting on this blog. One thing is that my hubby Mo is operated on his back for the second time. He had a double hernia in his lower back, they were huge. Two years ago he was operated as well, but it didn't work, and the hernia's came back. He was a bit afraid to do a second operation, but he simply had to, the pain was too much. He's now back at home, and he is doing pretty well. He already can walk quit a long bit, but has to lay down every time. The operation was only one and a half hour, and he could go home the next day. Now we are hoping that it will not come back and that his back will get better.



Here a photo of us when his back was a bit better:

Greetings from the Netherlands

Today was a beautiful sunny day. My husband and I like cycling, especially if the weather is sunny as it was today. We decided to pay a visit to my mom. She, my stepfather and my little (but tall) brother are living 11 kilometers (about 7 miles) away from us. They life in a romantic little white house, which you can see on top of this post. Before we lived in another village, but we moved to this house when I was eight. I love that romantic little house with such a beautiful garden. My mother and my stepfather loves gardening and they have beautiful flowers in their garden, but also all kinds of vegetables. I like it when my mother makes vegetable soup and goes into her garden to get all the ingredients for her soup, every ingredient for her soup is freshly picked from the garden.

My husband and I life in an area with beautiful nature, we can jump on our bikes and in 10 minutes we are surrounded by breathtaking beautiful nature, we have forests but a lot of water as well. We took the route where you can bike trough an area with wild nature where you see no cars, with the river called 'Linde' alongside you. I took some photos to share this beautiful day with you.

Above a photo of my mother and me, below are some photos of the

route that we took today

Smell

Yesterday I was in a perfumery shop and had a real nice conversation with the lady of the shop. I asked her if I could smell some of the new fragrances and we start to talk about fragrances in general.

I told her that I think Chanel no5 is nice and that it was really new and special in the time it was made but that it's not one of my favorite. She said she was a real fan of Chanel no5 and that when she wears it people always say to her that she smells so nice. I told her that Chanel no19 is my favorite and that I like Coco Chanel as well.

O, she said, before I liked Coco Chanel as well until I went to a funeral of a good friend of mine, she said that the daughter of her friend was wearing Coco Chanel and since then the smell of this perfume reminds her of this sad day and that she can't wear it without being really sad.

That reminded me of a perfume I can't wear or smell without being sad, it's Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana I weared this perfume when our dog Jacko died. Since then I don't wear it anymore, I can recognize this perfume without any doubt when someone wears it. I still miss my warm and dear friend.

This is our dear friend Jacko who died two years ago

We started to talk about how difficult it seems to translate smell in words, I found out that when I ask someone to describe a perfume they look at me like I asked something really strange, they say something like that it's nice or that it's sweet or that it's fresh but they find it difficult to tell more about it.

A couple of days ago I visited my brother, my friend was there as well, my sister in law and I started to talk about a perfume. She used words like, it has a high tone or this perfume smells round etc. My friend raised her eyebrows and asked where the hell we were talking about. She said it was like we were talking a different language. We explained to her what we were talking about and after the explanation she understood a bit more of this special language.

I told the lady of the shop about this and she affirmed this, she told me she did a wine tasting course once and that it was difficult to describe the taste or smell. There are some kind of words used to describe some aromas, but she told me that some descriptions were not her descriptions, everyone has their own scent memories or referents, so the description by someone else could be from a whole different scent experience than yours.

We also made the connection to music, we both like music it seemed. Music can touch you in the same way a fragrance can, but somehow it's easier to describe music then to describe a fragrance. We can even find out what kind of notes the music is made of, try that with a perfume....Maybe we have to learn how to describe what we smell it's an important part of our live, strange that we have a difficulty to find the words for such an important thing.

Update on the surgery of my husband

Well my husband had the surgery on his back last Tuesday, and it all went well. 6 hours after the surgery he was able to walk and one day later so on Wednesday he already went home!!! Can you believe it? Now he still has some pain and doesn't walk so well but that takes time. We hope it all turn out well.

Remember my question in the post about what scents could be used for perfumes and which don't? See here.
I never thought there would be a perfume made with the smell of cheese, but there is... there is a perfume called Eau de Stilton and it's based on the smell of Stilton cheese. The perfume re-creates the earthy and fruity aroma of Blue Stilton cheese. Using grape seed as a carrier oil, the Stilton scent features a symphony of natural base notes including Yarrow, Angelica seed, Clary Sage and Valerian. I'm curious about the smell of it but I can't imagine I would like it though. You can find information about this perfume on the site:
http://www.stiltoncheese.com/

I can smell again

It's a grey day in The Netherlands. Our summer started so well but the last couple of weeks the weather is rainy. Today there is no sun it's raining a little spit spat but it's not cold. On my bike I enjoyed the weather even. I think it is because I've spend a couple of days at home because I was ill. It felt good to sit on my bike and feel the little tiny drops of rain on my face and smell the fresh clean air mixed with the smell of wet soil and fresh grass.

I'm so happy that I can smell again. I put on my fruity/chypre fragrance and try to find out if it's missing something. Maybe it could use some more bergamot I will try that, I enjoy the smell of bergamot oil it's a delightful smell that brings the sun in your live, something that I could use right now. I tried substitutes for the bergamot oil but nothing smell like the real thing. I like the smell of green mandarin oil as well and will see of that can enhance the fruity note of this fragrance. I don't want to change too much though because the fragrance does smell great how it is right now, I just want to see if I tried everything to make it perfect.

On Tuesday we got the news that my husband will be operated on his hernia next week Tuesday, so on 5 September. I'm happy that it will be done but I'm also very nervous about it. But we both know that he need an operation, he has had a lot of pain and can't do the things he was used to do. I will keep you informed about it next week.

Don't feel so well

The last couple of days I don't feel so well. All my muscles hurt, I'm o so tired and I have a terrible cold. So no perfume making for me these days, I spent my days sleeping and reading. The book I'm reading is Chemistry and technology of flavors and fragrances by David J.Rowe.
It's a difficult book for me to read because it discusses the technical parts of some aroma chemicals, but there is also interesting information to be found. Like the chapter about musks, I found in that chapter that L'air du Temps not only possesses musk ketone but also musk ambrette, both are restricted now. Today these musks could be replaced by muscenone and nirvanolide. I will write a post about musk the next time, when I feel a bit better.

My poor husband

I'm really sad for my husband because he's laying in bed now for three days and he can't get up because of the pain in his back. My husband has a hernia and now the pain is so bad that he can't walk. His left hip and leg hurts like hell. I'm staying at home from work to nurse him. It's so sad that he can't help himself, and he feels so quilty that I have to help him, but I don't mind I love to help him as much as I can. He gets Morphine and Valium for his pain but he still feels the pain. I always was interested in herbs and the working of essential oils so I made an oil for the pain with: Rosemary, Corianderseed and leaf, Sweet Majoram, Black pepper, Wintergreen and Pine. He tells me that the oil is a wonder, it will take the pain away for some time. So every time I rub the oil on his painful spots. I hope he will get better soon.

My head up in the sky

Yesterday I had a lovely walk with my husband. It was cold but sunny. The nature here is beautiful but the whole time I was looking at the sky it was like a painting it felt like the sky was real nearby and the color was so clear blue with white powdery clouds. Lucky I had a camera with me so I can share the pictures with you. The Netherlands is cold sometimes but I love the seasons.