Seattle Yogini

Summer Rain

We don't get much rain in Seattle during the summer.  I know, I know...folks who aren't from the Pacific Northwest often assume that it rains all the time in Seattle, but that isn't the case!  It rains most of the time, but almost no rain falls once summer begins (sometime around late June/early July).  In fact, in the last four years - since we moved to Seattle - we've had drought each summer.

I miss summertime rain.  I miss the big "thunder boomers" of an Indiana mid-summer's eve.  I miss lightening storms and buckets of rainfall.  I miss the warmth of summer raindrops and the coolness in the air while it's happening.  I miss the smell of rain on its way, rain falling, and rain leaving again.  (NOTE:  I do not miss the immediate increase in humidity levels once the rain has stopped.  lol)

So I feel quite blessed to be in Indiana during a week of rainy-ish weather.  It stormed yesterday while we were driving to Louisville.  Big, fat drops that splat all over the windshield, creating the need to put the wipers on their highest setting (which I seldom have to do in Seattle).  Then last night we had a weather alert for "severe storms" on their way through the countryside.   Dad and I went out to put the horses in the barn (they often get to roam the land during the night, when it's nice and cool and they can graze all they want) and back the trailer of hay into the barn, lest it get soaked and ruined.  We gathered the two dogs and two cats and got everybody settled in for a nice, dry evening indoors.  I don't know if it actually rained or not, since I slept like a log, but this morning it was damp and much cooler than it's been since I got here.

I decided to go for a walk.  Mom's at work, and Dad needed to go in for a few hours so I knew I'd have time to myself.  I slid on my Keen's, let Cordy (one of the two dogs) out with me and headed for the pond.  I figured I'd walk around the pond four or five times and that'd be that.  Then, as Dad was getting into the car he suggested I walk the road (what we in the city would most definitely call a "country road" - it's paved, but curvy and narrow and people drive it like it's the Autobahn).  He warned me about the big ol' dog that lives at the next bend in the road, and drove off.  With Cordy back in the house, I set off down the road.

Back in Seattle most of my walks are around my neighborhood and, quite often, include the dog.  These walks are noisy with the sounds of the city:  traffic, neighbors, children, crows, seagulls, other dogs, cell phones, etc.  Here, it was just me and the millions of cicadas, crickets, birds and other critters that live in the cornfields.  One car passed me.  It was wonderful!  It seems so quiet here, in spite of the constant chatter of the fields' inhabitants.  I hadn't realized how much I miss these noises, so unlike those of the city.  I walked happily along, listening the my footfalls mingling with the chirrups, hoots and hollers.  It was bliss.

I was thankful for the cool breeze and warm, but soft, sunshine.  I enjoyed watching the corn grow (it grows fast) and wondering if that thing growing along the side of the road was poison ivy/oak/sumac.  Most flora here has the ability to make me break out into a rash (a family trait of uber-sensitive skin), so I didn't get close enough to really investigate.  I walked until the skin of my hands felt tight with the increased bloodflow and bloat from having let them swing at my sides.

Upon returning to my folks', I headed straight for the barn to pet horse noses.  If you've never had the opportunity to pet a horse's nose, you must add it to your list of things to do before you die.  It is the softest, sweetest thing...and a friendly horse will let you do it for (almost) as long as you want.  Even the babies (two one-year old colts, "Indy" and "Vinnie") let me gently rub them...before they decided that if I wasn't going to give them a carrot then it wasn't an even exchange.  :-)  The horses are tired and dozy, so as I scratched, rubbed and petted their necks, ears and foreheads their eyelids got heavier and heavier.  Sigh.  What a great way to start the day.

Sensual Geekdom

Long time, no type!  Have no fear - all is well.  I've been busy with in a multitude of ways...not much knitting, blog-reading or - obviously - blog writing.  Rob is out of town for school, and I've had lots of time on my hands to...well...do whatever I want, basically.  Don't get me wrong!  It isn't as if I'm not free to do what I want when he's here, but out of respect for him and our relationship I always consider his preferences before deciding (for example), where to eat, what movie to rent (or go see at the cinema), how long I can go without emptying the dishwasher or vacuuming...you get my drift.  His preferences don't carry more weight than my own, nor do they carry less, I simply consider them - as I believe a life-partner should.  While I highly anticipate his return, I am finding that his absence has offered me the rare opportunity to note how I spend my time when no one else is looking.

Take yesterday, for example.  I spent the afternoon - literally, two whole hours - in a lovely boutique store called Essenza.  This place is a new favorite for me.  They have shelves and shelves of perfume, a whole corner of baby clothing cuteness, a rack of lovely nighties and robes, a different corner of high-quality make-up, and showcases full of fabulous hand-crafted jewelry.  I went strictly for the perfume, which is surprising even to myself seeing as I stopped wearing perfume about four years ago.

Lest I mislead you, when I stopped wearing perfume I didn't stop using scent all together.  It was like this:  the fewer synthetic/harsh things we used around our home, in the shower, and on our bodies, the less we  (for both Rob and myself experienced this) were able to tolerate perfume.  We re-sensitized our sense of smell, and found a wonderful new ability to actually perceive smells we'd never noticed before.  The only down side was that our sniffers became very aware and sensitive to the harshness of some of the poorer quality smells out there.  I switched to essential oils, infused soaps, and lightly scented shampoo.  I knew that I still smelled good, because people commented on it, but I also felt sure that I wasn't accosting anyone with my scent.  After all, I don't really want the world to smell me, just those familiar enough to stand close to me.

I didn't miss perfume at all.  I was quite content to smooth on some essential oils of sandalwood and rose, the occasional drop of patchouli, or perhaps simply a light layer of lavender.  Then I started reading Invisible Magnet, and something changed.  Those two ladies write about scent in a way that captivates me.  Their descriptions, their conversations, their attitudes toward perfume and its application not only to how we smell but to how we intend to live inspired me.  I started to consider that perhaps when I tossed my perfume I was also tossing a chapter of my life along with it.  That's all fine and well, but I don't think I need to toss the baby out with the bathwater.  Getting rid of the not-so-good perfume was the right decision, but I started to wonder if shunning perfume altogether was creating a pale area in my sensory life.  I began to see that I could use scent on me - not just in a room - to enhance a mood or as a reaction to the weather, in much the same way I use my clothing!  I felt like I had found an undecorated room in my home, and wondered why I had been ignoring it all this time.  The sense of smell is powerful indeed, and one of the most potent ways in which we store memories.  I decided to be more conscious about my use of scent, and develop a richer scent palette as I move through my life.

Invisible Magnet talks a lot about L'Artisan Parfumeur, and I decided that I wanted to smell anything by that company that I could get my hands nose on.  A google search led me to Essenza, so I took myself there a couple of weeks ago for a sniffingly good time.  I found the staff immensely knowledgeable, helpful, and patient.  I smelled perfumes until I literally could not smell any more (not even the coffee beans) and went home with a new perfume as well as a handful of samples.

As Now Smell This says, "people who love perfume tend also to love food and art more than the average person. Perfume lovers adore a story, too, and see their lives as movies in which they’re the star. I also think a perfume lover has a hint of the nerd. Perfume lovers want to try all sorts of perfumes, categorize them by nose or note, and love to talk about them. Is there such a thing as a sensualist geek? If so, lots of perfume lovers qualify."  Yes!  Yes!  That's me:  a sensualist geek!  I love all things tactile.  I love to taste things - even if they don't actually taste "good".  I love to describe how a thing smells or tastes through story.  I love to hear things and relate them to other senses.  I love, and I mean love, a good story!

One of my favorite things about the L'Artisan website is the perfume descriptions.  They poetically offer hints of what the scent smells like.  Read the description for L'Ete en Douce.  Compare that description to this one, for Sarah Jessica Parker's "Lovely Liquid Satin".  Seriously.  Do you get any idea of what that smells like?  That description gives me nothing to go by, and celebrity-association is not enough to garner my interest...not by a long shot.

And so it is that I spend hours smelling, learning, and reading stories about good-smelling things.  I have a small "collection" of high-quality perfumes now (three, to be exact), that I purchased as much because of the reaction they garner from other people as for the reaction they create within me.  There is one that I still must smell, and the only place in Seattle that carries it is Barney's.  I think I might actually go there (I've never even been to a Barney's) so that I can smell it.  I am enchanted and enjoying every nose-numbing minute of it.

What's your nose been smelling lately?