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The last day of the year, the last day picture uploaded on this blog in 2007 and a bright 2008 in front of us!

As mentioned before, we have a guest dog these days and this leads to many walks in the nearby woods. The master takes pictures while the dog sniffs its way through the wet ground, nose 1 inch above ground except when trying to catch a mouse underground, which it never does of course, but utimately this leads to an unhappy dog in the bathroom, being washed….Early morning the light is different, opening the eyes for contrasts, like the icy leaves picture below, seen this morning on the first hike with Ms. dog.

Thus, expect more pictures, fragrant news and some exiting side stories on this blog in 2008!

A Happy New Year to you!

When putting stickers onto bottles and bottles into boxes and ribbons around boxes there is not much you can do about your mind wandering around and ultimately off. Right now, the living room looks like being hit by a car bomb or a similar powerful entropy increasing tool. Thus, good reason to go to Berne, visit the office and worry about bottles tomorrow again.

While wandering off, here is an image of the scent apero that took place almost two weeks ago in Zurich, where folks could sniff the Incense extrĂŞme. The scent apero took place at the “Mirroir des modes”, as usual, featuring fashion of the twenties and early thirties (last century).
  Ms. roaring twenties is somewhat stiff, but still standing upright and she might fall in love in my rose trials (more on these later…).
At the scent apero, I presented three natural extracts of Boswellia and the Incense extrĂŞme:
Boswellia carterii, steam distilled and C02 extracted
Boswellia serrata, CO2 extracted

In the Incense extrĂŞme I put Boswellia serrata CO2 extract. A lot. As a matter of fact, one forth (25%) of the sum of all fragrant materials in there is the CO2 extracted delight. I do not know about others, but with this concentration it must be top of the list in terms of percentage of natural incense in the fragrance.

Thus, for those of you visiting LA end of March: I think I will bring these three Boswellia extracts with me. Quite educative….
Fragrant greetings

Fragrant greetings from a house in Zurich, sitting on a 5 millimeter cover of snow, that allows its inhabitants to dream of winter wonderland below a thick cover of shabby fog.

The house has seen piles of X-mas gifts sitting around, all wrapped up with pink paper and an additional plastic cover: Not really sustainable, the Tauer X-mas present corporate design of this year… pink like little pigs the gifts made quite a few girls and boys happy. This year’s hit were super mega giga soft gloves in blue and red for the girls
Well, now…the house sits there, emptied of all presents. What is left is present to self.

And empty boxes… the Incense extrĂŞme goes into bottles the next days. Soon we will post pictures of this packaging venture together with poor W. -factor who has to help.

Until then: Please visit Helg’s PerfumeShrine for a closer look at the traveling bottle (hyacinth and the mechanic)….

In order to celebrate: It is Christmas time and today’s winner gets a full bottle of the Incense extrĂŞme.
AND THE WINNER IS…….

Macy (ghynd@….)! Please mail me your coordinates!
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CONGRATULATION TO THE HAPPY WINNER OF FULL BOTTLE OF AN INCENSE EXTRĂŠME.

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and with this last chapter we close our advent story and leave the people from Bankonupatut. I wish you all happy holidays and we will see us again , here on this blog, in a few days, talking again about roses and Clementine…..

The enthusiasm for sand seemed borderless and the villagers even began to sleep on sand. A rather fanatic cult follower, early greyed in his 50-ies and suffering from a chronic constipation, realized that his pain was relieved when sleeping on a large pile of fine sand Thus, he brought back about 50 camel stomachs full of sand into his house, from the large sandy hill, not far away from the old village, and he then slept peacefully and without pain every night.

He told the villagers about yet another sand miracle and as constipation was a rather common trouble to the villagers many started with their camels to the nearby sandy hills. There, the sand was clear, light and simply beautiful! It was the perfect sand to sleep upon. Thus, they removed the thin cover of grass, which was all year long grey and of no value, and they filled their camel skins with sands. They brought the sand home, where they prepared large caverns to store it. The sons and sisters of the sand spent their nights on these little sandy hills, dreaming sweet dreams under a dark sky with brilliant stars. They all slept wonderfully on the sand and they praised its blessings.

But the sandy hills, deprived partly of their grass protection and exposed to the heat and the winds of the desert, began to do what sandy hills do in the desert. They started to migrate. Slowly at first. So slowly that no man could ever see it. The largest hill began to wander. Maybe a camel foot from full moon to full moon. Later it was faster, jumping like a camel baby, it would move an entire camel tail length in one windy night.

And one fine day it was moving very, very fast. Shortly before the rain would start, the wind blew from the mountain, harder and hotter than the rest of the year. And it was a one of these windy evenings, when the sandy hill became a wandering dune again, approaching the village at the little lake fast, as fast as a goat walks at a hot day, and within a couple of hours, it started to fill the lake until it was gone.

The villagers had to leave their shiny houses and their sandy beds because the wind did not seem to stop this year and with it the wandering sand. It blew and blew and the dunes got higher and higher and faster and faster. The villagers took their camels and grabbed what they could grab and they started to wander, too. Hunted by the dunes, they searched rescue in the desert that was as empty and clean as it has always been. They realized that finally the prophecy has come true. They were now the children of the sand. They were chosen to walk with the sand. And they were happy. Most of the time. Just sometimes they would complain, when the dune was not giving them a rest and when they had to move on daily. Then, they complained about how difficult life was.

And the villagers in the new Bankonupatut? I guess they complain, too. From time to time.

Congratulation: Cynthia3403! Please mail me your coordinates. A sample of the Incense extrĂŞme is on its way!
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And for all others: This is the last chance to be included in the drawing for a sample: Hurry up!

….and we continue:

It was less than 5 rain seasons since good Bladubo found his eternal peace in the sand when the villagers were almost all living their sand cult. Every week they would meet and they were so numerous that in both villages they had to build large places where they would meet, close to a sandy hill. They plastered the place to ease the walk there for the elder villagers and in order to set a contrast to the sand on the hill’s slope. The place was bigger than 100 camel skins on each side.
After their ritual, the villagers would slowly walk back to their village, to the canal or lake, they sometimes took a swimming camel and admired the miracles that the sand created for them. And in the evening, they sat on their stone towers, playing with their lights, and would talk about the blessings of the sand.

Soon, they built little stony houses next to their houses, without window, but all filled to the roof with the finest and most yellow sand they could find. They decorated these houses and the most serious followers of the sand cult would eat a little bit of this holy sand every evening, after diner. The Naked Camel, symbolizing the miracles and beauty of the sand, was also given such a stony house, all decorated with silvery plates, and it too would eat some sand that was mixed into its grassy diet.

With every rain season ending, the villagers would celebrate the sand in a big feast. They packed the most beautiful camels they had, decorated them and the entire village went with the rising sun into the desert, celebrating the goodness of the sand. When they arrived at the most sandy place at a few hours distance from the village they made a fire with camel dung, and drank the milk of their animals. They enjoyed the peace of the desert and praised the sand for their modern life. After three days in the desert they would walk back, spiritually enriched and relieved that a shady home was waiting for them. They would take a bath in the canal,  and, sitting on their towers, they watch into the plain with all the lights, and they dream the dreams of tomorrow.

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Advent calender story
This blog brings you an advent story, developing day after day, from December 1- 24. And like with an advent calender, you get a chance -every day- to win your sample(s) of my newest baby, Incense extrĂŞme (which will be available in shops end January 2008). You want to be entered in the drawing? -> Just leave a little comment that you want to be included.

Congratulation: Kelley ! Please mail me your coordinates. A sample of the Incense extrĂŞme is on its way!
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For all of you who want to be included in the drawing for a sample: One comment is sufficient to be in for the rest of the story! But you must hurry up, as this story comes to an end, soon.

….and we continue:
The cult of the sand was founded by a student of the great Bladubo. He was wandering the desert in search of enlightening and after may days of fasting he had a vision. One day in the evening, with the sun just hiding behind the horizon on his way marching around the mountain, he saw the contours of a huge sand mountain. He marched through bright yellow sand towards the sand mountain. And when the last sunlight was gone, he was still far away from this huge pile of sand and he sank down. There, in the yellow sand of the desert, he saw a little beetle, crawling out of the sand. He asked the little animal where it comes from and the beetle said: ” I come from the sand, like everything else in this world! “Totally exhausted the wanderer fell asleep and had a most beautiful dream, in which the desert sand was forming beautiful things and it gave even birth to creatures such as camels and goats.

This vision was  at the very heart of the sand cult; it was soon to be called the happy beetle encounter by the villagers: The sand as being the almighty source of everything.

Indeed, this cult could unite different philosophies. The holy mountain was basically made of sand, and this could be proved by hitting two stones together, really hard, thus producing…..sand! It was not the mountain that was holy, but rather the sand forming the mountain. And the cult of the big emptiness was there, too: Nothing that you build with sand remains and lasts. All things are just transient, are creations of the sand. Eternity was big pile of sand.
And even the cult of the Naked Camel could -with some imagination - be reduced to the sandy ideas: In this line of believing, the Naked Camel was to be understood as reminder in the sand and that sand can give all things a new form. And like sand polishes everything, the Naked Camel was naked and all shiny.

Although it took a while until the cult of the sand established itself in old and new Bankonupatut, it was a winning cult! Even the sand students celebrating half naked their weekly sand rituals could not stop the villagers from joining in. They would meet at a sandy spot, form a happy circle and a chosen preacher would talk about the sand; about the times when man and sand were united. The people back then were happy, and lived in harmony with the sand. Following the  story, the villagers and the teachers would then unite again with the sand and eat a handful of sand, symbolizing this new closeness to their roots.

Eating sand was at first strange for some villagers. But after a while it became obvious that those following the cult and eating sand once a week were happy, and showed confidence that the sand will look after them. The cirlce of sand eaters grew weekly and soon, the villages were truly fascinated by the sand.

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Advent calender story
This blog brings you an advent story, developing day after day, from December 1- 24. And like with an advent calender, you get a chance -every day- to win your sample(s) of my newest baby, Incense extrĂŞme (which will be available in shops end January 2008). You want to be entered in the drawing? -> Just leave a little comment that you want to be included once. No need to comment daily. Every day I will pick a happy winner from all comments! hurry up as this story comes to an end, soon.

Congratulation: Anne ( jabell99)! Please mail me your coordinates. A sample of the Incense extrĂŞme is on its way!
=======================
For all of you who want to be included in the drawing for a sample: One comment is sufficient to be in for the rest of the story!

….and we continue:

There was a melancholic atmosphere among the villagers from old and new Bankonupatut these days after the great teacher Bladubo became the companion of the mountain. The villagers would watch the mountain and the one slope where you could see the slice taken out, and they mourned a great teacher. For the moment all building activities came to an end as Bladubo’s students watched and guarded the mountain and its silence. The villagers felt an emptiness sneaking into their hearts like the brown striped snake sneaks into a mouse hole. They sat in front of their houses at the canal or the little lake at the old village and for the first time they started worrying about these strange times they lived in.

Even in the following weeks, when life was back on the canal and when they sent out their lights again and transported more stones from the mountain back to their villages, you could feel that something has changed. The people from Bankonupatut missed the whispering of the mountain and the docile tales of the old Bladubo, up there, on the foot of the mountain. They wished the good old times back.

Thus, the relieve was big when some students of Bladubo told them about the mountain whispering again. The mountain was said to talk to them again and urged them that the villages need to calm down. They said the time has come to rest in search for tranquillity. Some villagers had their doubts and were suspicious about the mountain whispering again. They objected and warned that Bladubo’s students were making things up. And yes, there were more teachers appearing. Like after the large rain, when young camels appear one after the other, these new teachers appeared and preached their gospel to the confused villagers.

There was the teacher of the New Camel cult, a follow up cult of the Naked Camel, convinced that all camels are born into this world to help man. And only those villagers, who give the camels an opportunity to help man and serve him, only those will go to see the eternal grass together with the camels who will then serve them in eternity.

Or there was the teaching of the eternal circle. Like a dung beetle has to roll and roll its dung sphere, the people of the desert live their life circles. All these circles of man touched each other , crossed each other and at a glimpse, without realizing, man reached the starting point in the circle again. He would die and start life in another circle again; and like the rain comes again every year, man comes again.

Or there was the cult of the big emptiness, saying that everything around man and his camels was just a big nothingness: A mirror, similar to the pictures of things in the desert that are not there. And therefore, as there was nothing, there was no reason to think about things.

And then, there was the Naked Camel cult, more sophisticated these days. It said that the Naked Camel reminds man in his power to do good. This power is the hope for man. And with this hope turns into change. And this change is ultimately the power of man, rendering the villagers into very special people. But this cult became too complicated for most of our villagers. And then came the days of the sand cult.

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Advent calender story
This blog brings you an advent story, developing day after day, from December 1- 24. And like with an advent calender, you get a chance -every day- to win your sample(s) of my newest baby, Incense extrĂŞme (which will be available in shops end January 2008). You want to be entered in the drawing? -> Just leave a little comment that you want to be included once. No need to comment daily. Every day I will pick a happy winner from all comments!

Congratulation: Vida! Please mail me your coordinates. A sample of the Incense extrĂŞme is on its way!
=======================
For all of you who want to be included in the drawing for a sample: One comment is sufficient to be in for the rest of the story!

….and we continue:

Thus, some of the villagers urged to bring an end to these new habits and the obscure expeditions on the holy mountain. And even Bladubo, the great teacher at the foot of the mountain, began to worry seriously on the many visitors from the new and the old village. He got too many visitors and some of them even started to bring portable lights with them! Thus, he listened carefully to the mountain’s whispering and one day the mountain revealed that even a small, very small mountain might do its miracles, and that this little mountain might find its place in every hut. Bladubo said to his followers:”In its endless wisdom, the mountain gives birth to the sneaking waters and places clouds into the sky and in light of this enormous task, everything the villagers ask from the holy mountain is easy and in its grace the mountains will give what you asked for.”  Thus, the teacher Bladubo talked to the villagers and it was agreed that every family, who wished to do so, was allowed to bring home a little piece of the mountain.
And one day, a long train of camels, accompanied by strong men was sent to the mountain. There, from its slopes,  as high as possible, the men would pack nice stones into leather bags, carry them down to the camels again, and bring them into the village.  Finally, they distributed the stones equally among those villagers who believed in the miracles of the mountain. Of  course, there were a few villagers who did not even dream of making use of the mountain’s blessings. Be it that they were followers of the Naked Camel cult, be it that they still insisted of visiting the master Bladubo personally.

But most accepted the stones with pleasure and built a little mountain, mostly right in front of their huts, and decorated it with what was around. Or some more pragmatic followers used the stones to work on their houses. The rock was perfect to build things more durable and even the light towers were much more stable when built on a solid base, made of holy mountain rocks.

Soon it became more than obvious that besides all its holiness, the new material was very practical, and with the swimming camels the stones could easily be transported all the way down to the old village, too. Thus, the demand for stones was there and many camels were sent to the mountain, where Mr. Bladubo was watching, sadly first, angrily later. And one morning he went up the mountain again, to stop the workers from further hurting the holy mountain.

When he finally got up there, he could not believe his eyes; becuase so many stones had been gone and the slope looked like someone cut a slice out of it and he stood there for a long time, his mouth wide open and his ears not hearing the whispering of the mountain anymore.

He got very angry indeed and rushed down the mountain again, to seek the help of his followers getting rid of the villagers and workers on the mountain. But the great Bladubo never arrived at the foot of the mountain. His students searched for him, but they could not find any trace of him. They assumed that it has been the will of the holy mountain to keep Mr. Bladubo for eternity with him and thus, Bladubo would never come back again. Bladubo’s followers were all very sad and even the experienced followers listened for the mountain’s whispering in vain.

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Advent calender story
This blog brings you an advent story, developing day after day, from December 1- 24. And like with an advent calender, you get a chance -every day- to win your sample(s) of my newest baby, Incense extrĂŞme (which will be available in shops end January 2008). You want to be entered in the drawing? -> Just leave a little comment that you want to be included once. No need to comment daily. Every day I will pick a happy winner from all comments!

Congratulation: Mikael (with K)! Please mail me your coordinates. A sample of the Incense extrĂŞme is on its way!
=======================
For all of you who want to be included in the drawing for a sample: One comment is sufficient to be in for the rest of the story!

….and we continue:

Let me tell you now about one of these miracles, that turned out to influence our villages and their inhabitants for the rest of their life.

Like many other couples, Mr and Ms Patabubu had one big wish: Children of their own. They married a couple of years ago, shortly after the first swimming camel brought the two villages closer together again. They got to know each other shortly before, by chance, one evening. Mr. Patabubu sat lonely on his tower, watching the many lights, when suddenly he discovered a new light among the others. It looked like a silvery animal from the water and the light told him that folks moved in the other day, coming from the old village. Thus, he visited the new neighbours the next day, and met his future wife. They married and soon built a little cabin in the old village and moved happily between the new and the old village, like everyone else these days.

But their prayers for children was not fulfilled. They had visited the Naked Camel several times, but it did not seem to answer their wishes. At their last visit, it was too busy with eating lush, green grass anyhow and had no ear to listen to their prayers.

Thus, one day, they went to see the great teacher Bladubo, visiting him and his followers at the foot of the mountain. They asked him what they could do to get a baby and after a while and intense listening to the whispers of the mountain, he gave the couple a mysterious advice. “The mountain”, he murmured, “ whispers: If I can give birth to an entire desert every day, then there should be no doubt that I can give you a child if you come and visit me.” And thus, Bladubo sent them up there,up onto the mountain.

The couple climbed the mountain the following day and spent the night on its top, watching down the plain with all its lights, like a precious string of pearls twinkling in the night, and the black canal, a dark ribbon curling through the sand. The moon went up, it was cold, and incredible romantic. Three months after their night on the mountaintop there was no doubt left and the news spread in the two villages, fast as a camel runs, after it was stung by a desert bee. And thus, more couples wanted to heal on the mountain and visited the teacher Bladubo. And he showed the next couples visiting him the way to happiness,. And with every couple visiting him and the mountain, the voices in the village got louder, asking what really happens up there. Especially the elder could not accept that men and women went up the holy mountain, stayed there over night, to become pregnant shortly after. On one hand, they worried about moral issues, with rumors spreading that some Bladubo students would join the couples on their way up the holy mountain. On the other hand, they simply did not appreciate the idea of miracles far away of their villages. Thus, the time has come to bring things back, back in order.

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Advent calender story
This blog brings you an advent story, developing day after day, from December 1- 24. And like with an advent calender, you get a chance -every day- to win your sample(s) of my newest baby, Incense extrĂŞme (which will be available in shops end January 2008). You want to be entered in the drawing? -> Just leave a little comment that you want to be included once. No need to comment daily. Every day I will pick a happy winner from all comments!