No sun for us here today; here = under the fog. Up there, over the fog, blue skies.

Ah well. You can’t have everything, right? A steaming factory and the blue sky are non compatible today. So I will go down there after this post is written and do what I always do: Try not to procrastinate too much. On my way back I will need to get a pot and some earth. For my little rooting lemongrass sapling. I have to be honest here: Last summer, I had a great lemongrass plant outside, growing and thriving. But unfortunately, I forget it when it got cold and – well- it died a fast and silent death.

So back to field one: One lemongrass stick that was left and did not end in my my curries ended up in water and a few weeks later started to root and made me happy. A small beginning, but with the potential to grow big!

I will also need to get some earth for seeding the tomatoes, next week. Can’t wait. And with the global weirdness of the weather: My prophecy = early spring here in Zurich.

So, there we go: Lemongrass. A treat to work with in perfumery, too; with the essential oil that is. It is basically citral and myrcene. Citral smells like the lemon you get in the cheap refreshing tissues that you come across in restaurants, and myrcene has an odor that is spicy, herbal, fresh and well, plastic like. Natural lemongrass essential oil comes with earthy tones, too. And I love to work with it, but (see lemon and refreshing tissues and other detergents): Tricky. It does not bring about memories of faraway places, but of the cleaning stuff corner. No good.

But that’s becoming more and more a problem anyhow in the world of scents: Scents are used so everywhere that we all end up with associations that are no good. Iso E and other stuff is used to scent the air in some shops; and suddenly your wonderful perfume inspired by a Sicilian landscape with the fresh scent of pine trees growing in the distance feels like shop xyz. Wrong.

And having said that: Here’s my personal calone update: Horrible. (see earlier posts for the context).

Today’s picture shows you my little lemongrass roots.