Today’s picture: Looking into a metal funnel. I decided to take this picture this morning when sitting on the balcony and thinking about today. Today’s is going to be exciting; and so far the whole week was. Today, I will get three deliveries: Strawberry plants, some vetiver that I get back from the company who’s mixing some of my scents. Yes, some I do mix, some they do following my recipe and working with my specialities. They basically mix to the ones where I have to produce too large a volume and where I outgrew my capacities. One of the specialities is this vetiver that they are sending back to me for a little funnel project of mine. Ah, yes, and I am supposed to get some printed labels.

FA fnel fits perfectly for this week, too; I was/am filling lots of bottles. Vetiver dance (vetiver again!), Orange Star, Lonestar, Incense extrême. Funnel fits also perfectly because of the funnel project. Back then, many years ago, when employed and having a boss I hated these. You know: You work in a development team, busy as a bee doing what needs to be done, project work, plans, design, you name it. And then one morning your boss walks in and comes with this sweet little idea of his that he already convinced his boss of. No chance to say no, really. And suddenly, the funnel project becomes bigger than the real project. And this although it never really passed a board and was tested for profitability or whether the resources are there. And it is always top of all priorities for your boss.

I do not have a boss anymore. Or better said: I have thousands of bosses, my clients, and I am trying to serve them well, and I am trying to run my projects in an organized way. But sometimes, these funnel projects appear nevertheless. They are fun, totally distracting and often completely useless. But sometimes, they are the door opener to new lands, like Rose flash was. I will keep you updated on my funnel project.  But, as I realized that I only have one bottle of this special vetiver that is coming home these days, and when I realized that this one bottle might get lost and with it my capacity to produce more PHI-une rose de Kandahar, the Vanilla flash, and another scent or two (where this particular vetiver oil is an ingredient), I decided to stock up. You know: It is a special quality. Sort of “hard” to get. All natural of course, but distilled in a particular way and its quality is amazing. Seriously: I could dilute it, bottle it and it would be the perfect vetiver. It is soooo good. I did a google search for it and funny enough: I found my own blog posts, where I talk about it. Actually, it does not appear on the producer’s website. But they still make it. A hidden gem ! Ha!

Anyhow: The strawberries. They will go into my “hanging garden”, where I hung some 8 aluminum cans last years, cut 12 liter cans, on a palisade trench. I prepared them last year and planted beans. They actually did very well. Starting now, I want to grow strawberries there, a strawberry breed that is actually dangling, and supposed to have berries from spring to autumn. We will see…What is nice about the hanging gardens: They are snail safe, sun exposed and look weirdly cool.

And after this long post (sorry!) and if you are not tired of reading yet: Here’s the link to 13 thoughts (of mine) published on Perfume Polytechnic.

And heres a 5 minute feature on niche perfumes and how independent perfumers are making a big splash (yes!) (you can read it or listen to it) on PRI.org. Enjoy!