Hello lovely person!

December delectations include; terrific trees, spicy scent, golden gorse, commodore’s chocolate and solstice serenity

Gardening tips for December

‘Tis the season for bare root planting. Roses, trees and hedges can be added to your garden more cheaply at this time of year. Or to someone else’s as a festive treat.

The Woodland Trust also sell wee cell grown trees. They’re £11 each or four for £17, so could you split a pack and give some as presents? You don’t even need to plant them in the ground as they’ll thrive in biggish containers.

You’ll get some gorgeous structure in your garden/balcony/back yard, bees will be thrilled with spring blossom and birds will feast on the berries.

Everyone wins.

Fragrant musings from the library of scent: Vanille Havane by Les Indemodables

Juicy cherries skewered and dipped in smokily scorched toffee. The snack of dreams to go with your fragrantly steaming, rum sploshed hot chocolate as you wander around a Viennese Christmas market. Cheerily decorated wooden huts, glittering brass band oompah-ing, golden lights gleaming against the snow——all present and correct.

I shy away from vanilla perfumes on the whole. But I’ve long been an admirer of Antoine Lie’s work - he’s the master perfumer who created Vanille Havane - so I felt the need to give this one a try. And I’m very glad I did.

Perfect as a shimmering, olfactory velvet cloak on dark, dreary days when it never really seems to get light.

Nature notes for December

Lashing rain pounds the windows, huge pails of water

cascading down the glass, gutters splashing,

iron hard frosts follow, footsteps ringing in frigid air that smells like metal

friendly, eager garden birds

boldly sitting on the front doorstep,

a speckled song thrush bounces around slumbering shrub stems, dog rose-hips glow while gales are wailing,

golden gorse glowing, a stormy seaweed scattered beach,

improbably long shadows across wind creased sand.

Featured chocolate: Seed and Bean lime and sea salt milk chocolate

Eating (or drinking) lime combined with salt always makes me feel like an ancient mariner. And chatting to the perfumer behind Tonnerre by BeauFort last week put me in mind of this mellow, organic chocolate.

🍫

Rich and almost fudgy, with tantalisingly tiny prickles of salt. The lime swashbuckles in, but doesn’t dominate. A glorious combination of buttery sweetness, a savoury hit and zingy fruit.

🍫

Oh, and if you fancy trying Tonnerre, drop me a message first so I can describe it to you. It’s, er, very challenging. (Which is exactly the point, but still…)

Random Scottish fact: Christmas is a new thing in Scotland (well, kind of)

Did you know that until 1958, Christmas Day was a normal working day in Scotland? And only in 1974 did both Christmas Day and Boxing Day become Bank Holidays here? All Scottish winter festivities were centred around Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) and New Year’s Day instead.

So you’ll still find Scottish families opening presents at Hogmanay, with minimal fuss made over Christmas. And there are some (like us) who celebrate the Winter Solstice, with low-key feasting and present-giving happening then.

As with everything in life, it’s important to work out what’s meaningful for you. Obviously, compromises with family and friends are necessary sometimes, but try to make sure you can negotiate some time for what you’d like to do.

The dark days of December can be very energy-sapping, so please be kind to yourself.

On the blog and LinkedIn:

What do 36% of people in the UK want for Christmas?

How do you write a perfume description?

What’s the doorstep mile and why is it such a huge challenge?

Thanks for spending this time with me every month——I really appreciate you. I hope you have a marvellously fun, relaxing and peaceful festive break 🎄

As ever, all wonky words and photos are by me, Rowan Ambrose. All products mentioned are paid by me too.