Hello lovely person!

Two whole years of Pine Marten Post! I can barely believe it. Thank you so much for subscribing to my wee sensory joy newsletter, I really appreciate your time.

June japes for you include; rambunctious roses, solar scent, honeysuckle hedges, Scandi sweetness, and the power of writing good stuff down.

Gardening tips for June

Did you ever see anything quite so ludicrously jolly? With its flamboyant circus striped and fragrant blooms, rose Ferdinand Pichard makes me smile all summer. No one-flush-wonder either, this rose flowers for months, especially if you remember to snip off any faded flowers.

Roses - even climbing ones - will grow happily in large containers, as well as in the ground. What roses crave more than anything is enough sun, though there are a couple I could recommend for shadier spots.

And the older varieties are unmatched for fragrance in a garden. So, if you fancy creating your very own scented sanctuary, how about making a perfumed rose the centrepiece?

Need a hand with some planting inspiration for your garden?

I offer garden consultations starting from £50, focusing on low maintenance plants that’ll delight you with fabulous foliage and flowers all year round.

Fragrant musings from the library of scent: About Thyme by Thursday Fragrance

Sitting in a dusty Edinburgh park in high summer, clutching a cone of pineapple and basil sorbet in my hot hand.

Distant traffic rumbles across worn cobblestones. An arc of beech shades me from the midday sun.

My coat caught on a trailing bough of thyme, crushed against the hot wood of the bench.

One bead of sorbet lazily trickles down the vanilla sweet cone.

🌿

Now, I know that About Thyme is inspired by warmer places than Scotland. But that’s part of the fascination with fragrance. Your scentscapes overlap with the perfumer’s and create an experience unique to you.

About Thyme is a glorious fragrance for evoking sunshine, leisure and happiness. Bright, yet soft, this would be also be quite the pick-me-up on a dreich February morning.

Nature notes for June

An early morning lost in banks of honeysuckle, their tridents thrusting through hawthorn hedges; ruby and gold, silver and gold. One sweeter, one spicier.

Strawberry flash of a bullfinch belly

Wild gooseberries, still firm, gently blushing

Glossy beech canopy, dripping leaves high on twisted branches slide droplets of rain to slither on my knackered Barbour

A skylark parachutes, thrillingly singing, all the while tumbling

Great, flat dishes of sweet-sharp elderflowers offer tempting feasts to passing pollinators

Scandi sweetness for Midsummer

Solstice feasts are a big deal in my house. And the summer solstice is an opportunity to gorge on copious bowls of gleaming scarlet berries. Accompanied by a fairly plain, almond-rich Mazarintårta, and wobbling dollops of softly whipped cream, it’s the ideal pudding for the longest day.

Wellbeing tip

What is gratitude journalling, and why might you feel better for doing it?

Gratitude journalling is when you set aside a few minutes every day to write down things you’re grateful for. Yes, it really is that simple. You don’t need any expensive tools to start; any old notebook will do, or the notes app on your phone.

So, why bother gratitude journalling?

Well, neuroscience has found (this is a big part of the mind-expanding Uncertainty Experts course) that focusing the mind on small things to be grateful for can reduce adrenaline and cortisol in your body. Both hormones we need, but too much of either can lead to difficulties with anxiety.

When you think and write about, for example, a bunch of beautiful flowers glowing softly in a vase on your desk, detailing the way the morning light is diffusing through the rounded, silken petals, your adrenaline levels will gradually drop. Paying attention to how the blooms atop the jade green stems are wiggling round to face the light.  Noticing that there’s a fine layer of dust on your grannie’s favourite vase—oops, sorry Gran.

How about relationships? Did you have a lovely chat with a friend over the weekend? Maybe someone in your household did a chore without being asked?

All of these experiences can be written about in detail. And the more detail you can go into about exactly why you’re grateful for whatever-it-is, the bigger the benefit to you and your sorely frazzled nervous system.

So, how about giving it a try?

Another marvellous win from writing a gratitude journal over a few weeks or months is you get to read it in the future. If you’re having a crummy day, flicking back through pages of lovely things can be an absolute tonic.

Have you ever tried gratitude journalling?

On the blog and LinkedIn:

What do you get when you book a garden consultation with me?

What’s the big deal with sensory marketing?

Do I really give away gardening advice for nothing?

⭐ The perfume sample I mentioned was kindly gifted by the brand. As ever, all wibbly words and photos are by me, Rowan Ambrose. Thanks for spending this time with me—I really appreciate it ⭐