Pine Marten Post #4
Hello lovely person, and welcome to Pine Marten Post #4!
I’m excited to share my deeply sensory world with you. Using your senses more is a fantastic way to connect more fully with the world around you. And in doing so, you may feel calmer and more grounded.
Gardening tips
Nature will be slowing down in your garden, so it's important that you do too. Resting and recharging are what autumn and winter are for.
Try to take some time to enjoy magical autumn colours before we get more gales and they blow the leaves away. Some trees develop many vibrant colours over the autumn. Rich chestnut, glowing ruby and saffron yellow leaves are appearing on a neighbour’s cherry tree I can see from my desk.
Are there any roses still flowering in your garden? Try to pick those last precious blooms, especially if heavy rain or strong winds are forecast. Placing scented roses around your house is a marvellous way to extend the fragrant feeling of summer. Just one or two popped in a jam jar will lift your mood.
Fragrant musings from the library of scent: Metamorphic by Kingdom Scotland
A wave of warm, yet fresh spice gently rushes over you. Soothing and uplifting in equal measures, with the revitalising tang of a salty breeze.
Top notes
Tingling black pepper casts a spell as you imagine yourself leaning against a sun warmed metamorphic rock on a tranquil Scottish island. A fleeting impression of honeyed tobacco adds depth.
Heart notes
A bracing mineral twang entwines with clean, austere incense. Softened by a scintilla of peaty, iodine-rich whisky.
Base notes
The scent of sweet, yet lively amber embraces you and blends bewitchingly with light vanilla leather.
Sensory Impressions
A soft-with-use tweed rug spread over opalescent shell sands where
warm sun filters through milky clouds
Old, brittle wicker picnic basket—
foaming breakers tumble
and hiss on the sand
Dark, intense whisky
in an ancient
pewter
cup
Wear this fragrance if you want to feel…
Adventurous, stimulated, nostalgic
Nature notes for the month - October days and nights
Goldcrests flit around the smoky blue green needles of a Scots pine,
Tattered scraps of velvet night flash across the waxing moon above billowing clouds of glowing ruby hawthorn,
threaded with glossy ivy and its diminutive flower globes offering bees their
last feast of the year.
Dusty lilac pigeons startle—clattering,
shattering the still air, the sea a scuffed slab of pewter in the distance
A buzzard swoops, then regains height, reconsidering its prey
Dense skeins of geese unspool against threatening skies
strands separating, tangling, separating again
A puddle of hare eases into the warm sun,
licks its long, chocolate-tipped ear and
stretches
Blissful bean to bar chocolate reviews: Fjak 45% cocoa milk chocolate with cocoa nibs and oak smoked salt - organic
🍫Smooth, rich and creamy milk chocolate with prickles of smoky salt and nubbins of scrunchy cocoa nibs.
🍫Satisfying and complex aftertaste, especially chomping on the cocoa nibs.
🍫Weird, but in a wholly awesome Viking kind of way.
Fjak chocolate is the first Norwegian company to make bean-to-bar chocolate. They source top quality, ethically traded, organic cacao beans, then blend them with natural Norwegian ingredients.
Cue intriguing bars such as:
⭐️ 70% cocoa dark chocolate with reindeer moss and lingonberry
⭐️ 45% cocoa milk chocolate with brown cheese
⭐️ Caramelised white chocolate with gingerbread
They make other exceptional, more conventional bars too, but I love that they’re brave enough to try some pretty bizarre combinations.
Which one do you like the sound of?
Random Scottish fact
Not all Scotch whisky distilleries are set amongst rolling heather covered hills, with stags roaring in the distance. True, there are plenty of those, but the rugged backdrop isn’t essential to produce a richly complex dram. More important by far are the types of barley, specific kinds of yeast and fermentation temperatures used.
The folks at the Port of Leith distillery in Edinburgh are shaking off the traditional approach to whisky making, and are working hard to make characterful fruit forward whiskies. Fresher, livelier and more vibrant than many you’ll usually taste, they’re a business worth keeping an eye on.
PS If you’re interested in whisky recommendations, I worked in the wine and spirits trade for 15 years, so I’m happy to oblige…
On the blog:
Yes, there absolutely is time for you to plant some spring flowering bulbs. Have a look at my top recommendations for you.
And if you're not sure where to buy your bulbs from, this will help you find your dream plants and flowers.
I'd love to hear about what sensory experiences bring you joy.
Feel free to reply to this email, or you can message me on Instagram or LinkedIn.