scents

I went to the charity shop this morning and bought a bundle of scented  joss sticks to light and let the house smell of roses... that is what it promised on the wrapping, so I put three in each vase and lit them in the dining room over the open fireplace.. the smell has wafted all over the house,and it is nothing like roses as I wish them to smell, but still pleasant.. I love the deepness of a true rose smell. We have a bush in the garden that each year produces roses that are such a dark red they are almost black, and the perfume is so wonderful and deep and musky, you just want to stand and breath and breath it all in until the whole world around you smells the same.  I guess of all the scents, rose is high up on the list...

when I was in my teens I loved the smell of musk, which I wore a lot along with my long dresses, hair loose and down past my shoulders, parted in the middle, the bell around my neck and bare feet when I could get away with it.. I was a hippie, living in london on love and not much else.. poor was not the word for it, and yet in that summer of 66 the whole world of young people believed that love would make such a difference and wars would end  because if we all showed love to each other, what was the point of fighting... there was a little bit of drug taking, but in our group it was only canabis, not the harder drugs at all although of course lsd was doing the rounds, cocaine and heroin didn't seem to appear until much later..

We walked everywhere, we smiled at people and tried to make kindness and love our goals>  once the hard drugs made an appearance things changed and it got nasty.. but my experience was wonderfully uplifting for me- and I put it amongst my treasured times.. The feeling in the 60's was of energy and positive vibes with you believing that anything could be achieved, you just had to try.. LIfe was really there for the taking, and if you did, who knows what success might be... the materialistic attitudes today were not there, everyone was into sharing... sometimes even their partners... but the basic word was love. 

Now with so much more pressure to achieve, those Hippies went along with the flow and somehow somewhere we had to grow up and take care of families which happened along the way.. got jobs,settled down and hippiedom for the most part faded away, although the spirit of it didnt,and even today I am glad I had a go at that way of life as it has coloured everything since.. despite being responsible for parenting and having a job to pay the bills, I believe that all  material items are replaceable, and if I had to start again from scratch I could do so,., as long as I can manage to get around, see family and  friends and be in good company thats all that matters - the rest can be got along the way..  Ialways believe that things happen for a reason, and even this latest bout of annoyance in health matters must be for a reason, just having to find out why is taking a little more time thats all!!

What truly does  make me happy is perfume and colours and scenes of great beauty and poetry and art and inside decorations in home.. the scent of happiness is made up of many things, one of which smell, but the eyes and the heart have a part too..

I read somewhere that when Edith Piaf was dying in hospital, her friends covered her ceiling in bright coloured balloons so she could feast on the colour and fade away gently... what a way to go, that would be my choice definately and over and above that would be the scent of roses, gently wafting around the room...whilst Samual Barber's Adaggio played in the background... perfecto!!

BUT I don't have to wait until then!!! I could do that now... maybe I will get those balloons and fix them on my ceiling and watch them whilst playing the music and scenting the room... what a project. I will arrange that for my birthday tea party!! 2 years ago, I held a tea party in my house to celebrate my birthday.. I had neighbours that I hadn't met before, who are now dear friends, and my friend Patzi brought some others with her when she drove over, so we had a super tea party, with little cakes and various teas of choice..

 Last year I spent my birthday in Hospital, the second time ever on my birthday, the original one and that one.... The first might have been a day of joy, but the second certainly wasn't*** It was awful and lonely and I cried a lot with pain and unhappiness...

  Anyway, this year I shall have another Tea Party for my birthday where I can get out my collection of vintage tea cups and saucers and plates again and have a ball....and I will get those balloons fixed on the ceiling and play lovely music and scent the room throughout... gorgeous don't you think!??