Musical Monday: Perfuming The Posy - Lincolnshire That Is (Mvt. 3: Rufford Park Poachers)

*Current Fragrance: The Smell of Weather Turning by LUSH
*Currently Listening: Lincolnshire Posy (Mvt. 3) by Percy Grainger
(Just couldn't write about them, without being enveloped by both of them.)

I'm back from "Spring Break"! About the most exciting thing that happened (and if you're a part of my life life, facebook life or twitter life you'll know this...) was my cutting off about 5 inches of my hair and henna-ing it red. I LOVE it! (I'll post a picture at the end.)

I love the smell of impending rain. It's both unsettling and exciting from the same standpoint. I love the look of rainclouds across the horizon; both impending doom of a storm, coupled with the earth nourishing water that we so often desperately need...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I had full intentions of writing about something completely different for today's Musical Monday...something much more cheery and upbeat (I think I'll save that for next Monday); I was mulling it over in my brain on the way home & when I stepped off the train and took a deep breath in.... "Ah! I smells like rain." That deep, ozone-y smell that by the time it hit the very innermost depths of your ability to take it in....turns to mint. I LOVE that that smell! By the time I opened the door to our house, I was being spat upon by the rain. Done deal! Third movement of the Posy it was; and I already had a the perfect fragrance to go with it! Take a listen...

I've always thought that "Rufford Park Poachers" sounded like a storm that approaches slowly, slowly sprinkles, starts to rain more and more steadily, thunder cracks, the rain pelts down, tapers off, and then the sun slowly comes out, but you can tell that it has just rained. It's so obvious to my ears. This has been the story in my head since the first time I heard the movement. It's the watering can to Grainger's bunch of "musical wildflowers."

Given that description, picking a scent called The Smell of Weather Turning was kind of an obvious choice, but I would have selected it even it were called something like "Mint and Hay in a Bottle" or "Ike" or "No. 304856"...you get my point. I picked it because it really DOES smell like a storm approaching, storming, and then leaving.

I'm a SUCKER for mint. SUCKER!!!!! So with mint as a top note, you've got me! The mint in The Smell of Weather Turning is both bracing and comforting. It wakes you up, soothes you and invites you on a journey; much like the opening chord of "Rufford Park Poachers." A smokey note starts to mingle with the mint and it takes on the hauntingly beautiful incense quality, as if the storm is rolling over an abandoned stone church. The building is past its prime, but much more beautiful in its state of decay than one would have originally realized.

The oakwood and hay dance together in hint of sweetness/earthy swirl as the "rain storm" (if you will), continues. It settles sweet, yet earthy. I can smell the beeswax, reminding me that the rain has come and gone, the flowers will bloom again; thus hearkening the bees to them. Wow...now I want honey!

The Smell of Weather Turning is comforting in a soul affirming way. Storms come and go and there is beauty in the process; just as in music, music making and in life.

Oh yeah...new hair! :o)

*Currently Listening: Perpetual Dawn by The Orb
**Photo Credits: 1) wunderground.com 2) lushusa.com 3) opacity.us & 4) my own