Summer is over and done with — adieu to heat, humidity, mosquitoes, yard work, glaring sunshine till almost 9 p.m., and overly bright polo shirts that also tax the eyeballs. As the chill of autumn arrives, I look forward to the crisp air, the early nightfall, rain storms, lighting fires in the fireplace, and burning candles.
But come January, the cold begins to get tiresome and a tad depressing — I want to unravel my sweaters, have fresh flowers in my house from the garden, and eat some fruit and vegetables that were not flown in from thousands of miles away. In deep winter, sun and heat are alluring once more — I even start to think about hot-pink and lime-green colored shirts. I have “reserved” a Voluspa Yuzu Rose Bubblebath (Summer) candle for the icy, snowy days and nights ahead…
Plumeria, pikake, gardenia — these fragrant tropical flowers seem to make people either swoon with joy or retreat to a cool, dark room with some extra-strength aspirin. The scents of these flowers are extravagant and are often described as: sultry, intoxicating, enticing, suffocating. I enjoy these flowers’ fragrances on the air, outdoors; in a greenhouse or in a bouquet, they can overwhelm me and even, up close, smell unpleasant.
The Japanese incense company Baieido was founded in 1657 by Jinkoya (meaning “aloeswood trader”) Sakubei in the city of Sakai, a trading port where incense was a hot commodity. Baieido’s Hinoki Incense is made with the essential oil of a venerable and treasured tree — the hinoki cypress. During feudal times in Japan, the hinoki cypress was one of the Five Sacred Trees of the Kiso forest; death sentences were handed down to those who felled a hinoki cypress without permission from the authorities.
