This month's essence
Bottling July
Last year, during Beth Kempton’s delightful Summer Writing Sanctuary, we were given a beautiful invitation; a writing prompt to bottle the scent of summer. This immediately made me think of fragrance companies and how they often describe their perfumes with different notes.
With that in mind, here’s what I scribbled down:
Top notes: sweet, fragrant honeysuckle
Mid notes: a drift of mock orange on a warm afternoon, and childhood memories of Turkish delight held within a pink rose
Base notes: watermelon scent of great grandiflora blooms
Beth’s prompt resonated, and so, this year, I’ve taken to bottling each month: adopting the invitation and making it a regular part of my writing practice. And as the imagery fits perfectly with the idea of a still room, I thought I might release each one I write, at the new moon, as the months go on.
So, here is July’s essence. And yes, the magnolia grandiflora makes a repeat appearance – because I can never resist immersing my whole face in its bowl-like blooms and breathing in its incredible scent!
Bottling July
Top notes: Sweet spice of wild cherry plums (lantern-like fairy fruit in such abundance this year)
Mid notes: hay-like aroma of parched grass, and the watermelon scent of grandiflora blooms
Base notes: Petrichor, released from the earth after a rare and welcome shower of rain
Just as I was finishing this month’s essence, I noticed that Penhaligon’s describe their perfumes with a base, head and heart. There’s something particularly magical about that, don’t you think?
It makes me wonder . . . perhaps I could turn what has been, until now, a way of recording seasonal moments through scent, into vials of feelings?
There might be space in the still room for a shelf of bottled mini memoirs . . .
Notes:
Huge thanks to Beth Kempton for inspiring me to “bottle” each month.
You can find Beth’s beautiful writing community, Soul Circle, here
If you are seeking some inspiration for your Substack, Beth is currently running a Summer of Substack essay festival which I urge you to investigate.
Taking part in this festival has already given me the basis of a new essay. So I hope you will forgive me, but I am going to break with my intended pattern of posting. The subject matter of this new piece coincides perfectly with the upcoming Spring tide, which will follow today’s new moon. I will share it in the next few days.
Oh Helen, what a lovely, sense evocative read! Scents of the seasons are something I appreciate often. Such a brilliant idea you have to sum up a month and bottle them like so—just brilliant! xo
This is lovely and takes me back to making summer "perfumes" as a child, gathering petals into a jar of rainwater. Thank you for reminding me of the word petrichor too.