How lucky am I? I get to celebrate two of my loves today. It’s World Poetry Day and National Fragrance Day.
While we in the U.S. get to celebrate all of April as National Poetry Month, the rest of the world gets to usher in the festivities with a day in March.
I’ve never been able to track down the origin of National Fragrance Day, but as a natural perfumer I’ve been aware of it for many years. And on this day I always like to spend a little time blending some little floral concoction. It always feels like a wonderful thing to do to kick off Spring.
And today I’m looking forward to mixing something up with a new Violet Leaf absolute I have. Violet leaf has a green leafy herbacious scent that seems very Spring-like to me, and then it dries down to a lovely kind of dried grass scent.
Spring always makes me think of violets. I wish there were an actual Violet essential oil available (the flower itself, not just the leaf), but alas the violet-scented things you find are almost 100% scented with fragrance oil. It IS possible to do a tincture of violets in alcohol, but it takes a huge amount of violets and you have to keep soaking and replacing the blooms in the same alcohol mixture over the course of the season. Perhaps I’ll be able to do that some time, but for now I’m happy to work with violet leaf.
And speaking of happy with violets, isn’t this a fabulous vintage card?
Andrew Marvell, English metaphysical poet and politician from the 1600s, apparently loved violets as well:
Reform the errors of the Spring,
Make that tulips may have share
of sweetness, seeing they are fair,
And roses of their thorns disarm’d,
But most procure
That violets may a longer age endure.
So there you have it, you can see I’m celebrating violets today with poetry and fragrance.
I’m also celebrating a new deck of cards I received as an anniversary gift. It’s the fabulous deck Plant Ally Cards by Lisa McLoughlin. Her lovely art graces each card, and each card is dedicated to a flower, with a key word or phrase describing the energy or gift of that flower.
While there’s not a Violet card in the deck, the one I did pull is Valerian, with the meaning “delight in the moment.” Which strikes me as perfect.
What about you? Are you delighting in the moment? Choosing to celebrate today with a fragrance or some poetry? Love violets? Have a favorite deck you love using? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
AHHHH, I love violets. They remind me of my grandmother. That scent sounds divine. 🙂 I’m trying to “delight in the moment” but lately, it has been difficult. Thank you for the lovely card. It made my day. I have been so busy lately and have so much on my mind, I feel like I’m behind on so much. I haven’t even been able to read your blog as much as I would like. SO the idea of “delighting in the moment” is something I NEED to do and focus on right now! I love that vintage card, by the way. 🙂 I am excited for Spring and the fresh scents that come along with it. I will catch my breath and gain my footing once again. This is not negative stuff that is going on – just a lot to chew on and as always your site helps center me. 😉 See how scattered my thoughts are just in the post? 😀 Hugs to you.
Ah, there’s nothing quite as calming as a slow deep breath with your nose pressed into a bunch of violets. 🙂 Here’s to a fabulous Spring where we stay grounded, centered, and on the joy trail.
For what it’s worth, the Japanese for “violet” (the flower) is Sumire, which was apparently a popular girl’s name in the 1980s. The anime examples I recall tended to be ladylike upper-class girls.
It’s worth a very delighted thank you!