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Showing results for tags 'The Wind in the Willows'.
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Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though the piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still dominant and imperious. He might not refuse, were Death himself waiting to strike him instantly, once he had looked with mortal eye on things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he obeyed, and raised his humble head; and then, in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn, while Nature, flushed with fullness of incredible colour, seemed to hold her breath for the event, he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the growing daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes that were looking down on them humourously, while the bearded mouth broke into a half-smile at the corners; saw the rippling muscles on the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed in majestic ease on the sward; saw, last of all, nestling between his very hooves, sleeping soundly in entire peace and contentment, the little, round, podgy, childish form of the baby otter. All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered. Sublime peace, ecstatic joy, and thunderstruck awe: terebinth pine, patchouli, brown musk, linden blossom, honey, mallow, blood orange, heliotrope, and golden amber. Yes yes, I admit I am excited that this is also the name of the first Pink Floyd album. But it is an almost perfect collection of favorite notes for me as well, running the spectrum of the palest hints of dawn to the full golden brilliance. Shimmering dark blue-green pine hovers lowest on the horizon, cool and bracing, refreshing and sparkling with dew. The rich deep earthy patchouli and musk lay low, but keep the other notes balanced. Honey pours like warm golden light over the darker tones, brightened by the songs of bright, fruity heliotrope and crisp linden. The earthen, resinous, honeyed and bright floral notes evoke an almost unbearably beautiful mix of colors in my mind. Sniffing it is almost like watching a landscape painting being created, first with the darker tones at the bottom, then watching the brighter orange and golden colors come drifting in. It's a bit like a basket of many different kinds of incense, as well -- patchouli, pine and amber, but also a mix of mellow florals. I enjoy watching -- I mean smelling -- the different phases of this as it wears, but I imagine I'd also like it all jumbled together at once in a locket. It's not as heavy as I tend to like my scents, but I think this will be a favorite. Now I think I'll listen to the album that is this chapter's namesake, to complete the effect!
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"How on earth, Badger." he said at last, "did you ever find time and strength to do all this? It's astonishing!" "It would be astonishing indeed," said the Badger simply, "if I had done it. But as a matter of fact I did none of it only cleaned out the passages and chambers, as far as I had need of them. There's lots more of it, all round about. I see you don't understand, and I must explain it to you. Well, very long ago, on the spot where the Wild Wood waves now, before ever it had planted itself and grown up to what it now is, there was a city a city of people, you know. Here, where we are standing, they lived, and walked, and talked, and slept, and carried on their business. Here they stabled their horses and feasted, from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade. They were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to last, for they thought their city would last for ever." "But what has become of them all?'" asked the Mole. "Who can tell?" said the Badger. "People come they stay for a while, they flourish, they build and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, I've been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be." Warm earth, deep-reaching roots, dark myrrh, galangal, and Atlas cedar. Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger... Erhum. Sorry. Someone had to do it, so why not get it out of the way in the first review? When the update went up, I was excited about Badger for several reasons (none of which were the badger badger badger cartoon). First of all, I adore The Wind in the Willows in general, and always liked the part where they others visit Badger. Second, I've also been a Redwall fan since I was little, and badgers play a prominent role in that series. The description of this oil could be Redwall's Brockhall just as much as it could be WitW's Badger Hall. Third, my geologist sensibilities perked at the idea of an earthy scent that included notes I've liked in the past (cedar) and also links to some of my favorite nostalgia-inducing literature. And lastly, the excerpt from the novel on the Lab's description page reminds me a lot of how human time, the timeline of life in general, and geological time really don't line up. Even the greatest cities eventually crumble, and the humbler things - such as badgers - keep going, not to mention the processes of the earth itself. All of these reasons made Badger stand out as something I simply needed to try, and so I took the unsniffed-and-unreviewed plunge. In the bottle: Warm, earthy, and surprisingly spicy. Definitely getting the galangal, but it's not dominant. Wet on skin: Less spice than in the bottle, though the galangal is still pretty prominent, more earth, and a bit of wood. It's still warm. It's definitely unusual. I think I already like it. Drydown: Freshly dry, it's still warm spiced earth. The galangal is still pretty prominent, and while it doesn't overwhelm the blend, it seems almost a little too exotic compared to the solid earthy woodiness of the rest. By the one hour mark, though, the galangal has mellowed down to something more homogenous, and it helps add warmth to the earthy smell (holy crap, that's some accurate dirt!) and dusty woods. Five hours later: Warm dusty earth over dry wood. It's rather like the dusty woody backdrop of Tombstone (makes sense, since the two have cedar in common), but without any of the sweetness from Tombstone's vanilla and sassafras. It is a completely natural smell, not at all something one would traditionally associate with "perfume." End of the day: A faint dustiness remains - earth rather than wood. Overall: This is unlike any other manufactured thing I've ever smelled; the only things that it reminds me of are wholly natural things, and I think that's exactly the point. Badger smells old, but not in the sense of something old people wear - rather, it's like a wooden structure that has been abandoned and is accumulating dust and dirt, taken back by the earth, geological time outlasting human time. It fits the quote in the Lab's description oh so very well. I am also impressed by the dirt note in and of itself - once the galangal calms down, it smells like the genuine natural substance. This is an odd oil, to be sure, but a very good kind of odd for me. Once again, I think I made a very good call in ordering this unsniffed and without reviews.
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"Right," replied the stranger. "I'm a seafaring rat, I am, and the port I originally hail from is Constantinople, though I'm a sort of a foreigner there too, in a manner of speaking. You will have heard of Constantinople, friend? A fair city and an ancient and glorious one. And you may have heard too, of Sigurd, King of Norway, and how he sailed thither with sixty ships, and how he and his men rode up through streets all canopied in their honour with purple and gold; and how the Emperor and Empress came down and banqueted with him on board his ship. When Sigurd returned home, many of his Northmen remained behind and entered the Emperor's body-guard, and my ancestor, a Norwegian born, stayed behind too, with the ships that Sigurd gave the Emperor. Seafarers we have ever been, and no wonder; as for me, the city of my birth is no more my home than any pleasant port between there and the London River. I know them all, and they know me. Set me down on any of their quays or foreshores, and I am home again." "I suppose you go great voyages," said the Water Rat with growing interest. "Months and months out of sight of land, and provisions running short, and allowanced as to water, and your mind communing with the mighty ocean, and all that sort of thing?" "By no means," said the Sea Rat frankly. "Such a life as you describe would not suit me at all. I 'm in the coasting trade, and rarely out of sight of land. It's the jolly times on shore that appeal to me, as much as any seafaring. O, those southern seaports! The smell of them, the riding-lights at night, the glamour!" Seaweed, ambergris, and sea buckthorn berry with exotic herbs, incense smoke, ship wood, and Burmese musk. First off, I just love this label. In the bottle....wow, it's all wood and musk and smoke with just a hint of seaweed and herbs, not much berry. On my skin, this is just gorgeous! I actually expected this to be far more aquatic than it is. I expected it to be more the sea with a hint of the ship, but this is all ship on me with the barest breath of the ocean. This is what the captains room smells like. As it dries it is just so well blended. It's also very interesting as it seems each time I smell it I catch a different note. This is the aquatic for people who can't do aquatics. Some might find it a bit manly at first, though I find it to be more unisex. I can't wait to see how it smells on hubby!
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Late in the evening, tired and happy and miles from home, they drew up on a remote common far from habitations, turned the horse loose to graze, and ate their simple supper sitting on the grass by the side of the cart. Toad talked big about all he was going to do in the days to come, while stars grew fuller and larger all around them, and a yellow moon, appearing suddenly and silently from nowhere in particular, came to keep them company and listen to their talk. The scent of a moonlit night on the road, orchards in the distance, and swirling dust. OHMYWOW. In the bottle and wet on my skin, this is mostly ozone. As it dried down, the ozone threatened to go dryer sheet on me, which made me nervous. But I figured I'd let it finish drying before I worried too much about it. And then it dried. Dry, after about an hour, this has a definite ozone base, but there are TREES. REAL LEAFY TREES. WITH APPLES ON THEM. AT NIGHT. This strikes me very much as a cooler-weather scent - like a late autumn evening rather than a summer evening. The tree scent (which I'm thinking is perhaps a touch of something woody along with a lot of something leafy, but green leaves rather than red ones) is really balanced well with the ozone. Hanging out on top of this is the slightest drop of apple - it's not something I notice unless I think about it but it's very clear then. There does also seem to be the faintest scent of something dusty, like it hasn't rained on the trees in a while. This is gorgeous and perfectly evocative of the description. Verdict: 5/5 and very happy I took the chance on an unsniffed bottle!
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"…It's never the wrong time to call on Toad. Early or late, he's always the same fellow. Always good-tempered, always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!" "He must be a very nice animal," observed the Mole, as he got into the boat and took the sculls, while the Rat settled himself comfortably in the stern. "He is indeed the best of animals," replied Rat. "So simple, so good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he's not very clever -- we can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both boastful and conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has Toady." Dapper cologne, scorched waistcoat, a bit of pipe tobacco, and motor oil. Didn't see the topic open yet. Maybe I missed it? Searched a few times. Anyways, TOAD! I've never had a fragrance named after toads... there's a pic of a dapper Geicko-Gecko-esque amphibian on the front looking sly, as if he's holding a cane, quite the rogue, eh? First sniff from bottle, it smells a lot like fierce tobaccos, like those in Hellfire (new formula). There's a bit of an effervescence to the aroma, something just slightly on the edge of spicy (like cloves?) and then there's a whole burst of more and more metal components, a grumbly undercurrent of functional metal. I'm not getting too much linen or burnt aroma from this, but this is a machine that is well-used, it's got oil and grease that is hot and working. This kind of smells like what I would imagine the penultimate sexy mechanic would smell like, all grease and a touch of filthy tobacco, pipemetal... It's good. I'm keeping my bottle.
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The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. Antiqued sandalwood, patchouli, and soft mosses. Moles are special for me...in addition to having loved WitW when I was a child, I also love a serious of books called Duncton Wood which were for moles what Watership Down was for rabbits. Anyway, I like moles. Though earthy and mossy, this scent makes me think of a scholarly mole with a pair of glasses perched on its snout, as it reads through parchments in a dusty library. The soft mosses are the dominant note, with sandalwood giving it a dusty feeling. Patchouli is not prominent, but anchors the scent in a dry, crumbly earth. I immediately thought of Two-Headed Goat, as it may share some similar mossiness, but there is no musk here in Mole. I also thought of Carfax Abbey, my go-to scent for dusty mosses in the woods. I don't know how long it will stay on my skin, since moss can be a fleeting note, but I can imagine in a locket it would warm nicely. It's a nuzzling, familiar scent, dusty and scholarly with the lore of the ancient woods. And as I wear it, the mosses are brushed away a bit and the glowing, warm woods become more prominent.
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During luncheon -- which was excellent, of course, as everything at Toad Hall always was -- the Toad simply let himself go. Disregarding the Rat, he proceeded to play upon the inexperienced Mole as on a harp. Naturally a voluble animal, and always mastered by his imagination, he painted the prospects of the trip and the joys of the open life and the roadside in such glowing colours that the Mole could hardly sit in his chair for excitement. Somehow, it soon seemed taken for granted by all three of them that the trip was a settled thing; and the Rat, though still unconvinced in his mind, allowed his good-nature to override his personal objections. He could not bear to disappoint his two friends, who were already deep in schemes and anticipations, planning out each day's separate occupation for several weeks ahead. Orangewood, pine, wood moss, and vetiver. Something about this scent made me want to laugh when I smelled it. There's something stimulating and invigorating about these harsh pine and wooden scents to me. I can tell that this will strike many people as being something similar to a pine cleaner but it smells of wild nature to me. Pine resin from the deep dark woods, and glossy polished wood gleaming with orange oil lovingly rubbed into the surface for many years. Dark brown gleaming with orange-gold highlights, deep and faintly sweet. The strong resinous (turpentine, even, for a moment) notes are tempered by earthy, soft sweet vetiver. I love Rat. I think it will be too strong and piney for a lot of people but if you like these notes, you'll be pleased. I havent' had such a nice sharp jolt of pine resin since Stranger in Camp, though this is a bit different. I think the dark and wild pine trees have been fashioned into glossy wooden canes or ornate tables where schemes are hatched.
