Spectacle island

Last week I took a day trip to one of the Boston Harbor Islands with my sister (who has a cooking blog with lots of excellent recipes). Finally a little bit of a beach.

Supposedly called spectacle island because it is shaped like a pair of spectacles. Which it is not.

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Cormorants drying their waterlogged wings, bees on butterfly weed, those lovely rustic anti-erosion fences that always look the same from one dune to another, winding through the tall beach grass, a wild turkey with a very dim sense of self-preservation, tides converging at a nearly perpendicular angle, the view of the city across the water, sitting in the sand in my bathing suit

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smell this: Guerlain Vétiver

IMG_6122I already mentioned Guerlain Vétiver in a winter fragrance picks post but it bears further mention. Summer mention.

Nutmeg, citrus, and cedar are the notes–aside from the pure, central vetiver–that stand out to me in this superb, bright vetiver. There is balance, though, and none of these dominate. Guerlain’s is known as a benchmark vetiver; what you smell to teach your nose about these indispensible grassroots. Once you learn to recognize that distinctive vetiver scent (it smells like nothing else) you will smell traces of it everywhere – it appears in the base of nearly all western fragrances.

Fresh and light, just the kind of scent I want to put on early in the morning.

Love the sillage on this; I smell it as I shift and turn all day. I had about 5 different fragrance strips sitting on my desk one day and GV was the only one I could smell at a distance. It blends well with everything. Everything I’ve tried! It smells great in every season, in every context. There is something so reliable about this scent, to me – like it would never let me down.

Ladies! Take note. This is a men’s classic (1959) but would smell fantastic on you. It has for me zero outdatedness, and age is no factor. Gentlemen, put down the stonking aquatics and try this. Everyone else: it would smell good on you, too.