hortus conclusus

A Harvest Moon tonight, the best in 2O years, so they say, and the sky is clouded over here in Ithaca. Damn you, Lady Fortune! I return to you, a changed woman. I have a theory about academic work—that its rhythms of feast and fast, of heavy, intense work and periods of creative drought and no deadlines serve to mask a deeper, horrifying truth: that as you get caught up in the cycle of not much work, then intense work, you don’t realize the periods of rest are getting shorter, that the stakes are getting higher, and that no amount of work will ever be good enough. You don’t notice that you are working harder and harder, becoming a more intense person year by year, slowly turning into that workaholic academic you thought you’d never become. I have always resisted this fate, hoping to remain a well-rounded, grounded person who does not live for her work alone, but somehow the system has gotten to me. How else can I explain this past month of near non-stop work on my dissertation draf...

Hello, everyone! My beloved and I are back from our enchanting journey to Andalucia and Morocco, and boy are we jet-lagged! But I am brimming with stories to tell you all.… Today, I must compose my class syllabus for the Arthurian Literature class I begin teaching tomorrow, (I know, how horribly last-minute of me!) but tomorrow, the tales begin! Thank you all for commenting on my posts in my absence, and I look forward to delving into your own blogs’ backlogs (if you have blogs) over the next few days, when I find the time! Much Love, LBV train painting by Adolph von Menzel The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202 . Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

HI all, Today my husband and I leave for a two and a half week trip to Andalusia and Morocco! We will explore the land, go shopping (for perfume!!!!!!!!!!! and other things too, I guess) and relax before returning to the real world. I look forward to a break from teaching, and I am certain my chronically stressed and overworked husband will be thrilled to avoid thinking about all things financial and work-related for a week. As far as Hortus Conclusus is concerned, I have lined up several posts for your perusal—especially through the first week or so. I will not be around to respond to your comments (or visit your own wonderful blogs) until the very end of August, so please forgive what may appear to be a stony silence on my part. I look forward to reconnecting and seeing what you all had to say when I get back, though. I wish you all a wonderful month of August, filled with art, delight, beauty, family, friends, and scent! Nos Vemos Pronto….. Con Cariño, Bonne Vivante....

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am suffering from a glut of ‘ista’ suffixes. First, there was barista—annoyingly euro showoff, but ok…. Then there was the rise of the ‘fashionista’. Ok, what des that mean? Someone who likes fashion. Um hmmmm, like someone who is ‘fashionable’ or ‘fashion-conscious’ or trendy? DO we really need to call them ‘fashionistas’ if we have all those other ways of putting it? Something about the tone of that word just strikes me as wrong. Too Sex and the City , or something. Then of course, there we are, the ‘perfumistas,’ and maybe I’m biased, but this one makes a little more sense to me since there really wasn’t any kind of name for our group of weirdoes before—smell-obsessed? Nah. interested in perfume? Eew. perfume-lovers? noooooo! etc. SO I was willing to stomach the obnoxiously ubiquitous neologism for the time being, since it worked as a descriptive noun for our folk. But then, ‘recessionista’ happened… and a whole slew of similar new splic...

As I have been writing this blog over the past few months, I’ve been thinking that I need an alter-ego, someone really different from myself, who can say things that I wouldn’t say to spice things up around here. I have a {bad} habit of getting a little too in my own mind, ranting along about crap that mayn’t interest everyone, getting into gloomy moods, and so forth. I was about to invent and pretend to be a second poster, a character who was exactly not me, but then a real person showed up...my perfume pen pal, Tamara. Tamara is a kind, thoughtful, hilarious woman from the Pacific Northwest who adores fragrance. Some the things she says make me laugh, because she’s so dead on. Other things she says are very tender and sweet. I have grown to look forward to our frequent perfume-related correspondence, because she always  has something to say that I wouldn’t. So, it is my pleasure to introduce to you, dear readers, the new feature here at hortus conclusus : TOTD , or Tamara o...

Hotlanta Linda , please contact me so I can send you your discovery set of Tauer perfumes! Yours, la Bonne Vivante CREDITS: Triton Blowing on a Conch Shell . [1] Etching. 198 × 165 mm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Inventory number RP-P-1878-A-925).

Well, today’s the day I announce the winner of the giveaway. I have the names all lined up and ready to draw! But first, what have I learned about Tauer’s line? That I adore it! That I think Andy Tauer might be a genius. That I admire his integrity, hard work, and inspiration. That I am pumped that he has some new fragrances coming out soon—I’m now officially a Tauer addict! That I need to buy myself some full bottles. The question is only, which to choose? SO I have ripped up the names into little strips now. I’m putting them in a bowl…. Bringing them out for my husband to draw…. WHO WILL IT BE? DRUMROLL PLEASE….. HOTLANTA LINDA! Congratulations! Please contact me with your info, and I’ll have your lovely discovery set out to you posthaste! Finally I want to thank Andy for his generous donation of samples and the discovery set-I really appreciate your support of Hortus Conclusus. And thank you all for following!  

  The generous and talented Swiss perfumer Andy Tauer was kind enough to send me samples of all his fragrances to review over the coming week or so—and an adorable sample set to give away to YOU ! Yay!  I am very excited to announce this new giveaway drawing! Tauer got his PhD in chemistry, and went on to start a small perfumery, which has gone on to win many awards and even more praise. For more about Andy, and to get  a real sense of what a cool dude he is, I highly recommend this fragrantica article. Details about my giveaway below : What is it? A very sweet glide-cover metal tin, embossed with the Tauer logo, with 5 1.5. ml samples of Tauer fragrances inside. when will the winner be announced ? There’s no fixed end date; when I have written something about all ten of the fragrances, the winning name will be drawn. how do I enter? post a comment expressing interest below, then keep checking in at Hortus Conclusus ;-) I will post links ...

As those of you who have been keeping an eye on this blog over time may know, this is a relatively new blog. I have been obsessed with fragrance for many years now, and keeping notes for myself, but it has only been a few months since I began making my thoughts and feelings on the subject public in this forum. I thank you for staying with me as my husband and I tweaked the format of the blog pages, and tried to get all the feeds, searches, etc. running properly. I am still feeling my way around the blogosphere, learning what works and what doesn’t and trying to figure out exactly how to tailor my own blog.   There are a LOT of really great fragrance blogs out there, and I follow and admire the work of many writers who know way more about the fragrance industry and the art of perfumery that I do. I admire them and am not trying to complete with their expertise and knowledge. I simply add another voice to the chorus of fragrance enthusiasts, and offer a focus on integrating fra...

AFTER some deliberation, I have changed the name of this blog from “Life As Art” to “hortus conclusus,” which I feel better represents the nature of this site. “Life as art” seemed a little too general, although I like the idea behind it, that aesthetics should be an integral part of one’s life.  I chose hortus conclusus as the new title because it draws upon multiple layers of history art and symbolism. Hortus conclusus is Latin for ‘enclosed garden,’ and was first writ ten down in the Vulgate translation of the Bible, in that great erotic—and fragrant—poem, the Song of Songs : “ Hortus conclusus soror mea, sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus”: An enclosed garden is my sister, my wife, a sealed fountain. In the Middle Ages, my area of research, the hortus conclusus was a popular kind of garden cultivated by many, as well as a powerful symbol of the erotic potential of a virginal woman. I like to think of perfume as a kind of ‘encl osed garden,’ the glass bottle a wall surroun...