SotD: The Trials of St. Urho

Hello lovely Ninjas!

Today has been lovely. I did my second water element class and had a lot of fun. It’s still definitely not easy yet but it’s starting to make sense! The weather was stormy today and it made me think of the episode of Doctor Who where Eleven sees Amy’s face on a perfume ad for “Petrichor”. If you’re a Doctor Who buff or you have a huge vocabulary, you’ll know that petrichor is the “The name for the smell of rain on dry ground, is from oils given off by vegetation, absorbed onto neighboring surfaces, and released into the air after a first rain." The easy version of that is the smell of dust after rain! I didn’t get to go outside while it was raining but it’s still an interesting thought for a perfume, don’t you think?

The perfume oil for today is from ZOMG Smells and is called “The Trial of St. Urho”. I’m not entirely sure why it’s named that. I did look up St. Urho and apparently he’s a made up figure created by a Finnish-American to give Finland its own version of St.Patrick’s day. According to his story, St. Urho saved all of the Finnish grape crops by driving the grasshoppers out of Finland; which, of course, makes him the patron saint of Finnish wine makers.

The Trials of St. Urho: Our paean: the scent of a grape orchard in dawn's first chilly light. Ripe and fine Muscat grapes, woody vines with slow, bitter sap, and the cool wet air of a morning on which great things will be done.

On Me: The very first note is grape and not the most pleasant kind. A little on the artificial side but it mellows down nicely. The next smell that comes up before the real dry down is of lacquered aromatic woods.  Once the very woody smell fades it becomes a sweet and fruity smell that is reminiscent of the Muscat grapes I was hoping to smell as the first note. It’s a rich sun warmed smell that I’d expect to find in a ripe vineyard ready for harvest. Definitely lovely!

The Scene:

He’d been working in one of the local vineyards during the day and was absolutely sick of his hands being stained purple from harvesting. At the hot springs he would spend nearly an hour scrubbing at his hands, trying to erase the trace of the violet fruits from the skin. At least the smell wasn’t entirely unpleasant, he liked grapes but he didn’t think he needed to look like one. As the sun set in the west he smiled in anticipation of seeing her.

She was surprised her mistress hadn’t bothered to stop her from going to the spring each night. Then again, the lady really did like her scented baths. As long as she was allowed out of the manor to go to the springs each night, she really didn’t care how many baths she had to pour milk and flower petals into; as least it gave her a way to see him.

By this time they’d set up a deal with the boy who sat by the springs to carry water. When she passed him by, he was to start bringing buckets of water up to the lady’s chamber and leave them undisturbed. Nodding to the boy as she passed, she smiled and hummed softly to herself. When she saw him with his back to her at the spring he was still scrubbing his hands from work that day. Sliding her arms around his waist and kissing his neck, she whispered in his ear, “Hey stranger, are you trying to wash your skin off?”

He smiled and set the soap on the side of the spring as he turned to her. Greeting her with a soft kiss, he brushed her hair back behind her right ear. “Not exactly, just trying to get the damned purple off my hands. Those grapes are trying to turn me unto one of them, I swear.” He kissed her again with a more heat this time then hugged her close.

“Well, you do smell like a grape. A very tasty grape at that!” Laughing softly, she nibbled on his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. “You’ve been working in those vineyards so much lately but you never bring any wine back with you. I’m beginning to think it’s not very good, maybe they need better grapes.” Her hands came to rest on his waist as she watched the water bubbling up through the hot springs. 

“Actually, I did bring us some wine. I think it’s from three years ago so it hasn’t aged too much, nothing fancy. I hope you like sweet wines, that crop got amazing amounts of sun and the vineyard made most of it into brut.” He kissed the tip of her nose and leaned into her until she sat on the ledge. After rummaging around in his bag, he came up with a small bottle of wine and two glasses that he set next to her on one of the flatter rocks. “I’ve never been much of a wine man myself but I’ll try anything once in the right company.” He poured them both a glass and handed her one of the cups. “Hope it’s good.”

“Thank you.” She took the wine from his hand and took a sip. Since she wasn’t the most sophisticated person, she didn’t know what notes there were to pick out but the wine was good. It evoked a sunny day and a vineyard full of heavy fruits ready to fall off their trees. “Oh it’s wonderful.” She kissed him and the taste of the wine sweetened their kiss. 

“Sure, it’s ok. You however, are lovely.” Which only led to more grape sweetened kisses.