The Berkshires

[flco]

My family has a house in the Berkshires, so I spend a lot of time there. It's the western portion of Massachussettes and it is absolutely beautiful all year-round, as is Upstate New York.

 

Summer So I was thinking to myself, since I'm going to spend a large portion of my summer there, that I should get a green, grassy scent for "Summer in the Berkshires". I was thinking Squirting Cucumber, or One to Tie Two to Win (I placed an order for the whole Dogs set on the 10th so it should be on its way next week.) Any other suggestions for the summer in the Berkshires?

 

Then I thought to myself: Wouldn't it be nifty if I had a scent for each season in the Berkshires?

 

Autumn That area of the country has excellent apples. I used to always go apple-picking with my family there in the autumn. We'd fill up big sacks of apples and the car would smell amazing all the way home. So something appley, preferably (I'm thinking Poisoned Apple), though I'd be open to other kinds of autumny scents (pumpkin? honey?) to embody this season in the Berkshires. The foliage is amazing, so the autumn also attracts tourists. We also go to the Harvest Festival there.

 

Winter Ski season. I used to snowboard in the Berkshires, but then I broke my wrist and never tried again. I'm a coward, I know. If I had to think of a smell for winter in the Berkshires right now, I'd imagine a fire in a fire place and the smell of hot cocoa. The only wintery scents I've noticed would be for a lonely, desolate winter. In the winter, the Berkshires is bustling. I'm looking at Cloister Graveyard in the Snow, but even that has something sad about it. I want a scent for a happy winter. (Stardust 2006?)

 

Spring The "off-season" of the Berkshires. And Spring doesn't really exist anymore in the Northeast because of fucked up weather patterns. The Berkshires used to stay cold through April and then only start to really warm up in May. It's a time for the area to relax and take a breath. Nobody's around but the people who live there and the occasional vacation-homer like me. A cool tea scent, preferably. Baobhan Sith, perhaps? Note: I don't do megaflorals well.

Edited April 16, 2007 by FlyingCoffin

[kakiphony]

Spring The "off-season" of the Berkshires. And Spring doesn't really exist anymore in the Northeast because of fucked up weather patterns. The Berkshires used to stay cold through April and then only start to really warm up in May. It's a time for the area to relax and take a breath. Nobody's around but the people who live there and the occasional vacation-homer like me. A cool tea scent, preferably. Baobhan Sith, perhaps? Note: I don't do megaflorals well.

 

We lovingly referred to spring as "Mud Season" when I lived in Great Barrington. I think spring flowers on a base of wet earth would sum up the season very well.

[TheIceMaiden]

Autumn That area of the country has excellent apples. I used to always go apple-picking with my family there in the autumn. We'd fill up big sacks of apples and the car would smell amazing all the way home. So something appley, preferably (I'm thinking Poisoned Apple), though I'd be open to other kinds of autumny scents (pumpkin? honey?) to embody this season in the Berkshires. The foliage is amazing, so the autumn also attracts tourists. We also go to the Harvest Festival there.

 

Oh I love Western Massachusetts! Its so pretty and peaceful. But for a suggestion...for autumn, I suggest Punkie Night. The crisp apple scent in it reminds me of apple picking and apple orchards.

 

Edited because I can't spell sometimes

Edited April 17, 2007 by TheIceMaiden

[northatlantic]

Grassy scents: The Apothecary is a thick, sweetly grassy scent to me, the ripe smell of fresh-cut grass under summer sun.

 

Autumn apples: Verdandi. It has not only the apple but the scent of fallen leaves and crisp air to me, something about the herbs and amber both cold and bright. Punkie Night went a little craft-store on me because of the cranberry (Lampades did the same), and the Hesperides was okay but went a little perfumier on me than Verdandi, less appley. Ladon is another apple scent a lot of people around here really like, but that one I haven't tried.

 

Happy winter scents: Hmm. If you're willing to wait until this fall around Halloween, there are usually some brighter and cheerier winter offerings when Beth puts up the Yule LEs: I don't know if there's ever been a hot chocolate scent, but I know a lot of people have asked for one! but candy canes (Lick It/Lick It Again), Christmas cookies (Sugar Cookie, Gingerbread Poppet, Jolasveinar), warm hearths (Hearth), Christmas church scents (Midnight Mass) and happier snowy-woods scents like Snow White, Snow-Flakes, Snow Bunny, Mistletoe and Yuletide have been offered. Alternatively, you might be able to find any/all of them on the forums if you keep your eyes open.

 

A cool tea scent/Spring: Baobhan Sith is a great choice there for GC; if you can get hold of Spirits of the Dead, it's kind of my canonical tender green leaves and bright but not hot sunlight scent, closely followed by Holiday Moon which is a little colder and wetter, April showers maybe more than May linden flowers. Neo-Tokyo may be another possibility, because of the greenness of the bamboo mingled with the light cherry blossoms, or Whipporwill, although that's even harder to find than Spirits of the Dead, I think. Mr. Ibis and Embalming Fluid also have a fresh light quality to them. Phantom Queen sort of bridges the border between this scent and the heavier, more lush scent of summer, I think.

 

there, enough babbling for you?

[jenpo]

Hooray for the Berkshires! I grew up in Lenox and have loads of family still in Lee, Lenox and Pittsfield and my dad is still a member of the Stockbridge Country Club.

[ashtonrose]

You're making me miss my grandparents home. They live in a small town (Palmer, MA) just outside of Springfield (less of a small town). When I think of summer there, I think of Mag Mell. The wonderful smell of fresh cut grass and summer rain. I love how it smells there after the rain.

Edited April 23, 2007 by ashtonrose

[Miseraya]

I grew up in Falls Village, CT which is about 10 minutes from the border of MA and 10 minutes from the border of NY. Half hour to Great Barrington. My tried and true New England in fall scent (now this is Litchfield Hills, foot of the Berkshires talking) is Harvest Moon '06. Punkie moon is great for Autumn in New England too, and Ulalume as well.

[jessu]

You're making me miss my grandparents home. They live in a small town (Palmer, MA) just outside of Springfield (less of a small town). When I think of summer there, I think of Mag Mell. The wonderful smell of fresh cut grass and summer rain. I love how it smells there after the rain.

 

I'm from Ware! (next town over from Palmer) And c'mon, Springfield is a city! Or, as close to a city as we've got around here....

 

Now I've moved somewhat westward, 'bout an hour away from the Berkshires. (Other half commutes every day to Pittsfield). My seasonal scents would be:

 

Fall: Samhain, hands down. To change it up I'll wear Count Dracula, or maybe Pumpkin Queen- very Thanksgivingy. The Carpathian Mountain smells like hiking on a cold morning to me- crisp and woodsy.

 

Winter: Cold scents are not my thing. Jolasveinar smells like the Yankee Candle flagship store in Deerfield, which has a definite Christmas vibe, and Yule is so comforting and makes me think of sitting by a fire in big fuzzy socks.

 

Spring: I love Aizen-Myoo. Even though it's not light and springy and fresh, the sweet youthful fruitiness is so optimisic, it makes me think of all the good things to come. I think this past spring I wore Kindly Moon an awful lot, and I wore it on one particular trip to Shelburne Falls, so now I identify it with the Bridge of Flowers. It has the same happy vibe, I think.

 

Summer: Anyone who has spent a Summer here knows no matter how cold it may get in the winter, it is HOT in the summer. For that reason I like lemon scents, like Lolita and Yuki-Onna. I predict that I'll be wearing Selkie for the rest of the summer, because it has a cool melon quality and reminds me of the lake I grew up on. If I were going to go to, say, Lenox tomorrow, I'd wear something with rose, because I think of all the big, beautiful gardens.

[oceandreamer001]

I grew up in Falls Village, CT which is about 10 minutes from the border of MA and 10 minutes from the border of NY. Half hour to Great Barrington. My tried and true New England in fall scent (now this is Litchfield Hills, foot of the Berkshires talking) is Harvest Moon '06. Punkie moon is great for Autumn in New England too, and Ulalume as well.

 

The first time I smelled Harvest Moon 06, I thought, This smells like the Berkshires in autumn. When I was young, my sisters' and I were scottish dancers. My dance group always had a concert at the Lenox Club in October. Harvest Moon took me right back there, with the smell of fall foliage and hot apple cider.