AHHHHH.....GERANIUM

I have a confession to make: I love walking the aisles of Dean and Deluca, the fancy-dancy gourmet food and kitchen supply store in SoHo. Everything is so pretty to look at! Eye candy abounds. I took my friend Kate, new to the city, into D&D. Right in the entryway stood three pumpkins, each the size of a truck wheel. We spent a long time looking at items in each section: bread, candy, pies and cakes, spices, housewares. We spent the most time smelling soaps both solid and liquid in the bath/body area. Way down on the bottom shelf, I found a soap called Jardinier that eminated the scent of geranium. I just stood there smelling and smelling and smelling that geranium scent that wakes up yet calms the mind. A few days later, I went back and bought the soap. Instead of putting it in the shower where it would dwindle away, I placed it in my desk drawer so that I could pull it out and smell it any time!

I never knew about the scent of geranium till I was in my twenties and working in an aromatherapy store in Manhattan. That was before aromatherapy got to be a big thing in the US. The store owner's signature scent included lavendar, lavandin, geranium and something citrusy.....what was it called? I forget now. It was heavenly, but I discovered that geranium could stand alone as a scent to relish.