In February we Add to Cart

As I write his, I have a Buff Orpington chicken perched to my right, gazing at my laptop. Her beak is inches from the screen, and every so often she honks out a curious note. I marvel at how her head can be so tiny in comparison to her generously fluffy body. 

She is a bit limpy, and my other chickens are vicious when they sense weakness, so to stop her being bullied, and so her leg can recover, she is a temporary house-hen.

I may have trouble getting the ‘temporary’ part across to her. 

Usually if I have a chicken inside, after the novelty wears off, they just want to be outside again.

Not Honey. 

Honey has spent the last few days preening each feather to perfection, enjoying a choice of buffet meals (including a heated mash), and staying FAR away from the door that leads to the scary outside.

I can’t say I blame her. 

Before I took her in I watched in disbelief as Elsi, who is currently moulting, with her neck quilled up like a porcupines, snatch Honey’s wing and hang on for dear life.

“ELSI” I screamed in a panic. 

I can only imagine what the neighbours must think, with the amount of times I have to charge outside and break up a fight with a slew of curse words or a carefully aimed shove if they refuse to stop trying to murder each other.

Chickens make fantastic pets. I swear. 

But they are also merciless, resourceful, and vindictive. I have had to chase a chicken round the garden to grab a dead bird’s leg out of it’s mouth (and I was the enemy for this).

But not my precious baby Honey. 

Honey watches as I add yet another candle fragrance oil to my cart. I have given myself a limit of ten new scents to try, and I have whittled the list down to fourteen. But I’ve also been testing three new scents, and I need to grab more of those oils too. I spend ages mooning over a Melon and Cucumber scent blend, knowing full well I find the sickly sweetness of a melon revolting, and a single whiff of cucumber makes me shrivel up on the inside. 

My issue is I LOVE testing new scents. It’s addictive. 

On Saturday evening I went out to do a brief tidy of the workshop, and ended up switching on the wax melter to make up tester candles (I did limit myself to three, there are about fifteen more waiting in line).

I always swore I’d never go down the bakery scent route, and yet here I am, reading glorious scent descriptions and adding buttery croissant and maple pecan danish oils to my shopping cart. Who would even buy them?? They could be terrible. They SOUND terrible. But that part of my brain that lives for the experimentation is saying, JUST BUY IT.

I sigh and click add to cart. 

One of the candles I’m testing is a Coffee/Caramel/Creamy Vanilla blend. It’s a bit on the mild side when it comes to the coffee part, and the wick isn’t right, but OMG! You’re enveloped by a sweet dreamy cloud when you walk into a room with this candle lit. I am in love. This will for sure be one I send on to a few people to test once I get the wick right. 

The second tester I made is a Tonka/Amber/Myrrh blend with a bunch of other scent notes like lavender, which, usually I’m not a fan, but here it acts as a subtle ‘lift’ in a scent which is otherwise quite mellow. 

I’ve been testing this candle for exactly eight hours and am already convinced you guys must have it. It is PERFECT. And surprisingly my first wick and oil combo seems to be working (that never happens). So already this is like my candle scent golden child. 

Honey honks her approval as I add more of it to the cart, and I inch some broken cashews her way. 

What a team we make. 

The third candle tester is basically A Wave of the Sea 2.0. Not that there’s anything wrong with my current version, but I make a point to test some similar blends to see if I can improve on what I have. So far this tester is hitting all the right aquatic notes, and it’s a little more complex of a scent profile.

However the wick choice is way off. And it's a bit too strong for my taste. More work to be done here. If I do decide to test this one further, I may end up giving some people testers of both my original candle and the updated version to see if they have a preference. 

I scroll down through my cart which is now, somehow, hitting close to 500 euros worth of candle supplies.

In a separate tab, I quickly put through an order for poultry vitamins in case Honey has a deficiency causing the leg weakness. I am deeply procrastinating clicking back into the other tab. 

Honey ruffles her feathers as I debate whether I really need that 'Pain au Chocolat' oil. Unfortunately, I think I do.

I sigh. And tap add to cart.