Ody visits Ottawa

I visited Ottawa last week, for an academic conference. I had studied at the University of Ottawa and lived in Ottawa for six years, so I enjoyed being back in my old haunts. As an historian, Ill call that earlier time BB (Before Basenotes).
Here I am in front of the Parliament buildings.


Since I love pine, I have to work in some kind of pine motif. OK, here it is. I went to the National Gallery, which has a great collection of The Group of Seven, iconic Canadian painters of the 1920s and 30s. They painted in a bold, impressionistic style and sought to express the Canadian love of rugged natural beauty. Heres a famous painting by Tom Thompson.


I had contacted Ottawa Basenoters, and was pleased to have two meetings. The first was with graffham. He and I met for morning coffee. He is friendly, enthusiastic and funny guy; very easy to get to know and get along with. He and I are opposites on the fragrance scale. He seeks out concentrated, powerful and rich scents. I like austere and foresty scents. But we had a lot of great conversation at the coffee shop and then also at Holts. He knows all the SAs there, and they greeted him warmly. Here we are in Holts.


Later that day, dimples [left] very kindly invited me to her home. Her friend 3xasif [centre] also was there. Well, I cant imagine two lovelier, more charming ladies to spend time with! Dimples had a treasure box full of scent decants and samples, and 3xasif had a goodie bag. By the end of the evening, we had drunk coffee, ate chocolate cake, laughed, sniffed and generally had a great time (as evidenced by the big smile on my face). The table was strewn with bottles, vials, strips of paper and notes. The room was heady with a hundred different scents! These ladies had a fantastic knowledge of scents, and I learned a lot from them. Dimples was so very generous in giving me some great decants. Dimples son kindly took this picture.


Well I have to say that BN people are the greatest and that these meet-ups are an absolute highlight of my travels!

Thanx for the comments, diva and missy. I'm glad that you saw my mini-journal.

There really is BB and AB (Before- and After-Basenotes). I sure appreciate this aspect to life.

PS -- hugs back to you, 3xasif.

I remembered an amazing thing that dimples told me. I had said that I liked and owned Guerlain's Sous Les Vent. It is a Paris exclusive and hard to find. She said, "oh, where did you get it?" I replied that I got it in the Toronto boutique a couple of years ago, it was part of a customer's special order that never got picked up. Dimples laughed and said that she was in that boutique a couple of days later and bought the other bottle. The manager told her that a gentleman from Western Canada had bought the first bottle. SMALL WORLD for we basenoters!!

You are like a nice Godfather, Brielle, making an offer that is difficult to refuse! I am sad to admit that I have never visited the lovely city of Boston, though I would love to do so. Now I have even more reasons!

Hah-hah, that's great I forgot you took that! What a fragrant jumble! That was one major perfume experience with you two -- thanks for this souvenir of that evening.