PERFECT SCENTS

After writing about spiders last week (and having great feedback), I was inspired to “autumn clean” my cottage. It was the bit about female spiders coming indoors to lay their eggs that did it for me – especially when I read that they lay up to 200 eggs at a time and are able to do that nine times.

And after the big autumn clean I treated myself to a rather special scented diffuser. OKA do the most amazing “nature inspired” scents, which is what caught me in their web!

Smell is the oldest sense in the animal kingdom and whereas I always pay a lot of attention to incorporating scented plants into a garden, it is easy to miss out on their benefits in the house.

Freshly mown grass, summer lavender and jasmine are amongst people’s favourite smells, often taking them back to nice childhood memories, so it makes sense to utilise them to make us feel good.

OKA’s Walled Garden fragrant diffuser oil is a delicate and uplifting scent with leafy top notes of blackcurrant and grapefruit, followed by a floral heart of jasmine and peach, and base notes reminiscent of the sweet scent of nectar in a sun-filled garden.

Citrus Garden is a refreshing fragrance, bursting with sunlight and the sparkling tang of limes, grapefruit, bergamot and bitter orange, then a herbal heart of fresh lavender, basil, mint and rosemary, leading to a mysterious deep, mossy, earthy base.

Fragrant wood is an uplifting mix of lime, bergamot and grapefruit, with a delicate floral heart of lavender, rose and jasmine, followed by deep woody, mossy and exotic musky notes.

And Winter Forest will take you to a snowy mountain side with the seductive scent of pine needles, then relax you with the spicy glow of cinnamon, vanilla and cloves warmed by the fire. Perfect for those autumnal evenings.

It’s the perfect time of year to be bringing a little bit of the garden indoors, just not if it’s got eight legs!

They also do some other rather lovely housey things – just in time for a Christmas list. More details at www.oka.com/accessories/ scent-for-living/fragrance-diffusers