Sweet Mother

The following is the text of my column, Deeply Superficial, which ran this week in the (sydney) magazine and the (melbourne) magazine:

When I was a small girl, off to church in my lace gloves and hat, I remember Mothering Sunday, which was celebrated on the fourth Sunday after Lent, in honour of Mary, Mother of Christ. It wasn’t nearly as much fun as Ash Wednesday (when we could run about with faces stained with the black from burnt palm fronds) but it was a prettily festive occasion, the religious version of Mother’s Day – invented by the Americans, of course - which demanded greeting cards with kittens on them and cross-stitched tea towels, made in art class, as gifts.

Whenever the commercial Mother’s Day comes around on the second Sunday in May I rather like the idea of keeping it simple and old-fashioned. After all, the lavender and lace idea of motherhood has gone right out the window with Britney Spears, Vicki Pollard and those Yummy Mummies who wander around my local shopping mall with three-wheeled strollers in some kind of Pilates-induced trance. Bring back antimacassars, sponge cakes, knitting and housecoats, I say!

My eyes lit up when Debbie Wild, who is a Director of the British fragrance purveyor Jo Malone, responded to my question about what to do for Mother’s Day this year with a barrage of ideas that are perfectly gorgeous for mums of any inclination but especially those who love pretty, old-fashioned things. Jo Malone has patented the name Scent Surround™, but anyone can get the hang of the concept, which is not merely to scent yourself, but the room, your sheets, table linens, and so forth, so that your whole environment is one fabulous fug of heady fragrance. This requires different concentrations of scent, so there is Linen Spray for the napkins (heavenly on your clothing too, especially the Aqua di Limone which smells like freshly-laundered sheets), Living Cologne for the room, candles for the table and boudoir and, of course, personal cologne for the skin (French Lime Blossom is the number one seller for mums.) The trick is not to scent the whole place with one fragrance, but to combine different nuances so that your senses are constantly surprised.

These days, it’s very fashionable for events, such as weddings, parties and book launches, to be scented, so that the memory of the event can be brought back strongly through sense of smell. So why not scent Mother’s Day this year? Send mother out on a diversionary manoeuvre and pop into her home, spray the house, light candles, and bring in some complementary flowers, so that when she returns she’s uplifted by beautiful smells. Alternately, don’t just bring out the roast lamb, scent the Mother’s Day table with candles and Linen Sprays in something spicy or fruity, say Lime, Basil & Mandarin, Wild Fig & Cassis or Grapefruit (which is great in the kitchen to banish cooking smells.)

But my absolute favourite idea is to hold an old-fashioned afternoon tea, with platters of fairy cakes, macaroons, lamingtons and the like, and scent the table with a trio of travel candles in Parma Violets, Eau de Cologne and Sweet Almond Macaroon, with Parma Violets Tea Linen Spray on the napkins.

Combining all these fragrances may seem like a bit of a high-wire act for the uninitiated but help is at hand at Jo Malone counters where staff will happily take you through a “tasting menu” to develop your fragrance palette, “like wine,” as Debbie Wild says. In fact, a rather wonderful gift idea is to take Mum along for a session at one of these counters, so that she can select her own favourites and garner some very useful tips. (My favourite is to spray your front with one fragrance and your back with another, so that you leave a room smelling as intriguing as when you entered.)