D
Deleted member 2386
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It's been ages since I did more than pop on here for a quick lurk, so I figure I'm well overdue for a proper update. Long story very short, the last couple of years have been chaotic as hell, involving several cross-country moves, a divorce, and ongoing health issues that have left me without a sense of smell. This last factor especially led to my largely abandoning the briar, as I found without a working snout my sense of taste was sufficently muted to take much of the enjoyment out of the past time...hence my absence from these friendly fields.
But there's been plenty of good as well as ill over the same span, and as far as this crazy existence of ours is concerned it could *always* be worse! I'm now living in Seattle, which has its many charms (even if its draconian smoking ordinances have further dampened my ability to enjoy the occasional pipe), and as the weather has been so hospitable I've found myself enjoying the briar again, even without my sense of smell. One of these days I'll make it down to Fife for the monthly Seattle Pipe Smoker's Club.
So that's where I've been, and where I'm going is to broaden my horizons when it comes to blends--one consequence of my compromised olfactory bulb is that the naked ginnies, VaPers, and subtle Syrian lat blends I used to love now fall mostly flat, so I'm hunting out pipe weed with a strong enough taste that I can still get something out of it. I'm still leery of American Aromatics--which are stronger of smell than taste anyway in my experience--but I was very pleasantly surprised by a tin of Gawith and Hoggarth's Rum Flake that I took a chance on. I got more out of it than just about anything else I tried over the last couple years, so expect I'll be turning my attentions toward Lakeland, which I never warmed to before (aside from Fire Dance, which I need to revisit)...
Maybe I'd better pose this elsewhere on the boards, but does anyone have a blend or three they would recommend as being especially tasty? When I say strong tasting I don't necessarily mean strong in terms of nic or topping, either, though such blends are fine, too.
And any fellow Washingtonians ever make it down for the SPC meet-ups?
But there's been plenty of good as well as ill over the same span, and as far as this crazy existence of ours is concerned it could *always* be worse! I'm now living in Seattle, which has its many charms (even if its draconian smoking ordinances have further dampened my ability to enjoy the occasional pipe), and as the weather has been so hospitable I've found myself enjoying the briar again, even without my sense of smell. One of these days I'll make it down to Fife for the monthly Seattle Pipe Smoker's Club.
So that's where I've been, and where I'm going is to broaden my horizons when it comes to blends--one consequence of my compromised olfactory bulb is that the naked ginnies, VaPers, and subtle Syrian lat blends I used to love now fall mostly flat, so I'm hunting out pipe weed with a strong enough taste that I can still get something out of it. I'm still leery of American Aromatics--which are stronger of smell than taste anyway in my experience--but I was very pleasantly surprised by a tin of Gawith and Hoggarth's Rum Flake that I took a chance on. I got more out of it than just about anything else I tried over the last couple years, so expect I'll be turning my attentions toward Lakeland, which I never warmed to before (aside from Fire Dance, which I need to revisit)...
Maybe I'd better pose this elsewhere on the boards, but does anyone have a blend or three they would recommend as being especially tasty? When I say strong tasting I don't necessarily mean strong in terms of nic or topping, either, though such blends are fine, too.
And any fellow Washingtonians ever make it down for the SPC meet-ups?