Nutmeg & Ginger Jo Malone 1990

In the fall, I was in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is a medium-sized city in the Great Lakes state of Michigan, about half an hour west of Detroit, probably the most famous of the once-thriving industrial cities of the Midwest - in a curve from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast - which today, after its spectacular decline, they call the 'Rust Belt.' In Ann Arbor, there is no sign of that.

Although it was my first time there - so I don't know the other seasons at all - I am sure that it is most beautiful in the fall. In October, hollowed-out pumpkins sit in front of the white and gray-blue painted wooden porches. And because Ann Arbor is a well-known university town, the tree-shaded sidewalks are populated by students with books in their arms - and bearded professors with patches on their elbows.

In October, it smells everywhere of Pumpkin Spice, a spice blend of nutmeg and ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, which is typical for fall in the USA. From every bakery, every café, warm, comforting wafts rise into the street, transforming the city into a kind of surreal Midwest Stars Hollow, where everyone wears red, hand-knit wool scarves and falls into each other's arms while eating Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

Conclusion: this autumn warmth, this idyll, the muted light, and the omnipresence of coziness - all of this is captured by Jo Malone in Nutmeg & Ginger, perhaps THE classic among her fragrances. A scent that tells of steaming breath on coarse wool gloves, of glowing pumpkin faces, and friendly literature professors in worn tweed jackets on the streets of Ann Arbor. Home is where the heart is.