This week has been all about “Sheltering in Place” and “Social Distancing” which has led to me seeking out small creature comforts. A cozy blanket, a good book, my favorite comfy pants, bubble bath.

I have been washing windows and doing laundry. Mopping floors and organizing cabinets. I, and the whole world I suspect, are nesting. We are flitting around fluffing this and straightening that. We are resting in corners and peering out through door cracks. We are pregnant with expectation and waiting for the birth of a new world.

It was in this cleaning of drawers and organizing of space that I found the “Thing I am Loving RIGHT now!”

I am talking about this Ghostly Castle wax melt by Spireside. I bought it as a gift to myself at Christmas while I was ordering candles for my friends.

Normally I am a candle person but my naughty cats combined with an old wooden house and my forgetful nature, have me nervous to burn them here.

So I bought this wax melt (my first) and haven’t looked back. You just plug the wax warmer in, drop the wax cubes in and go. No fuss no muss no fear of burning the whole place down.

What I like about the Spireside brand is the creativity of the scents and the longevity of the fragrance. Peruse the candle aisle of any store and you will find all the usual subjects: floral, coffee and baked goods. Spireside is unique and whimsical with unusual combinations of scents that combine to tell a story.

Ghostly Castle for example, is described as Musty Carpets, Dusty Furnishings and Graveyard Grasses. I have no idea what that would smell like but I know they got it right.

It is musty and oily and damp and mossy. It is jasmine and trampled honeysuckle. It is old sheets over mirrors in an untouched attic. Musty photographs of people long forgotten. It is the dampness of a basement. It is cameos, broaches and pearls. It is the click of a locket, the creak of an iron gate, the scent of rust in the air. The taste of blood on your tongue. It is the key in the lock for the first time in decades.The restlessness of spirits. The waking of the dead. The crumbling of bones. It is the exhale of an old house.

Right now….I am loving the weight of this scent, the cozy, tucked in feeling it is giving me. The reassurance that at some point old becomes new and ends become beginnings. That at some point the key will turn, the locks will tumble and we will all exhale and be set free.