I associate shades of blue and purple with Eros. In the last five years alone, I’ve gone through red periods and white periods, and even a pink period (my first one ever), but I always come back to purples — specifically the more bluish-hue shades.

But lavender works better for rooms than plums, cos it’s lighter and not quite as cool and makes the room feel bigger and more inviting.

Lavender is also an herb, aromatic, that has long held a reputation as a feminising agent. The science behind this belief is actually poorly misunderstood, because phytoestrogents in plants don’t work that way, but controversy remains because skin toxicity only occurs at low levels, in vitro toxicity only occurs to tje foetus’ skin, and studies suggesting it possesses antiandrogenic properties are few and the active element in lavender oil has not exactly been isolated. The ancient Hellenes called the herb nard and learned of its aromatherapy properties as a relaxant and in The Song of Songs, nard is listed as one of the ingredients of the Holy Essence.

My bed, when I’m not in it. (on the bed and left-of-centre, my hand-made pyjamas)

Speaking of Eros and purple, it seems my associations are not that unfounded, as a British study that suggests a correlation between purple bedrooms and more frequent “intimate encounters”. And this includes bedlinen, too. And apparently silk sheets, and presumably satin sheets are included too, also show a correlation of increased boop-oop-a-doop. Personally, I don’t think I’ve noticed a correlation, myself, but hey, I also understand how averages work.