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Friday, July 15, 2011

Lavender Lust

Made a solo trip up to the Mt Shasta Lavender Farm to see what all the fuss was about and well, I get it now.  It's beautiful, but more than that it transported me back to Provence.  The place I first fell in love with lavender 8 years ago. 

I happen to have an obsessive love of lavender, it nearly verges on unhealthy at times.  Lavender lotion, lavender soap, lavender oil, lavender laundry detergent, lavender wands, lavender paintings.  If it has anything to do with lavender, I will want it.  So it's no surprise that when lavender season comes around each year I find my way to a nearby farm to walk through the fields, cut the flowers, and basically bliss out. 

The English lavender was in full bloom and thank goodness bees love me, cause they were pretty excited about the lavender too.  Mt. Shasta was mostly covered with clouds most of the afternoon, but even so the views were magnificent.

As son as I arrived, I grabbed a basket and began cutting bunches of lavender. I wanted to make a few lavender wands.  English lavender isn't really ideal for this, because of how short their stems are, but I figured I would give it a try anyway.  After wandering through the fields talking to the bees (now you know why they like me so much) and gathering my bunches, I went in and paid for my stems and settled at a little table under a bright blue umbrella.  I took out my ribbon and got started.  It was a lot harder than I remembered.  I'm not sure if this was because of the English Lavender or because I was so out of practice, but either way it took quite a bit of patience and hand eye coordination.  I only managed to make two, but I was still pretty proud of myself.

The French Lavender (longer stems) will be blooming soon and you better believe I will be back.  This time I might even drag a few people with me.  I will let you know how it goes.