LAVENDER AND SUNSHINE

 Are you ready for a perfumed post?  Hope you love lavender, and don't pass out from spending an hour or so in 95 degrees, while I show you the beautiful items made from this favorite plant.

Weekend before last I was invited to attend the Lavender Harvest Celebration at Sunshine Lavender Farm in Orange County, North Carolina, just an hour's drive past brilliant green cornfields and pastures filled with gentle grass-chewing cows.

Lavender picked that week was already drying in the barn, and inside I watched how the dried flowers are removed by hand from the stems...........the perfume was intoxicating.

Out in the lavender field, many plants were still producing long stems with plenty of flowers.  Several types of lavender are grown here in the area including Provence, Grosso, and Hidcote.  Oyster shells are used as mulch and to reflect sunlight, interesting.

Plenty of lavender plants for sale.  I purchased three Hidcote (English) to add to other lavender plants I have on a small raised area in my garden.  They seem to do well there and within a couple of years perhaps I'll be filling sachets with my own lavender flowers.

Always nice to have growing advice given...............hopefully I'm meeting the criteria for raising healthy plants.

The delightful Annie who owns Sunshine Lavender Farm, and her staff, had been busy making great products.  She is off to visit lavender farms in Provence next month - I told her she'll love every minute.

All the above items were for sale during the celebration................it was a lovely way to spend a Saturday in the country.

Later DH and I sat here in the shade for a little break from the sweltering sun.  Enjoyed a scoop of amazing lavender vanilla ice cream - from that same farm I told you about recently, Maple View Dairy, check it out if you're in the area.  I hear that sitting on their front porch in the rocking chairs, enjoying a cone or dish of freshly churned ice cream, while watching the sun set over the cornfields, is a delightful way to spend a Summer evening.  It's on my 'to do' list.

Do you like to leave town and take a country drive?  

Or are you one of the lucky ones who already live down on the farm?