Every year at this time my thoughts turn to a certain fragrant herb,
and all the different things I want to do with it.
Of course it helps that,
as I walk through our garden daily,
I am greeted by the sight (and sound)
of happy, colorful and very busy bees gathering pollen from our own 10 lavender plants.
~
But still, somehow,
my summer doesn't feel totally complete without at least one trip to a PNW farm where I can
wander through lovely fields of purple and white...
But where to go this year?
One year I went to Hood River,
2012 saw me in the Yamhill area.
And there--of course--have been other farms;
there's just so many to choose from in the beautiful PNW:)
Such a difficult decision...
But then, this week, I ran into a little bit of info that was just SO enticing,
SO wonderful,
SO exciting...
I just had to go and check it out:)
And that's how my best friend and I ended up today
in gorgeous rural Polk county--
home to one of my favorite highways
(the King's Highway),
awesome Baskett Slough NWR,
a beloved covered bridge and waterfall
(the Ritner Covered Bridge and Little Luckiamute Falls),
several historic areas that I love...
and
Lavender Lake Farms.
There we spent some glorious moments under the warm summer sun wandering through
the field gathering fragrant lavender to take home
and enjoying the happy bees there
(really--I love bees and don't mind getting close up to them at all).
And some glorious moments in the farm's wonderful gift store where they have an
incredible amount of mostly lavender products--
for the bath, body, tummy (yea!), house and more!
Lavender is truly an amazing herb!
And, yes, I ended up with some really neat things to bring home
and some ideas for how to use my own lavender:)
By the way, do you know the OTHER reason this time of year makes my thoughts turn to
wonderful fragrant lavender?
Well it's Lavender Festival time of course!!
That's right--this very weekend--
yea, I LOVE this time of the year:)
AND I love, love, love lavender
AND this family owned lavender farm!
Hum...wonder what I heard about that enticed me into visiting THIS particular lavender farm.
LOL...
yep, now I have my very own 'Aimee' plant to love and nurture --
and to remind me of a summer day spent in beautiful rural Polk county.
By the way, do you know how relaxing lavender can be?
Tee hee--my best friend does now:)
Lavender Blessings to you,
Aimee
Photos:
All taken at Lavender Lake Farms, July 2013.
Notes:
A BIG thank you to the people at Lavender Lake Farms for all their friendly assistance today
and for giving me permission to take and post photos on this blog, As is always the case, unless otherwise noted, I am not in any way associated with the farm except as a satisfied (and very happy) visitor! Should you want to pay them a little visit this month (or during Lavender Festival) their website is here: http://www.lavenderlakefarms.com/index.htm.
They have some special events going on also this month:)
