The lavender bush leans out from next door’s front garden, brushing against me when I hurry past. In Winter a scratchy sensation. In Summer a trace of fragrant oil. As soon as the stems start to swell into tiny flower buds, I instinctively reach out in passing - stroking and squeezing, sniffing my fingers as I walk away. An unfailing pleasure on the glummest morning. The essential oil's aroma rises even before the petals open. A strong scent on my hands for a couple of weeks now, but only the vaguest mauve mist on the silvery green. Then, yesterday evening, the first springy whoosh of purple-blue blooms.
8 comments:
The smells get deep into our core brain, the same one we've had since we was snakess.
There's a lavender bush where I get off the bus, that has restored my equanimity after a bad day at work many times.
I have just planted lavender this season and it is blooming right near my front door as I go in and out. I love it so much and, like you, Jean, always reach down and squeeze the leaves gently between my fingers - smelling the fragrance for long after. Very soothing. Comforting.
Saw lavender plants at a Quebec farm stand yesterday - apparently a few growers have fields of hardy varieties here now. It was unreliable in my Vermont garden and after I lost a four-year-old plant, I was so sad! The scent is a core thing, Zhoen is right.
I squeeze the lavender, too, when I find it. I recently gave a friend a bunch of dried lavender tied with a ribbon for her birthday. My car smelled like lavender for days from the bits that fell off the bunch.
...dilly, dilly...
Have had trouble growing it for some reason, though I've seen it grown around here. Renewing my determination.
I still have that lavender you brought me when you first came to visit. It still smells wonderful. Now I know where you got it!
Lavender is special to me. I remember the enormous bush in my parents garden and the neighbour who would make sachets to scent her underwear draw. I smell lavender and I go back 40 years...just like that
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