Lavender and Linen

Visitors to La Petite Maison frequently comment on the fragrance of Lavender - both outside and indoors.

They hasten to clarify that it is not the cloying sickly lavender smell associated with chemical air fresheners or cheap perfume, 

but the dusty pungent herbaceous scent experienced when walking through a lavender field on a balmy evening,

 or a rosy morning 

when the dew is still wet on the grass.

In the garden, the Regal Splendour lavender in the chimney pots leading to the seating area could have come straight from a Mediterranean Hillside.

 

 Grey / blue flowers of Lavender Augustifolia edge the back walls of the house, mingling with rosemary and fennel and the roses that clothe the walls -

such a contrast to the way the house used to look with the lean-to-boiler house that adorned the back wall, 

before I rescued it from it's tired and dilapidated state.

Lavender and nepeta now line the gravel paths leading to the back door, the flower spikes gracefully swaying in the summer breeze, whilst

lavender and sage flop over each side of the reclaimed sleeper steps outside the French windows - releasing a heady, woody, pungent scent when brushed past on the way up to the grassed area.

After a sunny day, the lavender has been picked and brought inside to dry in bunches; harvested in phases, so that the bees still had access to a constant supply.

This years heatwave has also created an opportunity for gathering rose petals 

that dried in the sun almost the same day they flowered. 

As a result over the past summer months my home has been full of the scent of lavender and rose petals,

some of which I used to fill a cushion that I made from antique white linen.

I also stitched a Summer Bouquet with hollyhocks, foxgloves and daisies onto freshly laundered and lavender scented French linen -  

(the beautiful design was courtesy of Nicki), 

and sewed it into a lavender filled cushion. 

Some of the dried lavender is ground and used as an ingredient to my handmade herbal soap - carrying the lavender fragrance throughout the house.

As the days shorten and the evenings close in, the scent of summer lingers on through the dried lavender, the woody fragrance combining with the seasonal autumnal smell of kiln dried wood burning in the stove.

November is approaching fast and Lucinda's "Christmas in the Barn" event. I am wondering if I have enough dried petals for all my projects. Already I am making plans for next year to plant an entire bed with lavender at the allotment.

xxx