Lavender Fields!

Wow. Living where we do, you can almost start to take lavender for granted. It grows so well-- and thrives on so little care-- that you see it all around, and we have a handful of varieties in our own yard. It's also quite popular for landscape painters to paint, and I knew of Matanzas Creek Winery as the place they went to paint fields of it. But I had never been there myself.
I've been subbing for a summer painting class the last few days, and they had recently spent the day here--- the lavender is at the height of bloom, about to be harvested. So I dropped by on my way home. And so, I say again, wow. Nothing really prepares you for these fields of color 'in the real'-- and their scent, the buzz of the bees, the late afternoon sun.
You can read about the gardens here. You see there are two colors of lavender: the lighter is Provence, used for culinary purposes, and the darker is Grosso, the stronger one, used for bath products and oils. (they make and sell a lot of the products there). Any future visitors who come to see us in late spring/early summer-- are going to be taken here. You have been warned.


Here you can see the lavender has begun to be harvested (these shorn green mounds)-- a process that is done by hand and takes a number of weeks.


Here's a little painting by Paula Smith (love the contrasting orange umbrella!)