Lavender Love

Lavender Love

Another of my beloved plants
Reminds me of the South of France
All year long you're short and shrubby
Fat and wide and a little stubby
But in the spring your stems grow slender
Reaching towards the sun, you are tall and tender
At the top of each stem your fragrances waft
Your name "lavender" tells of your color so soft
The month of July, I sit here for hours
And delight in the smell of your purply flowers
But the honey bees they are not sitting like me
They busily work in the sun with glee
Traveling and flying from stem to stem
They know that you are the creme de la creme!
Watching their behinds wiggle and waggle
Listening to wings go tiggle and taggle
They will make lavender honey so sweet
To put in my tea- a real winter treat!
When the bees have taken all that they can
Then I walk out with my clippers in hand
I cut the long stems and hang them up high
Then gather the flowers when they are dry
So many ways to use lavender fine
Here are a few favorites of mine..
Weaving wands with ribbons so bright
Or lavender baths on a cold winter's night.
Sprinkled in shortbread sweet cookie dough
Dipped in warm tea while the cold winds blow.
 Provence in my memory you'll always be 
In French I bid you a loving merci!

Christine Summerfield/July 2016