Pearls & Prose

To get to the lavender fields in Valley Center, you go north of San Diego and eventually take a long, winding dusty road with barbed-wire fences on both sides:

That eventually turns into this:

There are lots of turns, but signs mark the way. The arrows on the signs are kind of small, so play close attention.

Found it.

Keys Creek Lavender Farm is only open to the public in May and June, so get a move on if you live in San Diego County. Definitely worth a visit. They do weddings and high tea.

Here’s the tea house:

There’s also a gift shop. . . .

I took some photos inside with the iPhone:

This little vignette greets you on the way out.

Lavender and palm trees. So California.

A beautiful place to picnic. I love that shade of umbrella, especially against the purple lavender.

There are several varieties at the farm. This looks an awful lot like the Munstead lavender I grew in Virginia.

We had perfect weather the day we were there. It gets really hot in the area during the summer.

The surrounding hillside. Those are orange trees in the midground.

According to the farm’s website, lavender is mentioned in the Bible by the name used then, Spikenard from the Greek name for lavender, naardus, after the Syrian city Naarda. The name lavender is thought to come from the Latin root word “lavare,” which means “to wash.”

Clouds of lavender.

Of course the Adirondack chairs are blue-violet.

The lavender appears to be waving, doesn’t it?

Hope your week’s going well. . . .

{carole}