Lovely Lavender

We thoroughly enjoyed our lavender weekend. We met Gary and Carolyn at the ferry about noon on Friday and spent the afternoon and evening at the motor home catching up on our comings and goings. On Saturday we walked the street fair and took the shuttle bus out to two of the lavender farms. And visited two more farms on Sunday. All the participating farms had entertainment, food that could be purchased, and of course every conceivable lavender product.

I love the soaps and lotions and fragrances, but I have yet to find any redeeming quality to cooking with lavender. It is simply too mild to make a statement in anything from what I can tell. I've tasted lavender pound cake, lavender cookies and lavender ice cream, and I couldn't taste it in anything.

But it is lovely to look at, and the fragrance is heavenly. We have a huge plant by the back door that has just finished blooming as well as several in the garden. Now Ken is going to plant lavender along the pathway leading up to the front door.

We ate and drank well while with Gary and Carolyn and spent a bit of time talking about our travel plans for the coming fall and winter. We are thinking of leaving sooner (October?) rather than later for our southern sojourn. But we have to negotiate with Craig because we are losing our dog/house sitter since Colleen starts a new job in Phoenix the first of August. It is another Fuller campus which is where she worked in Colorado, but it is a higher level (and higher pay).

I have been spending a fair bit of time at Madigan Hospital for all the annual routine appointments, and I think I am about finished. I wanted to get everything finished before fall arrived. Contrary to my concerns that health care would become more difficult at Madigan because of the addition of troops and families to the Fort Lewis community, it seems it is running more smoothly than ever!

We have blue skies and sunshine; almost too much blue and sun, but we will enjoy it while it is here, because I'm sure there is rain in the forecast sometime in the near future.

Ciao