Un Fuseau de Lavande

Repeat after me...un fuseau de lavande...Very good. Now say it one more time...un fuseau de lavande. If you don't speak french, I am sure you are saying to yourself, "Just exactly what does she have me saying?" Well it's obvious, of course!  You are saying lavender wand! It is a  hand-crafted apparatus designed expressly for it's aromatic benefits, with a little bit of delicate beauty thrown in for good measure. Some lavender wands are skinny and some are fat.  The lavender wands I am making seem to be somewhere in the middle.  My friend, Kim, makes very tiny, sweet ones that she fashions into pins for your lapel.  Yet, all are lovely and offer the soft scent of "citrusy" sweetness that makes lavender so special

As pretty as they are, laid next to your pillow to ensure a restful night and sweet dreams or stashed in your sweater drawer for springtime freshness, they can be a bit tedious and tricky to make. So, if you choose to make your own lavender wand, bring your patience and your dexterity and settle yourself in somewhere comfortable with a good pair of reading glasses on hand and spend a half hour, or so, weaving satin ribbon in and out of lavender stems.  It also helps, at least it helps me, to imagine myself sitting perhaps in a cozy little chateau situated in the Provencal countryside, crafting un fuseau de lavande...aaahhhhhh.  Okay, enough of that.  Back to reality.  Although, come to think of it, sitting in my house here at Blooming Hill isn't so bad either.

All it takes is colorful ribbon, along with a bit of determination to see it through to the end and you find that you transformed loose lavender stems, already simple things of capricious beauty--freshly cut, slender and wispy, trimmed in blossoms of violet intrigue--into a magical wand that releases an understated fragrance like no other.  And, the end is most certainly worthwhile.