 The
straight lines of dome-shaped plants, purple and fragrant,
marched one by one down the undulating field, past the
patches of green herbs and multicolored flowers, toward the
farm’s old picture-perfect cottage. To her the rows of
hedges looked like a knitted blanket with rows of one knit
and one purl.
The cottage was several hundred years old with black wooden
struts tic-tac- toeing the white-mortared walls. A new
thatched roof, a foot thick, glowed golden and caressed the
diamond-paned windows. The thatcher’s design of
cross-hatching and borders—his signature—around the roof top
reminded Angela of her mother’s gold engraved bracelet.
Curtains at the open windows billowed in the summer breeze
like sails. Looking toward the hazy horizon, she could just
make out the white dots which were sheep grazing in the
fields of the neighboring farm.
She gazed at the workers bent over in the field.
“Why don’t you get an automatic picker, Dad?” Angela called
to her father behind her as she walked gingerly between the
rows of lavender bushes. “Picking by hand is old fashioned
now. That big lavender farm in the next county uses
machines.”
“’Cause a machine costs a fortune and I only have three
acres of lavender—don’t earn enough to warrant it. I make
more money on the flowers and herbs,” her father said. He
stopped to catch his breath and wiped his brow with his
crumpled handkerchief. Angela turned around to wait for him
to catch up.
The fields were humming. Humming from the bees as they
industriously sipped the nectar from the sea of purple
blossoms. A low hum came from the workers chatting as they
bent over the bushes, and with curved knives clutched in
their quick hands, cut stems and stuffed handfuls into
burlap bags.
She loved the smell of lavender. It was woven like a ribbon
through her childhood as it had been part of the life of
others throughout the centuries. Her mother, as did many
old-fashioned countrywomen, still aired her bed linens over
lavender bushes to soak in the fragrance.
Similar to Places
Depicted in
LAVENDER and LOVE
A
Welsh cottage with
a periwinkle-blue gate. Notice the lavender lining the path.
Here's a lovely
lavender farm,
Norfolk Lavender,
which is in the county of
Norfolk, England.
My hometown
-
Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.
Angela's attorneys are located
in this town.
A scene of Rome.
Some
French châteaux
with round turrets similar to the château in the novel.
Visit the lovely town
of
New Sweden, Aroostook County, Maine.
Angela's neighbor was from New
Sweden.
Photos of
Pennsylvania Amish buggies,
etc. Angela travelled through
Amish country.
|
