Orange Crush

flower garden color crush

lavender

lavender season ended for the most part 

about a month ago
in mid July

the lavender garden was really quite beautiful and more importantly the bee's were in heaven....

 I am really considering getting some bee hive boxes for the orange orchard

most of my lavenders planted throughtout the property is the Grosso variety
which provides the essential oil for use in soaps, lotions etc

It is very tall and spikey with long narrow clusters of blue grey flowers

just walking through the lavender 

gives off that amazing earthy scent

if is wasn't so full of bumble bees it might be fun to have a chair in the middle of the plants! 

there are actually quite a few plants that we have that are suitable for drying
 and I tried a few things out earlier this summer

but the lavender is hands down the most fun to dry 

and I really love having it in little bowls in the house

we had some rather mild weather in July followed this month
by a really nasty heat wave...but the lavender is still holding up 

 this large bed is a huge drift of about 100 or so plants...

in the center of the bed are some old wine barrels

planted with geranium and willow tertuers

the geranium are just popping up above the spikey blue stems

this is what Grosso looks like dried

I wrap it with butchers twine and hang it for about a week or so 

lavender is really

wonderful to photograph too!

now on to the harvest

next post....ideas for using lavender to give as a gift

hope you are staying cool ; 0 )

kelley

Seawead Pressings: Botanicals from the Ocean

I received an email today from a wonderful group of artists (a family actually) in Victoria British Columbia.  The name of the company is Coastal Prezence and they do the most amazing pressed seawead botanicals.

I actually sort of stumbled onto this company and then followed up with a phone call and purchased three originals.  They sell prints of their work as well and were very helpful with the selection. 

They view their work as Gustav Klimt/Art Nouveau inspired and find that even those that don't live near the ocean are drawn to the shape and uniqueness of their art

What was new in this particular case is the pressings are now being matted in such a way that the canvas presentation wraps around the sides

It is the movement of the kelp within the pressing that make these wonderful when grouped together.  They sort of flow into one another and the colors are just beautiful.  The brown and ochre colors with the specs of pink are amazing. 

Here is another example of the seaweed in a mixed media fish print.  I love these!!!

Here are the 3 that I purchased.  I framed them with a very tiny metal frame (from Exposures) and they came pre-matted so that worked out great.

I hung these at the very top of our stair well;  this is leading out to the roof top deck. 

 They really make a wonderful collection hung just about anywhere.  

I hope you will visit them. 

 I can't even begin to imagine the trial and error it took to perfect this process but it shows in the details!

Here is a link to their site:  Coastal Prezence Seaweed Designs

~*~

kelley