Um … I think I’m ready for Fall. How rude of Summer to finally show up, bringing with it this wicked humidity and daily rain and thunderstorms. I must concede that I am a weather malcontent. Despite my stance during the endless Winter that I would never bemoan Summer’s heat or humidity, it looks like I’m going to complain anyway. A cloudy morning and the sun that decided to sleep in, made for a later departure, and thus it was a shorter walk today. I headed out the door on this rather gloomy morn and once again diverted my trek to the train tracks on Emmons Boulevard. Soon I fear the homeowners on Emmons will think I am “casing the joint”. As I passed Ford Park I noted there were additional leafy branches piled up throughout the area. As I strolled down Emmons, once again leaves and small branches littered the sidewalks and streets from the latest storm. So many leaves have fallen already, either related to the storm or the cooler temps we’ve had all Summer, that I have even noticed leaf imprints on the sidewalks already.

The stately home with the lavender patch was just heavenly in the moist air and it was a welcome scent after smelling the musty leaves laying on damp lawns … or worms. I paused to inhale deeply and would have liked to bring a bouquet home with me but I daren’t touch or pick. I was solo as I walked the streets this morning – there was not a dog walker, jogger or bicyclist in sight. After Labor Day, the usual hustle and bustle of kids being shepherded to school and thus more traffic, will have me hoping that I can return to Council Point Park more often. At least there I don’t have to watch for cars backing out of driveways or otherwise preoccupied drivers. It seems impossible that the Labor Day holiday is just around the corner and soon we’ll settle into Fall. Maybe it’s because Summer, for the most part, just passed us by this year; that is sad since we really looked forward to it after the long and arduous Winter. I have four months to reach my goal so will keep plugging away before the weather turns ugly and I am on the inside looking out like the tail end of last year.

Long after I returned home today I could still smell that beautiful, almost overpowering, scent of lavender which must have cloaked my clothes as I walked past it. I had some lavender plants tucked in a corner of my yard one year, but they grew gangly by the end of Summer and were hopelessly bent over and tangled into other perennials. I decided, though the lavender smelled good, it looked rather messy, so I decided to yank it out in the Fall. I was hoping to dry the stems and delicate flowers, then gather them with a lavender-colored ribbon to hang in my room as I’d seen in so many gardening books. The project looked easy enough. I gathered a huge handful of stalks, spread them out to dry on a newspaper in the basement, but the blooms dried to a crisp and fell off. Did I miss a step? Was I supposed to preserve them somehow? Perhaps they were better left in their natural state where I might stop by and breathe in deeply every chance I could. But I had hoped to capture and enjoy that delicate scent through the Winter months.

Lavender reminds me of my grandmother. She used Yardley English Lavender toilet water, talcum powder and bar soap for years. When I snuggled up against Nanny when I was a little girl, I remember that most heavenly scent, and, when she opened her dresser or chest drawers, the room was instantly filled with the heady smell of lavender because she unwrapped the cakes of soap and nestled them between her clothes. Perhaps that is why that lovely lavender scent returns me to my childhood once again whenever I smell it.

As rosemary is to the spirit … so lavender is to the soul. ~ Anonymous