Lavender Festival

I love lavender.  I love the color, the smell, the uses of it--I love it all.  When we discovered that there were such things as lavender festivals while we were in Oregon, we took the opportunity to go and check out what such a festival had to offer.  One time.  One trip was all it took to get me hooked.  I loved everything about those festivals!  The tastes, sights, smells were lovely.  But when we moved away from Oregon, we left the lavender behind.  Oregon's climate allows lavender to grow in much the same way as it does in France where lavender festivals are quite the destination.  California, well, they don't have the same climate.  There were a couple of lavender farms there, more north than we were, but we never made it to a single farm.  Too many little babies closely spaced.  However, if we were ever in Oregon at the right time of the year (there it's early July) we are sure to visit the farms.  Now that we are here in Georgia, I wasn't even thinking of lavender.  The climate is much different here, so I was tickled to see an advertisement for not one but two lavender festivals in the same weekend.  Not being able to go to both, we picked the one we thought would be most like the festivals we'd been able to attend in the past and we made arrangements for our day trip. 

We woke up early, piled into the car and drove.  We were at the farm by 8:00 am.  Though the forecast threatened rain, we had a beautifully sunny (and hot) day at the farm. 

The bees are always a favorite of ours.  Jozsef captured this beautiful picture. 

Red Oak was a much smaller farm than we were accustomed to, but we picked our lavender none the less.  The bundles they allowed here were simply a fraction of the bundles we took home in Oregon, but we had fresh lavender to enjoy. 

Nikolas was asked to show his lavender.  This is what he did.  He was kidding around but we snapped the picture at the perfect moment capturing this gem.  The best part was when a guy passing by saw him strike this pose and he commented on how it was the Kodak moment of the day.  :-)   #notquitebluesteel

We strolled through the vendor spaces to see what they had to offer (we picked up honey sticks and a great beeswax candle) and enjoyed the live, relaxing music that was being played.  We learned about essential oil distilling, which is an expensive endeavor. 

We were treated to an encounter with a handful of amazing birds due to the kindness of some visiting Falconers.  The guys were very friendly and informative and even invited us out on a hunt if we were so inclined (they hunt with falcons and red tail hawks).  The birds were quite the sight, especially the Eurasian Eagle Owl.

The Eurasian Eagle Owl was a stunning bird

We enjoyed the gift shop where we picked up lavender dark chocolate and lavender bug repellent (bugs are serious business here) and we sampled their versions of lavender ice cream as well as lavender lemonade (our summer favorite).

In three hours, we took in all that the farm had to offer and were ready for some lunch.  We drove into the nearby historic downtown to see what we could see. 

We parked near the park and walked the main street until we found Shenanigan's Pub where we stopped to eat.  The meal was good and the tea was refreshing.  After, we walked more of the downtown stopping in shops along the way that caught our eye.  Wine tasting was readily available in several of the store fronts and John and I did take the opportunity to taste the local flavor at one location.

 Apparently we stopped at the oldest winery in the state.  The owner was tending the tasting and we had a great conversation.  He not only filled us in on the history of his wines, but also gave us some history on the lavender farm we had just come from.  One thing we learned about was lavender chickens.  They're a real thing!  How cool is that?  But back to the wine...although Georgia Winery had a really need Gone With the Wind wine trio, the Scarlet was much too fruity for us so we left with a Cabernet.

With wine in hand, we visited a couple more shops before we took the kids to the park to run off the remainder of their energy before the drive home. 

It was a really full, very pleasant day trip.  Although we are used to a much bigger festival, this quaint one was a great experience.  I think next year we'll try another destination.  :-)  #lavenderlove

Jozsef took this picture of the beautiful bug that landed on Sonja's lavender bundle.