The Purple Prince – Formerly known as Lavender July 23, 2012

“with immediacy and intensity, smell activates the memory, allowing our minds to travel freely in time.”

Tom Robbins Jitterbug Perfume

Lovely layer of oil floating on top

The goods

gridded for the good of all

The lavenders are a genus of 39 species  in the mint family and is grown in temperate climates as ornamental plants for landscape use, and commercially for the extraction of essential oils.  As noted in earlier posts, the hydrosol I produce is not a co-product of the essential oil, but rather the object of my desire for the lavender.  The pure essential oil that floats on the top is mixed well so that it is always included in the jar packaging of the finished product.

Floral with honey overtones and a smooth,viscous finish – to camphorous, sharp and lively, Lavender hydrosol is definitely my staple ‘heal all’ as it has a multitude of uses and it seems to lift everyone’s vibe with it’s misting magic.

Having distilled many different varieties of Lavender, I am most impressed by Lavandula x intermedia ‘Provence’ which has a clean, slightly sharp citrus high note with a backbone of cinnamon and eucalyptus and Lavandula intermedia ‘Grosso’ which is deliciously sharp and tangy with a hint of honey.  Lavendula angustofolia is widely available as well in the Napa Valley where I harvest and most people truly just love it’s warm honey scent.  All are luxurious and transportive on a mental and emotional level and are strong yet gentle antiseptics.  Fortunately, the sources for these plants are organic and biodynamic farms and I am blessed to have the time and freedom to experiment with production under varied celestial states and by the BD calendar.

Hydrosols seem to  possess a magical in road to healing and can be used safely without the irritants that some may experience with essential oils.  Use them freely and often to enhance your surroundings and more…

A few Lavender Hydrosol Uses

• Spritz yourself- face, hair, body, and clothes.
• Cool a hot flash.
• Soothe a sunburn.
• Cleans wounds, cuts and sores.
• Clean the air, esp. when you are traveling as it acts as an air-borne viricide.
• Freshen the bathroom
• Make your own wet wipes- spray on tissue or damp clothe and use. Great for dirty faces, hands and bottoms.
• Add a splash to white wine or champagne.
• Spray in the dryer before adding clothes and directly on line hung clothes.
• Spray on your yoga mat
• Spray on cloth napkins and tablecloth.
• Spritz your face to change your mood and attitude, very calming.

Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence – Robert Fripp July 23, 2012

Once a week, for the last 5 years or so,  the boys and I gather with life long friends to create music.  Sometimes it is here on the farm around the fire or down at the creek but, more often than not, it is at Christinas house as her entire sunroom is packed with instruments ready to play.  Our only rules when we started doing this was that there were to be no ‘songs’, only exploration.  Band names followed – ‘No Sudden Moves’ may have been the first.  ‘Emergency Kill Switch’ came the next summer when, after a day on the lake playing to the wind, the pontoon boat wouldn’t start, so we all jumped in to tow it back to the dock.  Fortunately, some hot, bikini clad babes in a bitchin’ Bass boat told us to check the EKS by the starter (who knew?) and we motored back after dusk.

Instruments at hand range from Davids homemade – like the tin can harp,

the real one is in the other room…

wash tub bass

Bunny made a glockenspiel

and household percussion items,to school band grade wind and reed along with a cello, violin,  guitars, banjo, mandolins, big and small squeeze boxes -including a harmonium and a monster accordion named ZSA ZSA.  Some evenings, we set the sun down with funnels, flutes and colorful tubing and entice the moon to rise with a cacophony of percussion persuasion.  It seems like over the last few years however, a few songs have slipped in and the keyboards have taken center stage.  Get everyone on one and melodies of world  emerge.

There are many nites that the idea of being alone for the evening, using chores and chickens or a good book as an excuse almost stop me from going. I usually give up my drag though, for as Aldous Huxley wrote, After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music –  and because I always get so much from being with friends, eating and drinking fabulous food and wine and playing or listening to the creations of the soul.

Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together  – Anais Nin

my favorite

more cow bell

steel drum

the ‘new’ string, percussion, wind section

turn it up

bda bum

baby squeezy

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life  – Ludwig van Beethoven