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The crazy ladies of Blush and Bloom and I took Terre Bleu Lavender field by storm one sunny Sunday late in the season, just a few days before the Lavender harvest. We loved trapsing around the the lavender fields, our noses flooded with the scent.

I was in the South of France recently (don’t you hate people that just drop tidbits like that? It’s relevant to the story I swear). It was a Sunday and we were driving around wine country and lost and car-sick, and truly nothing was opened. Nothing in the cities or towns are opened on Sundays, the countryside was desolate. We were frustrated we were wasting our one wine country day driving around arguing and finally we saw a vineyard that might be open.

We went in and asked if they spoke any English. Nope. Okay. So with some gesturing and high school French we got some wine tastings and bought a few bottles of wine for under 3 Euros (things are looking up). Still a bit frustrated with the experience we made our way to the car and passed an elderly couple loading cases (many) of wine into their car. He was wearing a very nice tweed jacket and she was in a peach hat with flowers. I spotted an olive tree and some lavender in the vineyard’s garden and started photographing and studying each and then made my way to the car. We put the car into drive and started pulling out of the parking lot when the man hurried over and tapped on my window, he was holding a whole fist full of lavender and handed it to me. He grabbed the little purple petals and  showed me how to handle and smell the blossoms. This was all through motioning and gesturing, and at first I was too gentle so he showed me again. Grabbed the little blossoms off of the stem and rubbed them between his fingers put the bunch to his nose. It was the most intoxicating smell, I will never never forget it. The flowers are beautiful but the people and the stories behind it, man.

These Blush and Bloom ladies get that it’s about the humans and the beauty and the stories, so glad I was able to photograph them. xx

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