The beginning of July one of our “neighbors” in Hatch, Betty, and I trekked up to a small town called Mona just south of Salt Lake City for Lavender Days. Young Living Farms is the leading producer of pharmaceutical grade lavender essential oil. They actually have a whole line of wellness products of which we both were quite impressed.
This was only their second festival at the farm but they did a great job. We drove the 167 miles north on Friday morning to be there on the first day. As soon as we approached the farm, the smell and the sight of 120 acres of lavender in bloom was overwhelming for me. It so much reminded me of all the wonderful herbs I grew in Michigan. Made me just a little homesick, if you will! The different shades of purple with the mountains in the background was an amazing sight.
We attended talks on everything from spa uses of essential oils to reading your aura to using oils in breadmaking! The speakers were great. They had live music and we even found a seat for the Cowboy Poetry session. What? That’s what I said. I had never even heard of such a thing. It was humorous as well as some tear-jerking readings. There were two cowboys who recited all their prose with such drama and obvious practice. Not sure I need to do it again, though!
One of the highlights for me was being able to pick my own bouquet of lavender! We were handed a pair of clippers and a cellophane bag with a piece of purple raffia to tie the stems together. What fun! Mom, you were right there with me!!! The fields were mildly reminiscent of a pumpkin patch at Halloween. Many families with little ones were trying to get that perfect picture for their holiday cards.
We spent the night in a quasi-local motel. That was after we stopped at 5 others only to find there was some Scottish festival in town and most the rooms were taken. That allowed us to participate in another highlight of the event: my first 5K walk/run! I know – not a big deal, but something I have had in the back of my brain to do for a long time. I would have liked to have run it (it is only 3.1 miles) but not ready to do that,yet. The race was actually across and through the fields - beautiful.
Now you might ask how did I get a picture of the start of the race if I’m supposed to be in it. Since there were 700 entrants, I didn’t think I really needed to go all the way to the end of the crowd since I was just going to be walking anyway! This was a much better view, I think!!
All the diehard runners with their stopwatches were set on speed. Then came the walking and talking crowd. Betty and I strolled along with some others, chatting and stopping to take pics along the way. Little did I know that this race was “official” of sorts and we were actually competing against the clock. We were even stopping to take pics of “our finish”!! Imagine my surprise when we received our result’s card at the end and all of our race times were recorded!!!!! OK, I did finish 16th in my age group. Ummmmmm nevermind knowing how many women in my age group participated – no, I wasn’t last!!! Afterwards, Betty and I decided we could have easily shaved, oh, 20 minutes off our time! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.
Hey, I’m up for the next one – hopefully it won’t be at an elevation of 7500 feet. Just think what I could have done at sea level! Thanks for joining me, Betty. I had a great time.
On the ride home we were shocked to see all the wildfires sweeping through Utah. We hadn’t been following the news and had no idea they were so close. We stopped on Rt 70 at a place called, Rock Candy Mountain for lunch. This is the mountain before lunch, and our plates becoming covered with ash on the patio.
And the same mountain as we were leaving the parking lot.
Several highways were closed not long after we drove through. Very scary, and fortunately not something we had ever seen before.
It felt good to be back in Hatch.
Click here to see a few more lavender pictures.
More news to come. We are in Buffalo, Wyoming and enjoyed the rodeo last night!
Thanks for checking in on us,
jody
3 comments:
It's me again,
I had a wonderful time going thru the Lavender Farm pictures. Makes me want to go west just to see it. I wish I could post a photo of the lavender photos I took in Brussels. I too felt intoxicated by the fragrance.
As for the fires, very sad, glad you got out of there in time.
Thanks for the trip thru the farm.
love mom
Hi All,
Bert, Bonnie, & Coco have had a busy summer. First of all, our Coco who was deaf when we left TGO in April developed glaucoma shortly after we returned to MD. She completely lost her sight, and we had a wonderful friend (COCO) who was deaf, blind, and couldn't control her bodily functions. After many trips to vets we relucantly decided to be fair to her and had her put to sleep. We really missed her and decided to go for another Coco. We now have a 4 month old chocolate cocker, also named COCO. She's a doll, but we had no idea how much work a puppy is. You'll all get to meet her when we return to TGO.
We plan to return to TGO sometime in October. See you then.
Jody/Bill - I'm impressed! First time I ever visited a blog. Pretty neat way to record your comings and goings. Keep it up - I will check in now and then...Kay Hart, WCH, Ohio.
Post a Comment