of wood and lavender

Oh, lavender - how you did right by me this year, despite my neglect. I snatched you away from your comfortable pampered existence at Menne Nursery and into my oft ill planned garden of fleeting obsession and chaos, planted you, and, for the most part, ignored you, and still you bent over backwards (almost literally) showing off for me and putting everyone else to shame. 

You rewarded me for analyzing environmental conditions and planting accordingly.  Lesson learned: nature wins. A rare educational triumph for this stubborn, novice gardener.

40 lb box from Gothic City Antiques in Buffalo. Side note: Woah - they have a website!!! Its been a while since I've googled them, apparently!

Antique Butcher block work table, Craigslist. Top refinished and stained blue by Evan. 

Wouldn't that be amazing to have 40 lbs of lavender? We have a bit of an old wooden box problem. So the more often I find ways to put them to use, even temporarily, the less we feel like hoarders. 

This small wooden box was purchased recently at Albert Meadow Antiques in Bar Harbor (mentioned here). It has wire netting on the bottom, so I am thinking of using it as a planter for something whose roots will tolerate a shallow vessel. Suggestions?

I love that you can still see all of the wear and tear from the table's former life in a workshop.  

I just cut all of my lavender back a week or so ago, before our first freeze, and now I am looking for ideas on how to use it. I am thinking lavender honey ice cream, homemade lavender honey (to replenish my supply when this runs out) and lavender sugar. Can you tell I love the taste as much as the scent?

Between "harvesting my crop of lavender before the first freeze" and making a big bubbling cauldron of apple pear butter that same evening, I felt like a parody of Martha - and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. It was old-timey, olfactory goodness at its finest.