In my childhood home, we had a second-floor walk-in closet for towels and linens, winter boots, coats and mittens. The top shelf was saved for my mother and father. His tweed berets and felt cowboy hats, her satin veiled pillbox and beaded wedding bag were some of their favorites stored there.
As a child, I loved to dress up in them. I’d take a chair into the closet, select one or two and try them on in front of a full-length mirror in the hall.
One day, when I walked into the closet, it was filled with the most amazing fragrance—one I’d never smelled before. It was a combination of perfume, flowers and the outdoors—scents I was familiar with—but something more, too. I didn’t know what it was, but knew how it made me feel. Happy and peaceful.
From that day, I often walked into the closet just to breathe in the mysterious scent. I wondered where it had come from but never asked and just kept it to myself. Over the next couple of years, the intensity of the fragrance faded. Eventually, it was indistinguishable from the smell of winter wear, linens and laundry soap.
Several years later, I had a weekend job at my family’s flower shop. One summer, my aunt, bridal designer extraordinaire and the shop’s buyer, ordered a line of candles and sachets to sell with our gifts. My uncle asked me to price the order after it arrived. When I unpacked the box of sachets, there it was. The fragrance I loved from my childhood rediscovered in an illustrated paper packet. It was lavender. What a happy moment.
From that point, I’ve always made sure to have something lavender in my world whether a pillow, lotion, candle or oil.
In fall 2011, I moved to southern Oregon with my Lab-Greyhound and fellow adventurer, Mickey. I didn’t know, until after moving, that Oregon is a lavender capital. With my lifetime love for lavender, this discovery was a big bonus.
I learned Oregon lavender is harvested during a few weeks in mid-summer and there were farms across the state where you could pick your own. I looked forward to picking lavender with Mickey the following year.
It’s said that people resemble their pets—or pets resemble their people. This was certainly true for Mickey and me. We shared a passion for floral and botanical fragrances. I learned this the day I brought him home from the shelter when he impetuously sniffed [and ate] a pink tea rose on the way in the front door. While a puppy, he sniffed roses and lilies, herbs and evergreen trees on our walks in Kansas City.
In Oregon, lavender was added to the list.
Lavender is a popular landscape plant in Oregon. On our walks, Mickey took every opportunity to inquisitively, and thoughtfully, sniff the lavender plants which retain their fragrance year-round there.
The following summer, when lavender was ready to harvest, I found a u-pick farm near Ashland, close to where we lived.
On lavender picking day, the morning was already summer hot when we headed south on Highway 5. Mickey didn’t care. Every car ride and road trip during his life was an adventure. His enthusiasm became mine.
When we arrived at the farm, the sun was higher and hotter, the air was still, and the ground was dry and dusty but that didn’t curb our excitement. Under a cobalt sky, framed by snow-peaked Mt. Ashland, the fragrant lavender fields extended to the horizon on all sides.
We were the only pickers that weekday morning, as far as I could see. When we reached the perimeter of the fields, I started picking while Mickey, his nose awhirl, sniffed every lavender stem his nose could find. While I filled brown paper bags with stems and buds, the temperature continued to rise.
Before long, Mickey’s zest was fading. His glossy black coat was a sun magnet and, even with water breaks, he was waning. I gathered the lavender and we headed back to our car for the drive home. Though our lavender-picking adventure was brief, I had picked enough to make and send lavender gifts to friends and family.
I have no pictures of Mickey sniffing lavender, except those in my memory. Like sunshine banked for a cloudy day, they are there to remember any day, any time.
