LAVENDER'S BLUE DILLY DILLY

Good Afternoon to you,

Imagine.

You are busily going about your day to day business, when you stop for a moment outside the Post Office.  As you stop, you feel a sharp prod on your hip.

You look down, thinking that you have accidentally knocked your hip against something, only to see, standing just a few feet away from you, a little, elderly lady with her walking stick raised.... and you realise that she has just poked you with her walking stick.

You look at her, with a look of surprise on your face, as you don't expect to be poked with a walking stick, even if it is by a small, elderly lady. She looks at you and asks, "Can you help me please? I need to get over there to the shop".  So you smile and say "yes of course".  You take the  arm of this elderly stranger and with complete confidence that you will take her to where she needs to be, she links arms with you, and slowly you walk towards the shop.

Well this is what happened to George on Monday when he went to the Post Office..... but the story does not end there.

As George walked very, very slowly to get her to the place she needed to be, she commented that he was very good at walking slowly, as most people hurry too much.  George said that he was used to walking slowly as he walks with his mother and his Auntie Mim who both walk slowly.  She then said that she was so pleased that she had chosen the right young man, to ask for help.

As they arrived at the halfway point to where the lady needed to be, another elderly lady approached and started talking to them both. She talked to the elderly lady on George's arm, and asked about her daughter, talked about her son visiting and then asked, "Who is this young man?" to which George replied, "I am her toy boy".... both ladies start laughing and the second lady waved goodbye and walked away.  The lady holding onto George's arm, then asked, "Do you know her?" to which George replied "No, I don't, I thought you did" to which she responded, "No, I haven't got a clue who she is, I think she was just being nosey because you are a nice young man and you were helping me".  George smiled and said no more, as he felt it best to leave well alone.

They were almost at the shop when she asked George if he could get her a trolley so that she could do her shopping.  He started to walk away, when she said he would need a pound coin, to which George replied it was alright, as he had a pound and would put it in the trolley for her.

George walked away and as the lady went to close her bag, she noticed that she had a letter to post and said to George "Oh dear, I haven't posted my letter" to which George replied that she was not to worry as he would post it for her, after he had organised her trolley.  She smiled and said thank you. George managed to get her trolley and passed it on to her, he asked if she would be alright, did she need any help with her shopping.  She answered no, that she would be fine, as the trolley was a good support.  She said that George was a nice young man, which George loved as he is no longer a young man, (well he is in the eyes of his mother and his Auntie Mim) and she thanked him for his help. George watched her walk away to make sure she was alright.

He then came and found me as I was shopping in the same shop and relayed the tale to me.... he said, on the plus side, he loved being called a young man as it had been many a year since that had happened, but on the minus side he would rather she just asked and not poked him with her walking stick.

I asked George if he knew her name and he said he didn't think to ask, now if that was me, that would have been the first thing I would have asked.

George felt good for the rest of the day as he said, you can go out to do a simple thing like shopping and then you find yourself helping someone..... it is a nice feeling knowing you have made someone's day a little easier by simply doing one or two things for them.

I am lucky, as I certainly don't need help with what I am doing today,

because as our young nieces would say, 'It's easy peasey, lemon squeezy'.

I love reed diffusers, probably more than I love scented candles, but the problem is, I always have too many little bottles which I have kept.  Yes, I could put them in the glass recycling bin, but I always feel it is a shame as they are so pretty.  

So I was wandering around the garden this morning and I decided I needed to cut back a lot of my lavender bushes, as many of the flowers had finished.  As I was cutting the lavender, ready to tie into bunches to air dry, I started singing the children's lullaby,

Lavender's blue Dilly Dilly, 

Lavender's green,

When I am rich Dilly Dilly

 you shall be queen.

Who told you so Dilly Dilly, 

Who told you so,

Twas mine own heart Dilly Dilly,

that told me so.

I remember singing this lullaby to Natasha and Danielle when they were babies and I had not thought about it for years... strange that it should pop into my head.

So I gathered quite a bit of lavender and went into the kitchen, when I remembered the little bottles  which I had stored in the garage.  I went back into the garden to cut a few more flower heads that were not spent and brought them into the kitchen and this is what I did.

Oh, but before we get to the lavender, we need to organise the music.  I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard 'Return to Sender' by Elvis and I loved listening to it so much, that I found,

one of our Elvis albums to listen to.  It goes without saying that 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Hound Dog' and 'Blue Moon of Kentucky' are fabulous songs, but it is 'Heartbreak Hotel' which is playing at the moment.

So let us begin.

Firstly, make sure,

the bottles are thoroughly washed

and

dried.

Place a few beads into the bottom

of the glass container

and

add water.

add a little tassel

or

ribbon around the neck of the container.

Decide on the length of the stems

and snip with a pair of scissors.

Some Lavender I place in the container

in a loose style

and 

others

I make the stems a lot shorter,

tie together with an elastic band

which stops the lavender from draping

over the container too much.

which looks just as pretty.

I also dry lavender each year

and place the dried lavender

into pretty teacups,

which I place around the house,

then when I walk buy, I just

rub a little lavender between my fingers

and this releases

the beautiful perfume.

Don't worry if you do not grow lavender,

because 

there is an alternative.

Have you ever bought a bunch of roses,

to find that after a week or so

most of the roses have died,

but there is always the odd one

that seems to keep going.

This is where these little containers

come into their own.

 Cut the stem so that the rose sits

nicely in the glass container.

Place

a single rose

into each container.

If like me, you have three,

then place them on the mantelpiece

they really do look lovely.

You know how much I love to be thrifty..... well this is  better than thrifty, because it is virtually free.  The bottles have been kept and stored and the lavender has been grown in the garden.  I grant you that the roses have been bought.... I cannot make myself cut the roses from my garden as I love seeing them from my kitchen window, but in terms of monetry value, this pretty little project has not cost very much.

I am a little late posting today, as I spent a lot of time in the garden this morning,  so I need to say goodbye and get a shimmy on and start our supper.

So take care and I will see you on Sunday.

This week I will be joining,

Patti from Ivy and Elephants
and

Natasha in Oz for Say G'Day Saturday