Joanne Sisco

Shades of Lavender

Although I haven’t been blogging much lately, I’ve been stockpiling stories and doors like a hoarder.  Although I hadn’t planned a Thursday Doors post, I couldn’t resist sharing a door I found unexpectedly this afternoon.

French lavender is currently in bloom.  I had flip-flopped several times this morning as to whether I wanted to make the 90 minute drive to a lavender farm called Terre Bleu north-west of Toronto.

I finally just jumped in my car and went … and I certainly wasn’t expecting to find a door.

Terre Bleu

I’m still puzzled as to why a farm that is wrapped in multiple shades of lavender would be called “Blue Earth”.  Perhaps Terre Lavande just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

To echo the sentiment of the door, may all your worries be behind you.

Thursday Doors is a weekly photo feature hosted by The Doorman, Norm Frampton at Norm 2.0.

86 comments

  1. Oooh, my, this is a spectacular photo and would make a nice wallpaper. ❤ Also, finding a door on lavender fields would make me think that somebody had known I was coming. 😉 And they know you there too!

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    • I first heard about Sisco, Corsica last year during the burkini controversy. I had heard that forest fires were a major problem this year in Portugal and Spain, but it’s sad to hear it’s also causing significant damage in Corsica. In Canada, we are having serious forest fire issues this summer in British Columbia.

      I don’t think there is a relationship between my family name and Sisco, Corsica. My father came from Calabria, Italy … but honestly, I know virtually nothing about the Sisco family line.

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  3. Fabulous! 🙂 🙂 Did you by any chance see my Yorkshire Lavender walk? It was pretty special, but no yellow door. 😦 Actually there was a blue gate, similarly standing alone, and the kids loved it.

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  6. How very quirky! I love the idea of walking through the door – did you? And yes, why not Terre Lavande? I don’t think there are any lavender farms near me, but I do have one small patch which smells delightful and I have plans next year to plant a whole load more.

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  10. I love that lavender field and the yellow door add a nice pop of fun! 🙂 We have a lavender farm a few hours away. I’ve been wanting to make a visit to it as part of a day trip for some time.

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  13. A friend was there last week and said it was lovely – but she told me about the hundreds of bees so I think I will have to take a pass on this one – I’m terrified.

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    • More like thousands of bees!! That was one thing that struck me right away – the hum in the air in spite of it being such a large field.
      This is definitely not a place for anyone afraid of bees or having an allergy!

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  14. A lavender farm and a yellow door? That was definitely worth the drive. So gorgeous. I had no idea that lavender was grown in Canada. I don’t think the weather is suitable in Alberta. Is it common in Ontario?

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    • I didn’t know about lavender farms in Canada either until I read an article about it last summer. By then it was too late for me to check it out, so I put a tickler in my calendar which popped up this week.

      To my surprise, I discovered there are at least 2 farms within about an hour’s drive of Toronto and both them are quite large. I was told that our winters are pretty brutal and that each plant has to be covered to survive the cold. Brrr.

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  15. This post and photos just gave me chills.
    Knowing how you adore doors, understanding the flip flop…it’s only right that your efforts would be doubly rewarded.
    I am SO glad you shared this.

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  18. I love lavender, it’s such an interesting plant. I have a bush in the yard and I pamper and spoil it -as much as it lets me. I love the yellow door that seems to have no purpose at first until you read what’s written above. Perhaps one cannot take in the beauty of a lavender field with a heavy heart?

    In the South of Germany there is a region called “Lüneburger Heide” it’s famous for its wild lavender fields. You would love it.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=L%C3%BCneburger+Heide&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjf1–Myr3VAhXCxYMKHexnDN8Q_AUICygC&biw=1360&bih=638

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    • WOW! What a sight!!

      I actually don’t like the smell of lavender – I’ve always found it much too strong and poignant for my nose. It turns out it is just the processed scent. The fields themselves had a soft, subtle smell which was very pleasant.

      My thoughts about the door were similar to your’s – although I think you expressed it so much better 🙂

      It’s a long holiday weekend here in Ontario. Hope your’s is a good one ❤

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  19. So clever. The blog post. AND the yellow door in the blue/purple field.

    I tried that once, mounting a door, strategically placing it in the trees behind the house. I was going for the “mystical portal in the woods” look. I ended up with “I lost some trash on the way to the dump” look.

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    • HAHAHAHA!!!

      When I had a passing interest in Pinterest, I found several wonderful examples of old doors used artistically in gardens. I would love to have a space large enough to do something like that …. but then it would be simply one more thing for me to take care of :/

      I know what you mean about the ‘lost trash’ effect. When I took a decorating class a few years ago, I was always enthralled with how other people could toss seemingly random things into a lovely table grouping.
      Mine would look like abandoned stuff that didn’t get picked up and put away.

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  21. Too funny! Yet beautiful. I happen to love the combination of the color lilac w yellow and orange. The scent of the lavender must of been intoxicating. We went in Southern France to experience it…years back. Amazing!

    Peya

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    • I also love this colour combination – especially in a huge field of purple and green, it was striking to see the pop of yellow in the middle of it.

      This particular field is surrounded by forest and there is a path through the trees that takes you from the *main* area to this field. The effect is that you catch the entire scene suddenly as you step out of the forest. I suspect a very artistic person knew what they were doing when they put this together 🙂

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  22. Love the door in the midst of that field of lavender & what a great quote. Life you, I’m not a big fan of lavender’s scent . . . but what a great shot!

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    • I had expected to leave this farm with a massive headache – which is what lavender tends to do to me – but I found that the plants themselves had a soft pleasant smell.
      I guess the concentration of the scent during processing is what makes it become so pungent.

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  26. I’m curious why you found a door in the middle of the lavender field so strange Joanne ? How else would you get in 🤣 Great image.

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  27. A doorway out in the middle of a field – well there’s something you don’t see every day. Awesome find. We visited a lavender farm near here last summer around this time and it turned out we missed the peak flowering by a few weeks. I’m wondering if all the rain we’ve this summer had has stretched the season out this year.

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    • Interesting that you had the same problem I did. I went to a lavender farm yesterday only to discover that I had missed the peak blooming by 2 weeks. It turns out they had English lavender which peaks 2-3 weeks before French lavender.

      Luckily, I knew of a ‘backup’ lavender farm –
      Terre Bleu – which had large fields of both English and French.
      I’m tempted to go back to the other farm next year. They’ve created a labyrinth which is supposed to be quite stunning.

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    • I got some lovely photos – which is what I was aiming for 🙂
      … however, it may sound odd, but I’m not a fan of lavender. The smell gives me a headache. What I found interesting was that the lavender in the field is a really mild, subtle smell – not at all like the scented products.

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        • I suspect not. Also onsite was an area they called the distillery. They were drying some of the English lavender which had peaked a few weeks ago and distilling the oil from large batches of lavender flowers. The smell was over-the-top (for me). Although I was able to snap a few great photos, I couldn’t linger there very long.

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  30. Was it worth the trip? I’ve been wanting to visit ever since I read about the lavender fields being so close. A good day excursion from Barrie.

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    • Hard for me to say.

      I went there specifically to capture photographs, so I didn’t take a guided tour which talked about the lavender plants, the apiary, and the distillery.
      If you really like lavender – maybe you will enjoy it, and the gift shop.
      I’m not a fan of lavender products so if I hadn’t been looking for photos, it wouldn’t have had any interest for me.

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    • I wish I could have captured the sound – only now did it occur to me that I should have taken a video.
      The hum in the air from all the bees was another one of those unexpected things.
      I love the pop of yellow in the sea of purple 🙂

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    • What you don’t get from the photo is that the air was literally humming with the sound of thousands of bees in the flowers. It was magical.

      On the other hand, it’s not a great place for people with bee allergies or apiphobia 😉

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