I know it’s nothing earth shattering, but I just had to share.  My mom dropped by my house for a visit yesterday evening bearing gifts! She and my dad just got back from 2 weeks of vacationing in Europe with my sister and her family, who live in Germany. This is a picture of my sister sitting in the middle of a lavender field in Provence, France. If you look closely you can see some beehives off in the distance to the left. I just love this picture of my little sister!

While traveling, my mom and sister picked up a couple of gifts for me.  You must understand …. everyone in my family gives me gifts in fear and trepidation. Believe it or not, I’m very difficult to choose gifts for, and my mom and sister are always worried that I’m going to hate whatever they give me.  In fact, my mom told me that if I didn’t like it she would understand! I’m one of those practical, picky people who knows exactly what she likes and dislikes.  Unfortunately, my family has never been able to figure me out, including my husband and sons. I know!  I’m a horrible person! I promise that I’m working to improve my gift accepting skills.  The problem is that I’m also a terrible liar.

Knowing how much I love all things herbal they chose this lavender syrup from Provence, and some pesto. What I love is that these are items that I make for myself, and provide and interesting basis of comparison for the quality of what I make myself.

I sampled the pesto on some whole wheat pasta for my lunch this afternoon.  I’ve got to say that my own pesto is not shabby at all. I know this little jar is the authentic stuff, but I like mine much better.  I was surprised by how salty it tasted, and it didn’t seem very basil-y.  I promise by summer’s end that I’ll provide at least one pesto recipe.

Now the lavender syrup is quite lovely! At this moment,  I’m sipping on a glass of bubbly water with lavender syrup added.  It’s sweet and lightly floral.  It’s going to take me a while to use this bottle, so I won’t be making any in the near future. There is still plenty of time this year to make lavender syrup, so if you’d like to give it a try I’m going to direct you to the blog of a friend of mine, Tina Sams, the editor of The Essential Herbal magazine.