Lavenders Blue, dilly dilly, Lavenders Green

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,

When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen.

Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?

'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so.

Call up your men, dilly, dilly, set them to work

Some with a rake, dilly, dilly, some with a fork.

Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, some to thresh corn.

While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm.

Lavender's green, dilly, dilly, Lavender's blue,

If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you.

Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly, And the lambs play;

We shall be safe, dilly, dilly, Out of harm's way.

I love to dance, dilly, dilly, I love to sing;

When I am queen, dilly, dilly, You'll be my king.

Who told me so, dilly, dilly, Who told me so?

I told myself, dilly, dilly, I told me so.

Busy working on some lavender recipes for the other blog, as I have been asked how it can be used in recipes (and not just for things you eat) and it reminded me of this song which I remember from my childhood and thanks to Zeltus I have a copy of this song by the City Waites which is a great folk band though I haven't been lucky enough (yet) to hear them play live.

Lavender is a multifunctional herb, can be used for sensory (smell) purposes and is supposed to be calming; I certainly find it useful when I have a headache and it does seem to help but it is also a culinary herb and can be used in recipes for cakes and biscuits; though a word of warning not all lavenders are the same. The Stoecheus variety are not suitable for cooking, stick to the english lavenders like munstead and hidcote instead.

So take your lavender (NB it must be chemical free) and harvest it, keeping it in a warm dry location and then beat the lavender heads off the stalks.. then I just keep it dust free if being used for lavender bags/baths/creams/lotions etc.. and the best heads I ensure are clean and dry and put them in containers (in my case kilner jars) to be used for cooking.

If you want the real scent of lavender to come through as a room freshener, you can do no better than to buy the essential oils but this should never be used directly on skin as it is far too strong; instead use a carrier oil such as almond oil to dilute the properties.