Exceptional adventure

In this persistent winter, a friend presented me the above photo with a chocolate raspberry cake for my February birthday. An exceptional occasion.

The cake is history, and the event in the photo is longer gone. Yet, it speaks the proverbial thousand words.

Now, I don’t know who took the photo of my lavender farm staff and me that scorching, summer day 2011. Most likely one of the host of gardeners on the construction site that day.

I stand in the middle, fair skinned in long-sleeves. My friend, Mary Ellen, who baked the delicious cake and gifted me the photo, stands to my far right.

Erna stands between Mary Ellen and me, Sue, to my immediate left, and Kim to my far left. The core of my former lavender farm staff at the time, all but Kim lives within six miles of my home.

The photo recalls the adventure of Sue driving the Fabulous Five away from Yule Love It Lavender Farm in her Ford Explorer, loaded with Grosso lavender plants. She wove her way through Detroit’s webbed streets and parked amongst construction vehicles where we unloaded our cargo on Lafayette Boulevard.

Although I’d informed the leaders of the garden project the risk of winter freezing Lavandula Grosso’s roots in a raised bed, they decided to take the risk.

The hard-hats we wear confirm our official contribution to the city. Indeed, Lafayette Greens, an urban garden designed by Kenneth Weikl Landscape Architecture, and sponsored by Peter Karmanos, resembled a construction zone that day.

The developers termed the garden a “green space”, filled with raised beds of flowers, herbs, and produce on the site of the former Lafayette Building, 132 W Lafayette Blvd, Detroit, demolished in 2009.

Oh, the soil we five women hefted that day! The water hoses we pulled. The lavender pots we carried to their bed that still welcome guests in the middle of the gardens.

At the end of the day, dirty, sweaty, and starved, we walked into the Lafayette Coney Island for dinner.

You see, there are exceptional occasions when a person who cannot countenance a chili dog must be brave, throw a healthy diet to the whims of peer pressure.

Afterward, I returned to Lafayette Greens August 31, 2011, for the official dedication by Mayor Dave Bing. The former South Carolinian and Detroit Piston delivered a humorous and heartfelt tribute recorded by local news.

Dear Reader, of all coincidences, August 31 is Sue’s birthday, which makes the date of the garden’s dedication all the more memorable.

We’ve not strolled Lafayette Greens since, and in this persistent winter, I’m thinking this July when Grosso lavender blooms the ideal time for our team to return, sans hard-hats and yellow vests.

However, I must inform Sue that upon the event we visit this green space again, it’s my turn to choose where we dine for dinner.

Contact Iris at irisfarmletters@gmail.com