Today we visited Lavande de Lherm, an idyllic lavender farm in a small hamlet that is part of the commune of Lherm in the Lot Valley. Sally led us to the farm where Suzie and Ian welcomed us graciously. Suzie gave us a tour of the farm with their collection of unique sculptures, an analemmatic sundial, a tree fort, a gite to rent, a centuries old bread oven, and of course lavender and its accoutrements. They grow dozens of varieties of lavender with over 2000 plants. Lavender is harvested with a one-of-a-kind lavender reaper cobbled together from pieces of equipment and ideas from all over the world. Ian distills the lavender to get the oil in his own laboratory. Visitors during the harvest can sit in the adjoining room and have an English tea while watching him steam the precious oil from the flowers. Suzie has a wonderful small shop for their many products from soaps to insect repellent, facial masks, cookbooks, and many more items all made from their lavender oil. We learned that most lavender grown in the world is a variety that also contains camphor oil. Culinary lavender does not contain camphor. That’s only a small bit of the education we received. We left with much new knowledge, some lavender products, and a bag of their home grown walnuts!
Finally we saw that the ground around the farm was filled with ceps. However, as Suzie pointed out if they were edible they wouldn’t be there. Inedible ceps turn blue when cut open.
Don’t eat ceps that look like this!
It was a great day with many photos for future paintings. Thank you Suzie and Ian for sharing your little paradise with us!
Paul
Travels With Picasso 
And this is how I learned one can be a gnome and used as a gnomon. Life is something!
Enjoy.
Yes, the gnome gnomon stands on the stone for the appropriate month, moving up for early in the month and back for late in the month. Then you raise your hand over your head and your finger will point to the time. It’s supposed to be accurate within 10 minutes year round, year after year. I stood at the back end of Aout and pointed and got precisely the correct time. Impressive!