The lavenders (botanic name Lavandula) is a genus of 39 species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found from Cape Verde and Canary Islands, southern Europe across to northern and eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, south-west Asia to south-east India. Many members of the genus are cultivated extensively in temperate climates as ornamental plants for garden and landscape use, and also commercially for the extraction of essential oils.
The genus includes herbaceous annual or short lived herbaceous perennial plants (the species from India), and suffruticose perennials, subshrubs or small shrubs across most of the rest of its distribution.
Leaf shape is diverse across the genus. They are simple in some commonly cultivated species. In others they are pinnately toothed, or pinnate, sometimes multiple pinnate and dissected. In most species the leaves are covered in fine hairs or indumentum, which normally contain the essential oils.
Flowers are borne in whorls, held on spikes rising above the foliage, the spikes being branched in some species. Some species produce coloured bracts at the apices. The flowers may be blue, violet or lilac in the wild species, occasionally blackish purple or yellowish. The calyx is tubular, with five lobes, the upper lip often cleft, and the lower lip 3-cleft.
Raymond "Ray" Charles Jack LaMontagne ( /lɑːmɒnˈteɪn/; born June 18, 1973) is a Grammy-award winning American singer-songwriter. LaMontagne has released four studio albums, Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black, Gossip in the Grain and God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise. He was born in New Hampshire and was inspired to create music after hearing an album by Stephen Stills. Critics have compared LaMontagne's music to The Band, Van Morrison, Nick Drake, and Tim Buckley. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two children.
LaMontagne was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1973. Despite his father's background in music, LaMontagne avoided the activity and spent time reading fantasy novels in the forest. He spent time in several different states in his youth. In his early teens he lived in Morgan, Utah, a small rural town of 2000 people. He was known for being an aloof, and indifferent to his education. He was much more interested in drawing images of Dungeons and Dragons than he was in his school work. He was well liked, and revered as somewhat of a mild nuisance. After graduating from high school, LaMontagne moved to Lewiston, Maine and found work in a shoe factory.
Sophie Dahl (born 15 September 1977), born Sophie Holloway, is an English author and former fashion model. She was born in London, the daughter of actor Julian Holloway and writer Tessa Dahl. Her maternal grandparents were author Roald Dahl and actress Patricia Neal. Her paternal grandparents were actor Stanley Holloway and actress and chorus dancer Violet Lane. She was the inspiration for Sophie, the main character in her maternal grandfather's book The BFG.
Dahl was discovered by Isabella Blow, a Vogue stylist. Blow referred Dahl to Sarah Doukas of the Storm Model Agency in London. Dahl appeared in campaigns for Versace, Alexander McQueen, Patrick Cox, Pringle, Godiva, Banana Republic, and Gap, amongst others. She was featured prominently in many large-circulation magazines, including Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire and the British, Italian and American versions of Vogue. Dahl worked with several well-known photographers, including Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber and Steven Meisel. She appeared in several high-fashion editorials for magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, Elle, Visionaire, and W, and was featured on the covers of British and Italian Vogue. In 2000, Dahl achieved a degree of notoriety when Tom Ford and Steven Meisel cast her in an advertisement for the Yves Saint-Laurent perfume brand Opium. The ad featured a photograph of her posing nude on black satin. It was removed from UK billboards after complaints were made to the Advertising Standards Authority.
Nigel John Hess (born 22 July 1953) is a British composer best known for his television, theatre and film soundtracks, including the theme tunes to Wycliffe, Dangerfield, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Ladies in Lavender.
Hess was educated at Weston-super-Mare Grammar School for Boys, and went on to study music at Cambridge University, where he was Music Director of the famous Footlights Revue Company. He has since worked extensively as a composer and conductor in television, theatre and film.
Hess has composed numerous scores for both American and British television productions, including A Woman of Substance, Vanity Fair, Campion, Testament (Ivor Novello Award for Best TV Theme), Summer's Lease (Television & Radio Industries Club Award for Best TV Theme), Titmuss Regained, Maigret, Classic Adventure, Dangerfield, Just William, Wycliffe (Royal Television Society Nomination for Best TV Theme), Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (Ivor Novello Award for Best TV Theme and Royal Television Society Nomination for Best TV Theme), Badger, Ballykissangel, New Tricks and Stick With Me Kid for Disney. His best-known film score is Ladies in Lavender (Classical Brits Nomination for Best Soundtrack Composer) starring Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith. The music has become popular worldwide, and was performed in the film by violinist Joshua Bell with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.
Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's parents were Shirley and Alan P. Bell, Professor Emeritus of Indiana University, in Bloomington, and a former Kinsey researcher. His father is of Scottish descent, and his mother is Jewish (his maternal grandfather was born in Israel and his maternal grandmother was from Minsk). Bell told The Jewish Journal, "I identify myself as being Jewish".
Bell began taking violin lessons at the age of four after his mother discovered that her son had taken rubber bands from around the house and stretched them across the handles of his dresser drawer to pluck out music he had heard her play on the piano. His parents got a scaled-to-size violin for their then five-year-old son and started giving him lessons. A bright student, Bell took to the instrument but lived an otherwise normal midwest Indiana life playing video games and excelling at sports, namely tennis and bowling, even placing in a national tennis tournament at the age of ten.
Mauve cravat and corduroy jeans
Well we all know what that means
A halo of curls
For Satyricon girls
Our Lady of the flowers
Grows shadier by the hours
Lady Stardust, Judy Teen
In your own Moonage Daydream
Blusher smeared across your cheeks
Kohl that stayed around for weeks
Smudged on your eyes
A Biba disguise
Maybelline in shades of green
Coloured up your teenage scene
Light of fot and limp of knees
In the 1970's
Last night's panstick
On yesterday's grime
You displayed all bruises
While I covered all mine
Elusive mercurial
Effeminate ethereal
They whisper you swish by
Your eyes up to the sky
Lavender, lavender
He's got a touch of lavender
Lilac and lavender
Lavender
Heartache Noir leaving a scar
Exploring all the shades to be
Through life's black and white TV
St. Dirk of Bogarde
Showed you what to discard
So you splashed on some Brut
And lowered your voice
When Charlie was really your choice
Last nights Lurex gave yesterday shine
You held on to your sparkle
While I lost all mine
Those long drunken nights
With the misfits and rebels
Playing the angel
While slepping with devils
Lavender, lavender
He's got a touch of lavender
Lilac and lavender
Lavender
And this is the part
Where you'd get beaten up
But you're saved by a quip
And a whole lot of luck
Frankie and Charlie have gone
Now Larry and Kenny
Once they all had a beard
Sadly now don't have any
Last night's indiscretion
Was yesterday's crime
You stayed true to yourself
But I was poisoned by my time
Elusive mercurial
Piss-elegant ephemeral
They whisper you swish by
Your eyes up to the sky
The renters on the 'Dilly
In their fake leather jackets
Say she's 'ere on the meat rack
Knowing all of the rackets
Where everything's gift wrapped
And coming in packets
Just a knock on the door to some
Club where no need to say more
Lavender, lavender
He's got a touch of lavender
Lilac and lavender
Lavender
So much there's not to say
Track 3 from _Misplaced Childhood_
I was walking in the park dreaming of a spark
When I heard the sprinklers whisper,
Shimmer in the haze of summer lawns.
Then I heard the children singing,
They were running through the rainbows.
They were singing a song for you.
Well it seemed to be a song for you,
the one I wanted to write for you, for you, you.
Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green.
When I am King, dilly dilly, you will be Queen.
A penny for your thoughts my dear,
A penny for your thoughts my dear,
I.O.U. for your love, I.O.U. for your love.
Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue.
When you love me, dilly dilly, I will love you.
A penny for your thoughts my dear,
A penny for your thoughts my dear,
I.O.U. for your love, I.O.U. for your love.
I was walkin' in the park
Dreamin' of a spark
When I heard the sprinklers whisper
Shimmer in the haze of summer lawns
Then I heard the children singin'
They were runnin' through the rainbows
They were singin' a song for you
Well it seemed to be a song for you
The one I wanted to write for you, for you, you
Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green
When I am king, dilly dilly
You will be queen
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
I O U for your love
I O U for your love
Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue
When you love me, dilly dilly, I will love you
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
I O U for your love
I O U for your love
Lavender dreams dilly, dilly, lavenders true
When you miss me dilly dilly, I did miss you
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
I O U for your love
I O U for your love
For your love, for your love, for your love
[Incomprehensible]
Lavender
returns to my consciousness by stealth
the smell that lured me astray
the paleness of my body
embraces that warmth
that new warmth, from a distant sun
Behind those gates there's no one to tell
my invisible trail
the cleansing sleep is yet to come
It's staring right back at me
the oceans in my eyes lie still
Innocence
silenced
Deceived
cannot grasp what has been poured into me
as they watch me on that screen
as they lure my lips to taste that kiss
I see love in you my sweet
I see love through you
silenced
Lavender
filters through me as I recall
alienation, indifference
This fate that has been laid upon me
I pray for stamina, for guidance
I pray for you my sweet
am I one of the beloved
the wanted, the rejected
the cynics, the pure:
The beggars are the threats
we'll suffer our demands
not yet will the slaves of passion and hunger be set free
As the sun awakes to meet its successor
this work of art, this portrait
of what cannot be imagined
will fade away
Lavender
...returns to my consciousness by stealth
This canvas manifests expressions that last for hours
Through visions transcribed in vivid colors
The lines the weight the strokes we make are flawed is
that so wrong?