The coolest part of the fest takes place at an organic farm called Los Pablanos, which is at the end of a lane shaded by massive cottonwoods. Once we go there, we were surrounded by lots of folks in shorts, sandals, and straw hats, and I overheard a couple people say something about the lotus pond. Naturally, I was expecting a cute little koi pond, and since I love the lotus and its symbolism (transcendence, enlightenment, beauty) I wanted to make sure I didn't miss it. . . and then. . .
OH MY GOD!
How could I possibly miss it? Because there, to my left was a swampy area the size of a Missouri farm pond teeming with pink and white blossoms and round green leaves the size of platters. It was unbelievable, and for minutes, I just stared, convinced this was a dream. Lotuses? In the desert? Where is this? Egypt? And then I got overly excited because I remembered one of the final scenes from of my favorite childhood books, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis wherein our protagonists sail a ship to The Very End of the World, and when they get there, the water grows calm and there are only lotuses as far as the eye can see.
I was talking about this when Tommy told me to lower my voice a little. Anyhow, it was utterly mystifiying and we took quite a few photos.
Law of the universe: where there are lotuses, there are dragonflies.
Hope me standing here gives it a sense of scale.
Of course, we got to see the lavender fields, too, and they were every bit as lovely as I had hoped.
And we got a passerby to take a photo of us. (Please note Tommy's little chicken legs, but very stylish hat.)
Even though the car's air conditioning went kaput on the drive there, all in all, it was a good day.
