True Confessions

I met Meredith after my friend, Scott, moved to Victoria.  They are cousins!  Meredith lives in Sooke in a most magical location.  Their property abuts a lovely stream that ebbs and flows with the seasons.  The salmon spawn, the river wanes and exposes more of the lovely rocks, it rises and has a lovely breeze with the rushing water.  They have lived here for years.

I love Meredith.  She has such a joie de vivre.  It is always a wonderful day in Meredith's life.  It is so refreshing.

But, I have a confession.  It was none of those wonderful qualities of personality or riverside location that originally caught my undivided attention.  It was her bay tree.

The first time I knew that bay trees grew in Canada was on this very first visit to Meredith's.  Scott picked a bunch of leaves and we went back to the city to make a lovely lamb roast laid upon a bed of fresh bay leaves.  I have always since been so envious.  I would love to go out my front door and pick a handful of bay leaves.

Look at these lovely bouquet garni!  Meredith has made these with a labour of love and I am one lucky recipient of this gift.  They are so adorable!  They are so more adorable than the almost identical bouquet garni that I purchased in Paris at La Grande Epicerie.  I now feel a little ridiculous to have saved these 'petit cher bouquet garni' from Paris.  They are dry and, well, lifeless, in comparison to the wonderfully fresh bundles from Meredith.