Lavender Festival, Cycling, Art...

It's all happening this weekend in Bend. Pomegranate's seventh annual Lavender Festival and Bastille Day celebration is Saturday, July 14, and we'll be serving up a fun pique-nique lunch, along with French wines and lavender lemonade. New lavender products are just in, along with hundreds of gorgeous lavender plants, and lots of new French goodies, from flea market finds to tea towels and linens. Those who wear a beret or arrive in a cute french vehicle will get a prize! We hope to see you at this always-fun festival, held at our River Mall Avenue location. Call us at 541-383-3713 if you need directions or info.

Meanwhile, downtown Bend is hosting the fabulous Criterium bike race this evening (Friday, 7/13), and it, too, is a can't-miss event. It takes your breath away when the racers come flying around the corners of our downtown streets. Be sure to position yourself somewhere along Wall, Bond, or Minnesota near the parking garage. Oh, huge tip for those of you coming downtown tonight or this weekend: park in the garage! It's free, there's plenty of room, and your car is protected from heat and hail. We remind people every day about the wonderful new parking garage, and even locals seem to have forgotten about it. Don't even think about circling around; just zoom straight in there and go. It's at the corner of Lava and Minnesota.

Here's a photo Robert took in Brugge, Belgium this last April. We just happened to be there when they hosted a huge race, second only to the Tour de France (sorry, can't remember the name of this one). It's quite a serious event, and racers come from all over to participate. But, this is Europe, and so it was inevitable to find this guy on his bike... smoking a cigarette!

On Saturday and Sunday, (July 14 & 15), downtown Bend hosts a summer festival: the streets will be full of artists, wine tastings, jazz, food booths, kid's events... and our Pomegranate Downtown store will be open, of course. Stop in for a cool respite from the heat, and see some of our great new things that have come in over the last few weeks. If you don't want to carry packages, we're happy to put it all aside for you until you can come back to pick up.

By the way, our fabulous artist friend Eleanor Murphey will be showing her ceramic wares at the Summer Fest (look for her along the Wall St. booths). This is a rare chance to see her wonderful wax-resist vessels and pots, inspired by Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau forms. Her work is completely hand-done, from throwing to glazing, and so creative and original. Eleanor's studio is in Bend, but her work goes out to galleries and collectors all over the world. Her next show is the Mill Valley Art Festival, so catch her now while you can!

Hope to see you this weekend!