Lavender is a purple flower that smells just as beautiful as it looks, creating a heavenly aroma when found growing in the wild. In addition to its incredible look and scent, lavender is also becoming a very popular addition to many recipes. The floral taste adds something special to desserts, drinks, and even dinners, as you can see from these delicious dishes.

Lemon Lavender Fizz [Saveur]
The fizzy blend of gin, lemon juice, and club soda in this cocktail sparkles on your tongue, while the lavender-infused simple syrup adds a fragrant, floral taste that’s truly unique.

Honey Lavender Ice Cream [Martha Stewart]
Lavender lovers will tell you that there are few things the herb tastes better in than sweet, creamy ice cream. This honey lavender ice cream recipe incorporates both the warm taste of honey and the soft flavor of lavender into one decadent dessert that’s worlds away from your usual Neapolitan.

Lavender Lemon Chicken [Food.com]
If you want to try incorporating lavender into a more savory dish, this chicken recipe is a wonderful place to start. A whole chicken is roasted in a lemon butter sauce seasoned with thyme and lavender, creating a tender, juicy inside and a perfectly golden browned exterior.

CC-BY-2.0/Flickr/Joy

To enter the Sweepstakes, visit our Facebook Page and then look for the Sweepstakes tab (image shown below) located on our Facebook Page to enter. Sweepstakes ends August 31st, 2015. We suggest you like our page to keep informed about future sweepstakes and community happenings.

For mobile users, click here to enter.

Explore an array of distinct habitats at Dora Kelly Nature Park, a 50-acre space that's home to an eclectic population of wildlife. Oak and hickory trees grow thick in the forest, which is interwoven with meandering streams and waterlogged patches of marshland. Each of the habitats plays host to its own critters, and previous guests say it's not unusual to spot turtles.

At the designated Nature Center, which was opened in 1978, visitors learn more about the ecology of their community via exhibits that delve deep into the past of the park and the humans who once lived on its grounds. The Nature Center and park are the culmination of namesake Dora Kelley's dream that the woodlands surrounding Alexandria would outlive her and many generations to come. Her wish came true in the early '70s, and when she passed away in 2001, the community activist left a legacy behind in the form of the park.

Dora Kelley Nature Park
5750 Sanger Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22311
(703) 746-5559
alexandriava.gov/recreation/info/default.aspx?id=12284#Dora_Kelly
www.yelp.com/biz/dora-kelley-nature-park-alexandria

CC-BY-2.0/Flickr Fyn Kynd