Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Wednesday 7 August 2013

Visit to a lavender farm

Went to visit some friends who live in Hertfordshire over the weekend. They took us to a lavender field in Hitchin which is part of a working farm. Hitchin used to be one of two major lavender growing areas in the country.


It was really sunny in the morning when we arrived and as we came off the road into their car park we could see this purple hill in the distance. It was so pretty!


My friends had been a couple of months before and were disappointed because the lavender had not yet bloomed. This made up for it I think.


The rows of lavender stretched out over the low hill and even though the sun did then decide to play hide and seek behind huge clouds, it was just wonderful.


There weren't too many people around just yet so it was perfect for photos.


There were so many bees buzzing all around, with butterflies and ladybugs...


The farm harvests the lavender to make essential oil and lavender products for sale in the 17th century barn. There's a cafe and an outside area to sit and enjoy the view. You can also take home plug plants of lots of varieties of lavender. I was very tempted to buy some to join my pink Little Lottie lavender, but seriously, there's no room left on my balcony...


We each picked a bag-full of the lovely purple stuff and the rain didn't start until we were safely indoors again. So now all I have to do is decide what to do with all that lavender once it has dried. There's no such thing as too many lavender sachets, right?