Lavender and sunflowers are the stuff my dreams are made on (Shakespeare connection intended). They are two flowers that I just can’t get enough of, both for different reasons. I have been an overt sunflower lover since my childhood. I think I started loving them when I first met a slightly older American cousin who purchased a picture of some sunflowers when she was visiting one summer. I must have been very impressed with her, as I started to profess that sunflowers were now my favourite flowers. Now they just make me smile whenever I see them, they are so bright and happy. Lavender on the other hand I have loved covertly for quite some time. This may be down to my former opinion that lavender was for old people. Well I am now securely allowing myself to ‘own’ whatever I like, regardless if I start to sound like a grandma. So I’m shouting loudly that I love lavender and I love its smell! It really does have a calming effect and helps to sooth when I’m feeling little wound up… the This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Spray has a particularly useful hit of lavender that I love when I struggle to sleep.
Seeing as it’s lavender season at the moment, I’ve been looking for some lavender fields to visit and practice my very amateur photography (I’m trying so hard to get off of the auto setting!). I’ve been seeing so many lavender field pictures on instagram and kept finding new possible places to visit. Finding a free day, with some decent weather has been a challenge, but I had decided on a particular farm to visit, Hitchin Lavender farm. The deciding factor… they grow sunflowers too! I spent much of last week determined to go picking with the Mr at the weekend, but the weather was shocking through the week. However, I woke up on Saturday, there was a little bit of sun and I immediately forced the Mr to wake up and get ready to go go go! Wellies at the ready…
We were so lucky… there wasn’t really any sun by the time we got there, but it was dry. Just as we were leaving, the first few drops were falling from the sky before the rain fell down heavily for the rest of the day.
For a small fee we were able to pick as much lavender as we could fit in the paper bags we were given and pick sunflower stems for 50p each (we picked 10). The car journey home smelt incredible, in fact I think my car still smells of lavender. I’m still trying to work out what to do with all the lavender we picked… its currently on the coffee table on a big plate, whilst the sunflowers are going strong and making us smile in our living room.
I hope you enjoy the pictures (I still have a way to go!) and if you want to visit a farm near London soon, I’ll add some links at the bottom of the post to other local farms that are around below… but go soon, or you’ll miss it in bloom!
Lauren x
All pictures were taken on my Olympus PEN E-LP8 camera with a 45mm 1:1.8 Lens
Lavender Farms near London (check their social media to make sure the lavender is still in bloom): Hitchin Lavender, Hertfordshire Mayfield Lavender, Banstead, Surrey The Hop Shop, Kent
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