Lavender Farm

After a week of grey skies and drizzle, we finally had a warm sunny day this weekend,so we headed off to a nearby lavender farm for a short visit. Somerset Lavender opened 10 years ago and has become one of our favourite places.

We usually visit a couple of times each summer, for a wander in the lavender fields and a cup of tea. 

There are lots of other plants to enjoy at the farm besides lavender, like this nepeta, or catmint, which is planted in swathes and is always covered in bees. There's a little herb garden too.

These chives were in flower and attracting lots of bees as well.

There's a large silo which was used to store feed when the farm was a dairy farm. You can see it on the left.

Now it's surrounded by herbs, and inside is a plant-sales area with lots of varieties of lavender for sale. I'm usually tempted to buy a plant or two, and today was no exception. A french lavender, thyme and dianthus accompanied me home.

We sat outside at the cafe and had a cup of tea, and admired the view of the nearby lavender fields. As you can see, they're just starting to turn purple. In full summer it's a lovely haze of colour. Lots of swallows swooped repeatedly over our heads, chasing each other, providing an exciting aerial display. Wish I could've captured them on my camera, but they're much too fast!

We had a look around the shop - so many lovely tempting things, but I restrained myself this time.

Look at this lovely wreath, displayed in the middle of the shop - such lovely colours!

There's an area of beds full of each lavender variety with information about each one.

 We had a wander around these and at the end is a rose arbour absolutely covered in roses.

You can just see the little bench inside. I don't know what variety the roses were but they were gorgeous.

By the end of the visit the sun had gone in, but it was still very warm. When we got back we'd only been gone an hour and a half, but it was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon x