Our family visits lavender fields for the first time

A couple of years ago I spotted that summertime visits to lavender fields were a thing, especially if you are a blogger. Around late June my social media feeds would turn purple and flowery, with kids frolicking amongst lavender beds looking all serene and joyful. So naturally I wanted to drag my long-suffering husband and our most-definitely-not-serene fournado for a photo session to the nearest lavender fields to us. One hour drive away.

You can imagine how that conversation went, but suffice to say since I am here writing this post and sharing these pictures justice (or rather, me!) prevailed!

And to be honest, the trip was actually rather nice. We went to Hitchin Lavender Fields, which are the closest lavender fields to us in North London. It was gorgeously fragrant, and very very pretty and our daughter spent a long time speaking about how much she enjoyed picking lavender. My husband got quite into it too. At Hitchin you pay £5 per adult to get in and you get a paper bag and scissors and can take as much lavender as fits in the bag. We took loads… so much so that we made lavender bouquets as an end-of-year gifts for all 11 of nursery staff members, and we still had plenty to spare! We drank some lavender lemonade before retreating back home in a sleepy daze – the little one actually fell asleep in the car!

It was predictably busy over the weekend, and I had to try all my might to get those perfect shots of just our family in the picture. There was lots of cropping and strategic placing of heads in the frame, so the dreaded “other people” would be either cut out or blocked out. In the end I was rather pleased with what I got, considering how many people there actually were as you can see in some of these pictures…  

If you are planning on visiting lavender fields yourself I would say be prepared. The bushes can be scratchy and there are lots of bees. Long trousers or jeans are likely to be most comfortable. There are lots and lots of bees, and the amount of them came as a bit of a surprise for me. Husband got stung once, but generally speaking they are quite OK if you just gently push past them. The photography can be gorgeous, but as everyone and their uncle loves lavender fields, you best get there either very very early or very very late for best photographic opportunities. Lunchtime is when the hordes descent.

It is nice just to walk amongst the flowers and breathe in the smell, but if you are allowed to pick them, go for the ones with fully formed buds which haven’t yet opened – those are the most fragrant. It takes about a week for them to dry after which you can use them in a variety of different crafts. Our lavender buds have now dried but we haven’t yet done anything with them. Would you have any ideas what to do with them?

Have you visited lavender fields yourself? What did you think?

You might also like: How did July 2017 go for our family? and The time we failed to pick pumpkins at a farm

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