Lavender Fields of Kent

Lavender fields in Kent

This photograph was taken on a trip to a lavender festival in Kent. Yes, you heard me correctly. A festival of lavender. Definitely one of the more obscure annual jamborees I've attaneded, and I speak as one who's been to the Ely Eel Festival not just once but twice.

The lavender festival offered all kind of purple-flowered fun. There were a wide selection of lavender-based foods to try, including (but not limited to) jams, pickles, ice cream, cakes, cheeses and sausages. Some were definitely leaning to the "weird" rather than the "delicious" end of the food spectrum, but as Heston Blumenthal would (probably) tell you, no-one ever got anywhere by keeping herbaceous plants out of the jampot.

Outside of the kitchen, there were other lavender-themed delights on offer as well, like soaps, perfumes, little pillows stuffed with lavender, massage oil and more. But the best part was the fields and fields of lavender plants, which were absolutely gorgeous, smelled amazing and were crammed with bees. You should know by now that I love taking photographs of bees anyway, but I have to say I think they look best against a purple background. possibly because I think everything looks best against a purple background. I love purple.

End of the Lavender

Another bumblebee picture - again I think it's a red-tailed bumblebee, bombus lapidarius (see the photograph in this previous post) although as it has a golden ruff and is rather smaller, I think it's a male, whereas the other bee was female.

It was really tricky getting this photograph to work, my poor camera was completely baffled as to what it was supposed to be focusing on. I have a few pictures of other bumblebees and honeybees which I took on the same day (the lavender was a real magnet for them) which I might put up at some point - this isn't actually the best of them in terms of focus, but I particularly like the colours and the last few bedraggled looking flowers.

There's a lavender farm quite close to where I grew up, and it's absolutely beautiful at the height of summer, particularly if, like me, you fanatically love anything purple-coloured. Plus, it smells fantastic.