A couple of weekends ago we spent some time running up and down the lines of lavender at Mayfields Lavender, an organic lavender farm situated in the lovely North Surrey Hills. It’s not somewhere I’ve heard of before, in fact I thought all lavender in the UK was grown in Norfolk (!), but since I posted about it on Instagram it turns out most of you have either been or are planning to go very soon.
After we’d parked up (and paid our £1 per person entry fee), and tasted some lavender earl grey tea (I really liked it, LincsGeek not so much!), we had a wander through the fields. The plants close to the shop and café seemed a bit dull, and I wasn’t too sure about the positioning of a bright red telephone box in the field, I assume to give people something to photograph. It was a grey day, the sky was pretty angry to be honest, and it was like the lavender was past its best.
Once I reached the top of the hill the colour changed. Here the field was a beautiful bright purple colour – the colour that lavender should be. With that bright purple came the overwhelming scent of lavender, of course, along with the buzzing of bees doing their work. I immediately got snapping (on my phone, my every day camera, I love how powerful phone cameras are now) and ended up taking what seemed like thousands of photos of bees, the vast majority of which were pretty blurred. I did manage to get a few fluke shots before we had to run back to shelter as the heavens opened, and thought I’d share them here on Splodz Blogz.
Yep, a phone photo 🙂 I have an iPhone 6.
As shot! Not photo shopped 🙂
If you want to visit Mayfields Lavender you can find more information about them on their website.
Suz
Great series! I have thousands of blurry bee photographs as well!!!!
Splodz
Thank you 🙂 They are fast little critters aren’t they?!
Dragons And Fairy Dust
Lovely shots. Bees are so quick they are hard to capture.
Splodz
Thank you – they are fast but I’m pleased these ones came out in focus!
Laura
Although this is only maybe a 15 minute drive from me, shamefully I have not yet been! It’s on my list every year but I just don’t quite get around to it.Definitely next year…..!
Splodz
Ha ha I know what you mean, it’s very easy to be a bad tourist in your own surroundings.
Camping With Style (Shell Robshaw-Bryan)
Gorgeous pics. I do love bees 🙂
Splodz
Thank you 🙂 Me too – they were having an awesome time in this field!
Views From an Urban Lake (Ashley Beolens)
I’ve never been to a lavender farm, but somewhere I’ve always wanted to do, the small, sounds and sights look awe inspiring (big bee fan as well).
Splodz
This was my first time too – it was really quite beautiful.
TheHelpfulHiker
Fab pics, I love my phone for everyday snaps. I too have a million blurry photos of flowers, bees, spiders etc. It doesn’t matter though (no one needs to know!) when you’ve got a few that are so good. STill haven’t made it to a lavender farm, next year definitely!
Splodz
Absolutely – phones (and small digital cameras) are great for getting the one or two instagrammable fluke photos in amongst the thousands! Love it 🙂
margauxdoey
Hey Zoe, I love these photos – very moody! I heard recently that nasty weather makes for the best pics 🙂 I think my fave is the one of the bumblebee’s butt 😉 They’re fun to photograph aren’t they? I once took a few nice shots of bumblebees and they’re among some of my fave ever pics. I’ll try find it and share with you on Twitter!
Splodz
Thank you 🙂 I agree, dark angry skies do make for great photos, but the lack of light makes getting non-blurred photos of bees very hard! Thanks for sharing that photo with me on twitter, it’s fab!
Hannah Spannah Coco Banana
Apparently there is a lavender farm near me in yorkshire and every year I want to go and every year I forget! Love my bee shots and I too love my iPhone 6 for photos. Thanks for joining the #weekendblogshare
Splodz
Oh make sure you go – for some reason we’re all really bad at doing touristy things where we live but it’s well worth exploring the local stuff.
notesoflifeuk
Wonderful photos 🙂 We’ve got a bit of lavender in the back garden and the bees always seem attracted to it.
Splodz
Thank you 🙂 I tried to grow lavender in my garden, but like everything I try to grow it just went all twiggy and now looks terrible. Ho hum!