Anne had a surprise day off today and she suggested we went up to Yorkshire Lavender (http://www.yorkshirelavender.com) near Castle Howard, north of York. We’d often seen the signs for it, and the temptation of lavender cake was too much!
After a scenic journey (due to a big queue on the A64 near York) we arrived to a rather busy car park, it’s obviously a very popular place to visit!
The lavender is arranged in a very formal way, and it’s not just fields with swathes of the stuff, different varieties are planted together with lots of other cottage-type plants, really nice. The constant sound of thousands of bees within the lavender was amazing, and the views overlooking the Howardian hills are beyond superb on such a clear day. We could see three power stations alongside the M62, York Minster and even Emley Moor transmitter.
After wandering around we decided to try the award-winning tearoom (no surprise there then!) and we both had an excellent sandwich with salad. Anne had a lavender scone with blueberry and lavender jam and cream, and I had a gorgeous piece of lavender cake with blueberry and lavender jam in the middle.
After lunch we noticed a deer park at the bottom of the hill, they’d recently had 6 calves (or whatever young deer are called) which were very cute!
Be purchased some lavenders and grasses for the garden, and wandered up to look at a great sculpture of the Yorkshire Cricket Match which was by the car park.
Overall we were there quite a long time, and on such a lovely day was a nice change of scenery.