It wasn’t until I discovered blogging that I realised you could actually visit lavender fields, I thought they were only in the movies. So I was really pleased when The Joy of Five posted about the Mayfield Lavender in Banstead as they are driving distance and currently open.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect (oh how dopey does that sound – maybe a field of lavender!), although I was very excited to be finally going to see some and I wasn’t disappointed.

We headed there in the morning as the weather forecast wasn’t the best for the rest of the day.

As we drove up the road we could see a sea of purple in a field to the right which was quite amazing. Shortly after, we arrived at the car park where they charge £1 per person for over 16’s.

We parked up and I noticed that the chap next to me was getting their pushchair out so thought we’d take ours as well rather than carry Bodhi. Although some of the paths amongst the lavender are fairly narrow we did manage to get our Maclaren through them.

As soon as you get out of the car the smell of the lavender hits you. It was lovely.

The first field was out in blossom but not so vibrant purple, and it looked like it was being harvested at the top corner.

As we got to the start of the paths Charley started to run.

There were not so many bees or wasps on these flowers and it was easy to walk through.

We stopped in-between the two lavender fields to take some photos and then found a path that wasn’t too narrow and walked fairly quickly through this one. The smell and colour of the second field was stunning but there was also the constant buzz of the bees and I felt I needed to get to the other side pretty quickly. Charley and Bodhi did really well being the height of the flowers with all the bees on, not sure I’d have been able to do that. I know I’m not keen on buzzing insects but I don’t think I could have had a slow meander through them!

We walked around the outside of the field to get to the little cafe where it was quite difficult to choose what to eat and drink. I decided on a Lavender and Camomile tea and lavender scone. Both were yummy. Charley had a lavender fairy cake which didn’t really seem to touch the sides so must have been good.

There is also a tractor with a trailer that takes you for a ride around the field which Charley had been saying she wanted to go on so after finishing our food we headed onto the tractor. This was £2 per person. I think under 2’s are free.

We then had a look in the shop which had lots of tempting items on sale. I bought a bunch of lavender, some lavender heart biscuits (for the hubby and me) and some really cute little tooth fairy cushions which will be Christmas presents for the little ones.

I’m really glad we managed to get there and think it will be lovely to have a yearly trip to one.