Hitchin Lavender farm

What a wonderful sunny day and perfect for going to Hitchin Lavender farm.  So after dropping Sophie off at school Ella and i jumped in the car and headed out, with acres of gorgeous lavenders coming out to bloom.  The day was made extra special as it was a meet up bloggers organised by Annie the lady formally know as Mamasaurus but is now AKA Manneskjur,  there were names i recognised like Helen from Actually mummy and new people too which is wonderful it is fab to make new connections such as Sarah from Grenglish and Victoria from Southbourne gardens. Check out this lovely old barn and the beautiful timbers inside was lovely and you could get a nice bit of cake. Outside was great too with a large variety of different lavenders to buy, which i could not resist and i bought 4 a white, pink, purple and blue types the white was really different i have not seen before.  Warning there will be many photos here i could not help myself, lots of lovely blue lavender and when Ella and i stepped into the lavender field the first thing you became aware apart from the beautiful blue lavender was the buzzing as the flowers were alive with bugs, bees and butterflies which i have taken many snaps of as the bugs looked like jewels against the blue lavender, Ella enjoyed watching the bees and trying to grab at the butterflies of which there were thousands of them bright beautiful and fluttery perfect to capture our attention.  It will be great to see the posts from the other ladies as i didn't get to spend time with them so sad, as i had to make sure i was back in time for the school run and my pictures were take while Ella was in my arms wiggling making it rather difficult to snap.  However we both had a glorious time and in 2 weeks i here the whole field will be blooming what a sight that must be.  There are so many great pictures here of the wonderful lavender and wildlife i am thinking i must get round to printing some out and getting them framed for our new house, it much nicer having pictures on the walls that you have taken yourself rather than buying from a shop.  If you would like to see more amazing pictures of lavender check the lovely Manneskjur blog post on Hitchin

Lavender and Honey ice cream and other ideas

I like this unusual ice cream and use it as  amuse bouche and love to watch the faces of my friends and family as they try and guess the flavour.

Ingredients
600 ml full milk
10 lavender heads
4 egg yolks
284ml double cream
180g honey

• heat the milk untill it starts to bubble around the edges. add the lavender sprigs , and remove from the heat to infuse for 30 mins  or longer.
• Whisk the egg yolks and honey into a bowl until thick. Strain the milk into a bowl and mix well 
• Pour the mix back into the pan and over a gentle heat stir to make a smooth custard which coats the back of the wooden spoon. strain in a bowl and cool 
• Whip the cream and fold it into the cool custard.  Put into the freezer and ever 30 mins give the bowl and whisk to break the ice crystals do this for 4 times till the ice cream freezes to an almost ice cream state and then place your mix into a box and leave to freeze overnight 

If you have lots of lavender you could always make a cushion and then pick a good big handful of lavender and dry this in the oven and stuff it inside the cushion to aid restful sleeping

Or maybe some make some cold press lavender soap the possibility's are endless