Cotswold Lavender

There’s a 75% chance that this does not appeal your demographic.

Not far from Broadway are the world-famous lavender fields, where they grow and process lavender. Lavender is a plant — a flower, I think, though not a very big one. And the fields of lavender are pretty to drive by and look at. What is kind of silly is charging you to visit. Not silly that the owners charge — they have every right to profit off their creation — but silly that there is demand enough to make a business out of it.

This is what it looks like up close.

My wife is a photographer, and she wanted to take some pretty pictures of the lavender, which she did. Some that she took of my daughter with a narrow depth of field were stunning. I’d post an example here, but last time I posted a picture of my daughter, she made me take it down. She’s 13, and sensitive about what I post about her on social media.

She also had no desire to be marched into the lavender fields to be shot with a camera. She is not the target demographic of this attraction, I reckon. Neither was my 10 year-old son. Nor me. I waited patiently outside the fields; no reason to pay from something I wouldn’t appreciate.

So if my family is anything to go by, only about 1 in 4 of you will like the lavender fields.

Since I feel like I am underselling the lavender fields, let me add some positive to this. It wasn't too expensive: £3.50 for adults and £2.50 for children under 15 (children under 5 are free — yay!). That may seem like a lot to go look at a bunch of lavender growing, but growing lavender is at least as exciting as grass, and it won’t waste your whole day like Warwick Castle.

A second positive is that there is also a gift shop where you can buy all things lavender. Ever wanted to eat lavender? They have jams infused with lavender, bread with lavender, lavender candy. You can buy pictures of lavender, lavender calendars, and, of course, potpourri, which I think is the only legitimate use for lavender.