Friday,

so I was off shopping, 

after finishing in Lidl I made my way past the Coach & Horses, under a clear blue sky,

making my way down the High Street,

I took a photograph of the Q Bar & Kitchen, it always looks so nice,

but as there are normally dinners there, I do not like photographing them, but today I was early so no problems with dinners,

into and out of Sainsburys,

and back home with 9 bags of shopping,

Steve and Kai then picked me up, Diana was at work,

we were going to Castle Lavender Farm, it is a pre-booked ticket only place, so it was today or nothing, unfortunally it did not have a slot for when Diana had a day off, but we have booked tickets for all of us on Diana's next day off,

and here we are,

at the bottom of the lavender slopes there is the farm shop,

where you can look at, sample,

and order items from the farm,

and pick them up,

on your way out of the farm,

and here it is,

Steve was already taking photographs,

I followed Steve and Kai,

up the slope to the top, looking back to the farm shop,

and house at the bottom,

Steve doing sterling work,

as was Kai,

looking past the farm shop in the distance another field of lavender,

there is a third field to the right, that one is the picnic field, where you can bring your own food and drink and settle down by the lavender,

and here is one flower amongst all of them,

a quick one for the album,

as we made our way down the hill,

there is always one, (or two), that just have to be different!

we continued towards the shop,

stopping every now and again,

looking back to the top of the field where we had just left,

a quick pose on the garden bench,

one more for the album,

next to the lavender,

a wheat field,

Steve and Kai were off again,

back to the bench,

we made our way past the shop,

on our way back to the car we noticed the picnic field,

next Steve drove us to Polhill Garden Centre,

we had visited Polhill after our last trip to the lavender farm in July 2020,

first stop,

breakfast,

a tub of Folkstone whelks,

inside so much to look at,

the indoor ferns,

and orchids looking nice,

I had a look at the succulents, in particular I was looking for some Stapelia, which we have mentioned before on the blog, they are sometimes called stinky cactus,

alas they did not have any, but they did have a few cactus,

and for a taste of the exotic,

you can grow your own pineapples,

as usual I was tempted with the Venus fly traps, but resisted,

the main areas were a riot of colour,

with all manner of plants to grow,

like these dianthus,

or osteospermum,

the garden features section deserved a look,

you could have your own watermill,

now here is a thing, 

we saw this ones twin brother when we visited Coolings on the 8 th. of this month,

the peacock as popular as ever,

I thought these were so cute,

real bird 'houses'!

in to the farm shop, to buy a couple of Diana's favourite snacks,

almond macaroons,

we were going to have a bite to eat in the garden centre, but the restaurant was packed, so over the road to the Toby Carvery,

a roast dinner each for Steve and Kai,

a white wine and a beef roll for myself, 'Cheers!',

Steve and Kai wanted to share a ice cream but Kai did not want chocolate sauce on her half, problem solved!

next stop Beckenham Junction, where we bought tickets for Rainham to visit Steve over the weekend, I said my goodbyes to Steve and Kai,

and made my way across the road,

to O'Neil's,

all of that walking was thirsty work!

the owner of Foxgrove Lodge doing some trimming,

I made my way home, by now Diana had returned although she could not join us because of the timings, Diana had a small get together with some of her co-workers,

in a restaurant called Creams, the UKs Favourite Dessert Parlour, left to right, Karolina, Deepa, Diana and Wilma,

I do not know,

what these desserts are called,

but as Diana said, 'diet starts tomorrow!',

by now we were both home, so an evening 'Cheers!',

the flowers this week looking very nice,

and for tonight,

duck pancakes or rolls if you prefer,

I think I put a bit too much in this one,

but you know me,

these things just have to be done,

for dessert a Morello cherry pie,

with lots of fresh cream, delicious! as it was a Friday Steve called round in the evening where we watched last episode of Jeremy's Farm great fun it was too, after he left it was time for a New Tricks, I still have not caught up with posts, and as we are out tomorrow I will be a day late with the next one, and with that we were off to bed.