Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm

We're starting to run out of places to visit but with the school holidays still on, we want to make the most of it before they return to the school routine and weekly activities of swimming, football, music lessons, chinese school and so forth. So today, we headed to Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm, a farm which grows lavender, olives and grapes. From memory, we've visited this farm before, probably more than ten years ago because we definitely didn't come with the kids. I think it may have been with Amanda? I do recall that it wasn't anything particularly special when we visited last time. However, not 100% certain if it was the same place, we decided to check it out today.

Lavandula Farm is about 10 minutes from Daylesford so it was about a 1.5 hour drive for us from home. We got there at almost 2pm and the place was packed. There was a Harvest Celebration on today and lots of people brought along their picnic rugs and settled around the garden areas, listening to the live music and dance performances. Luckily, we found an outdoor table, under a shady tree outside La Trattoria cafe. Daddy then went off to order lunch. Ten minutes later, another family asked to share our table (there was plenty of room) and they too, went to order food. After a while, Daddy and the boys came back and we waited for our food. Not long after that, we found out through the family next to us that all the food had run out and they were too late! The parents settled for some champagne instead, which was also very popular as there was a long queue for that also. They left shortly after so we had the table all to ourselves. I think they were eyeing our meals because they jokingly said to us "You better eat your food before we get our hands on them". While having our meal, the waitress came over with two glasses of champagne, asking if we had ordered them. We didn't, but we told them there was a family who did, but they had already got their order. So the waitress gave them to us, on the house! After lunch, we explored the place.

In particular, I loved the feeling of sitting peacefully outside the entrance of the farmhouse. It's quite amazing that I took these photos with hardly anyone else in the background, with it looking like we were the only people there. Believe me, the place was so busy and full of people walking around and I had to quickly snap away because within seconds, someone would walk into the picture. I particularly love that photo of Ashleigh sitting on her own. It seems so calm and peaceful. If I had a porch like that, I can imagine myself sitting on that chair with a good book for hours and just enjoy the peace and quiet. Notice the lavenders hanging from the ceiling. The whole place smelt of lavender (naturally) and the kids said it smelt like 'soap'.

Ashleigh had so much fun roaming around the open fields of grass and gardens of lavender. It was indeed very peaceful and relaxing. Having said that, there wasn't much for the kids to do, besides from, well, just walking around and exploring the area. The boys (and Ash), however, did get a chance to play Bocce Ball, an ancient game that resembles bowling, using metal balls. We don't know the rules of Bocce Ball, but Daddy managed to make up some rules and they had fun for a while, bowling away. It was a lovely way to spend a relaxing afternoon.