Visit to a Pumpkin Farm

 

Most years I take D and E to a pumpkin farm to buy pumpkins for Halloween. Usually we go to an event near Stoneleigh but this year for a change we visited a more local farm - Wood Barn near Solihull.  We went in the week when it was quieter!  I find these events are to be avoided at weekends and school half term!!!

There were loads of different varieties of pumpkins being sold although sadly I couldn't find a "Turk's Turban" which is a shame as I have a good recipe for Turk's Turban soup!

There was also a Christmas shop which we had a brief look at.

Timothy being brave by a wyvern!

There was a pumpkin field where you could pick your own which D and E promptly did!  There were also reindeer in an enclosure but you might know I looked in the wrong area although D and E found them!

The Christmas Shop

Wood Farm also sells real Christmas trees. I felt a bit guilty after reading this as we have a plastic tree although to be fair we have used the same one for years and years.  I do have a real tree in a pot outside which we used to put in the porch over the Christmas period but it has been repotted into larger tubs that many times that it is now too heavy to lift!  

We bought several pumpkins of various sizes - some to carve and some to cook with.  I remember one year I grew pumpkins and the two that formed I named Henry and Humphrey - a bad mistake to give them names as I found I just couldn't carve or eat them! D tried to grow some this year without success - slugs and snails decided they were tasty :(

We stopped off a Marks and Sparks on the way home to buy some Halloween sweets and chocolates and some sandwiches - sadly the doughnut stall at  the farm was closed and we were hungry!  I've decided Friday afternoons are not a good time to go out - the traffic was awful :(

All photos taken by me or D with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one or mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).

Apple Festival and Country Fair at Hill Close Gardens, Warwick

 

We've visited the delightful Hill Close Gardens in Warwick several times in the past so when I saw there was an Apple Weekend and Country Fair we decided we would visit again.

Hill Close Gardens (or the Hidden Gardens) of Warwick are a rare example of Victorian detached gardens used by residents of the town who lived above their premises in Warwick Town Centre and had no room in their small back yards to grow fruit, vegetables and flowers.

The gardens date back to the mid 1840's when the owner of Hill Close divided his land into 32 plots and rented them out.  Over time the plots were bought by the people who used them.  16 plots out of the original 32 have survived until the present day.

The gardens were cultivated until after World War 2 when Warwick District Council started buying up the plots so that they could be used for housing development and a local committee was formed to try and save them. Research revealed the importance of the gardens and the development was thankfully cancelled.  A trust was set up to save the gardens for the future and restore them.

Many volunteers have worked hard to bring the gardens back into the condition they are in today and they opened to the public in 1998.

The event was quite busy - busier than other events I have attended there and I think I had the very last space in the car park!

Most of the plots have their own little summer house.

Timothy enjoying himself :)

Many of the gardens had short poems on display.

By the tea room there were apples of many varieties on display and for sale.

We had a cup of hot chocolate in the tea room - sadly all the cake had sold out :(

There was a display on one of the walls of hedgehog ceramics made by Carey Moon in 2020.

Wild Arum, Lords and Ladies or Cuckoo Pint berries.

Before leaving we had a look in the glasshouse where there were displays of cacti, apples, pumpkins etc.

There were even quinces. D has been trying to find some of these for a recipe but I don't think these were for sale sadly.

We had a look round the craft fair and D bought E a small felted ornament for her Christmas Tree.

When we got home B had made an apple pie using the last of the apples from the tree in our garden in Herefordshire.

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks)