D has two weeks leave from work so last Thursday when finally we had a dry day! we re-visited the National Herb Centre at Warmington, near Banbury. Some of you may remember that we went a few years ago and loved it there. Sometimes you go back to places and they are not as good as you remembered but the Herb Centre was just as magical.
On the way out I spotted a super dragon sculpture (better than this one) but I managed to forget to take a photo!!! At £120 it was unlikely to come home with us though!
For the first time this year we actually saw quite a lot of butterflies in one location. I didn't manage to get any photos, apart from the one above, as they were all very lively. But we saw Red Admirals, Small Tortoiseshells, Meadow Browns, the first Marbled Whites of the year and possibly a few Ringlets. The marjoram lining the path down to the nature trails was not yet in flower and we didn't see any of the "Blues".
We looked round the six demonstration gardens first.
The scent from the roses was amazing. D was actually quite keen on buying the one below until he later saw the prices!!!
Then down the hill to the nature trails where there are many paths you can follow. We took a similar route to last time which avoided the steepest of the hills!!!
Common Malachite beetle
with huge thanks to Dean on Twitter for id help.
There were loads of blackberry bushes in flower. Last time we must have gone later in the year as I remember D picked quite a few of the fruits - enough for a crumble with apples.
Horsetails
A few Dog Roses were still flowering
First sighting of a Swollen-thighed beetle this year. Sorry rubbish record shot but it kept disappearing underneath the flowers. Even D didn't manage to get a decent shot.
Then back up the hill to the nursery
More roses!
As well as roses,perennials and annuals the National Herb Centre has a huge stock of herbs of so many different kinds.
It was well organised and you paid at an outside kiosk. We bought basil, parsley, tarragon and wild rocket plus a salvia, lavender and borage. Going to try again with the latter as the last time the one I was given by a friend just disappeared!
Some of D's photos
I really do wish I had a large herb garden. At the moment we have some in a border but they get encroached by perennials every summer, some in pots and some in a wall that encloses the patio. D put the new purchases in a pot.
and planted the lavender - perhaps temporarily if it grows a lot!
Finally, to go with some homegrown strawberries D announced he was going to make some Tennis ball macarons much to my horror! We tried this once before and it was a disaster and very time consuming. To be fair they were edible but not really like macarons! This, he assured me, was a different and detailed recipe! Well we followed it to the letter and it took all afternoon and created 3 loads of washing up! As you can see again they don't look like macarons! Not sure what happened to the green food colouring we added as it disappeared during cooking. To be fair they were tasty and were filled with a white chocolate, cream and pistachio ganache!! In the end we didn't bother piping white tennis ball lines on them!!! (more washing up!!! and at the end of the day as we didn't pipe them into circles just plonked the mix down they weren't round!).
I hope everyone is staying safe and well.
Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera and D's were taken with the Canon SX50 HS bridge camera.
