Green Girl Gardener

It’s Friday, the sun’s shining and I’m off work till Thursday. Whoop!

My holiday started at noon today because I had booked a half day so I could go to the Confetti Fields in Pershore. I’m so glad I decided on today because the fields didn’t actually open on Tuesday and Wednesday because of the wet weather. They’re only open to the public for ten days a year while the flowers are in bloom, so this must’ve been a blow to the Real Flower Petal Confetti Company, not to mention the people who had planned to visit.

As I’m following the Slimming World plan, the preparation for my day trip had to start last night. Dieting involves a huge amount of forward planning otherwise you tend to fall off the wagon, which is one of the reasons that the diet industry is so huge – people get fed up with having to plan, or they simply don’t have time, so they give up only to restart again multiple times. I know, this is my life!

Anyway, I decided that I’d make myself a picnic to take with me. This meant I had to forego my usual breakfast overnight oats so that I could save my fibre allowance for my picnic. I decided to make myself a bacon and mushroom omelette in my omelette maker.

This left my fibre option free so I could have a wholemeal roll for lunch.

If you’re a savvy slimmer, you can make the Slimming World plan work whilst still eating quite a lot of food. You just have to choose the right foods. I had a cheese triangle instead of butter on my roll and filled it with ham, beetroot and red onion and I chopped up two carrots into batons and whipped up some Slimming World syn free caramelised onion hummus. So garlicky, no vampires will be troubling me for some time! Yum!

So far so good!

I can’t guarantee that the week 5 progress update will continue the downward trajectory because I’m going to Wimbledon on Tuesday, and we’re having afternoon tea (lush) and it’s become a tradition to eat in Gino’s Restaurant (double lush) whenever we travel from Euston so staying on plan isn’t going to happen! I’ll get straight back on it on Wednesday though.

After eating my car picnic, I headed off to the fields with the glorious sun shining down on me (about time too!) There is a beautiful field of wheat before the entrance.

Didn’t Theresa May say the naughtiest thing she ever did was run through fields of wheat? Hardly naughty, but I can see why she felt the need to do so. Those ears of wheat do make you want to run your hands through them (I didn’t!)

Once you’ve paid your entrance fee (only £5), the first thing you see are rows of Cornflowers.

Beyond that there are thousands of the most beautiful Delphiniums.

The Delphiniums were probably close to six foot tall. I don’t often share photos of myself, but this pic shows how tall they are.

Apologies for the dodgy selfie stick skills!

There’s a pop up cafe in a big marquee serving refreshments with lots of outside seating. I didn’t go in because I didn’t want to be tempted into Slimming World abandonment, but I can confirm for any non-dieting potential visitors, they do have cake!

In the other marquees you can buy big bunches of Delphiniums, original paintings of Delphiniums by the resident artist and petal confetti. This is the main purpose of the fields – the company harvests the petals and dries them to make petal confetti for weddings.

This concept is an excellent one in so many ways. When the plants are growing and in flower they are excellent for attracting pollinators.

The field was buzzing with bees, but also with people. The field was so obviously providing immense pleasure for the visitors. The great weather was surely a factor, but everyone there was smiling and enjoying being outside and getting back to nature. All ages were represented from babes in arms to the older generation enjoying the colour from their wheelchairs. The finished product is sustainable, non polluting and degradable. I didn’t check out the price, but assuming it’s not prohibitive, there should be no need for any future brides and grooms to have any paper confetti chucked over them ever again.

I predict this weekend will be a very busy one for the Real  Flower Petal Confetti Company! They close for business on Sunday and with the mercury set to rise even more over the weekend they are offering the perfect day out.

I wish I could’ve taken photos of Pershore itself, but I was driving. It’s beautiful and if I win the lottery tomorrow I’ll buy us a house there. It was so peaceful and pretty. Most of the houses seemed to have names instead of numbers and all the gardens were well tended and bursting with colour. The high street had a couple of chain stores, but mainly looked to be independent shops. The views of the surrounding area were just stunning. My heart gave a heavy sigh as I reached the motorway and had to head back to the urban jungle. At least I have my garden to seek refuge in!