Adelaide Through The Eyes Of A Rockstar – Lyndoch Lavender Farm

Barossa Valley. Jacob’s Creek. Penfolds… The signs read like the wine section of any Watson’s Wines or International Park n Shop or Wellcome in Hong Kong. It doesn’t hurt that one of my reds of choice is Penfolds Shiraz. (I know, Jeffrey Archer in one of his short stories has a rather dubious character comment re Aussie wines, “How can a nation of beer drinkers know anything about making a halfway-decent wine?” but at some point I realized the labels I often picked up off the HK supermarket shelves from habit (tried it, liked it) were Aussie.

I’m not by any measure atas wine drinker, I can tell very good from fairly good from bad from very bad but that’s about it. In the beginning I drank a little (never a lot) out of defiance for my father, who doesn’t drink a drop and used to give me earfuls about how I never should. They used to sell alcohol on the NTU campus, and on weekends when all the locals went home the fresh-our-of-army boys would sometimes stick around and get very drunk. (Never the girls, that I can remember.) But my Huh! THIS is how you have no idea! moment was when, wearing high-heeled platforms for the first time, I fell down the dorm stairs and my dad asked at our weekly (then-strictly enforced) call “Were you drunk?” To this day I have never been drunk in my life.

Anyway, Lyndoch Lavender Farm.

We first came across lavender farms and products at Cape Lavender in Margaret River, Perth – which was our first ever Rockstar vacation. Fell in love with Como, the lavender fields, and driving around wineries where Rockstar, then 11 months old, Sampled The Breads Of The Land.

Well, pictures say a thousand words – here’s a more accurate description to date, of our visit to a lavenderland:

 Y-eah. It’s nice we could help out with the Go Silly efforts. We attempt to muffle him because it’s a very peaceful place, with the constant droning of bees. We notice a couple small hives hanging from the trees and explain to Rockstar that your average bug or animal won’t bother you if you leave it alone, unless you bother it first – the difference between Nature and Man (no, I didn’t really say that last part)…

An old lady in a bright red jumper is staring out quietly over the lavender fields from her wheelchair. Well, Rockstar takes care of that in a hurry. I move to rein him in, except I notice she’s smiling delightedly and continues to watch him periodically with fascination even as we go in to tea.

We have lavender scones, lavender cheese (outstanding!), chutney and crackers, lavender tea, latte and pastry, and lavender cookies – but Rockstar passes on the lavender hot chocolate and they’re out of lavender ice cream. I also get light-headed on the smell, after also having the tea. (I’m dizzy, and have to sit down – because I can’t stand or walk without falling over.)

So we spend some time watching and listening to bees buzzing about. And trying to record the buzzing on my iPhone.