Kalbar Sunflower Festival

After saying goodbye to Garry and Claire and leaving the “Woodman’s Cottage” ladened with lemons, grapefruit and avocados Garry gave us from his orchard we headed back to Kalbar and the Sunflower Festival. 

But first we stopped in Kalbar for a look around and we found this amazing shop, The Emporium.

Come for a look inside with me. It was packed with interesting objects from books to clothes to all manner of crafts and memorabilia a veritable Alladins cave.

A book nook had a comfy seat to sit and browse through the books. I wish we had more time to browse. But we tell ourselves we will be back.

There was delightful old time music playing in the background and I tracked down where the music was coming from.

It was this beautiful baby grand piano playing all on its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j3h0gDwcTc click on this link to hear the piano and look around the Emporium. I was entranced by it, a lovely start to the day.

Our tickets for the festival were timed for 11-00am so time to head for the sunflower fields, easy to find, just follow the stream of cars.

What a glorious sight. It was well organised with paths between the rows so you could get up close. Notice all the bees, they were on almost every flower I could see.

The sun was beating down, it was so hot and I hadn’t put a hat on. So I bought this beautiful sunflower umbrella. A great momento of the visit.

Jack always finds the pretty girls to pose with.

I found a local artist to chat with. He was doing “pleine air” painting and I was very impressed with his work.

A stop for Devonshire tea in a large marquee was very welcome.

Almost everyone was carrying bunches of sunflowers. We were so lucky with the weather, this was the first day and the best of the 3 day festival, because the next day was overcast and the final day, Sunday, it poured with rain. Last year, we were told, it had poured with rain every day and everyone was sloshing around in the mud. ( Go to this link to see the interesting story behind the festival and an amazing video of last years festival in the mud. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the video) 

So after a lovely day it was time to find our way to the next Airbnb. I wonder what we will find this time.