Cake and PYO Flowers at Highgate Nursery & Coffee Shop, Rotherfield

One of our first play dates out of lockdown was with fellow boy/girl twins and their mum at Highgate Nursery and Coffee Shop, the new home of Wilderness Cafe, an old favourite. I was gutted to hear their lease wasn't going to be renewed at Wilderness Wood, the combination of woods, mud kitchen, play area and the charming cafe was definitely a big draw for us, it won't be the same without them!

Of course we had to make a trip to check out their new setting and I was pleasantly surprised to find the florist/nursery do Pick Your Own flowers! What a lovely activity for a sunny day in Sussex :)

We started with cake! The cafe is through the florist area in a fresh open plan barn and I was so happy to see their signature huge cakes and other goodies, as were the kids!

After our refreshments we grabbed some buckets (provided) and scissors (bring your own - I forgot so the other twins kindly shared theirs) and made our way to the flower field.

The kids all absolutely loved it, the boys worked so well as a team too; one cutting, the other catching and carrying the bucket.

We spent a good couple of hours there, we could have stayed all morning had it not been so hot. We took our flowers back to the florist to pay, each filled small bucket like we had costs £10, large buckets are £20.

Of course, the kids tend to cut where it's easier so the majority of our stems were rather on the short side! Luckily I have a good vase collection so searched out my shortest ones to display their bouquets (and filled them to the brim with water so every stem tip is submerged!)...

It was all very well organised with social distancing in place of course, masks are required in the florist area but not the cafe section. It's a great new location for the Wilderness Cafe ladies!