Little Tew is barely a lane's width from Ledwell, and through the summer months Chippy Flower Farm opens its fields for pick-your-own. You wander the rows with scissors and a basket, choosing from whatever's blooming that week. It's one of those simple, lovely afternoons that stays with you longer than you'd expect.
The farm runs on a seasonal rhythm, opening when the first blooms are ready (usually late spring) and closing once the last dahlias have gone over in autumn. There's no set list of what you'll find on any given visit; that's part of the pleasure. Sunflowers, sweet peas, cornflowers, cosmos, zinnias. The rows shift colour week by week. You pay by the bunch or by the bucket, and they'll lend you snips if you've forgotten yours. Children love it. So do the bees.
It's a five-minute drive from Well Cottage, or a genuinely beautiful walk through the fields if the weather's kind. We'd suggest going in the morning before the heat sets in. Bring a container you actually like, because the flowers look best arranged loosely in whatever you carried them home in. The cottage kitchen table does the rest.
“We go every couple of weeks through the summer. The cottage ends up full of flowers, and the whole ritual of choosing and cutting them is half the point.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.