The Road Goes Ever On

Sunday, May 15, 2022

Sissinghurst Castle Garden, 2022

Our first visit to Sissinghurst was in 2013, and we have made it a regular stop in most of our visits to the UK since. The castle dates from the Tudor age, but fell upon hard times by the 18th century, and was a ruin when writers Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson bought it in the early 20th. They brought it back to life, primarily its gardens, and it is an obligatory stop on anyone's itinerary of famous British gardens. Also British literary history. The three posts below

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/06/sissinghurst-castle.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/09/sissinghurst-again.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/05/sissinghurst.html

have decent pix of the place, in both spring and fall, and also convey a bit of its history. For us, it was another case of visiting an old favorite friend, but with a very new twist, which I'll get to in due course.

Not huge, by British home and garden standards; but interesting
and important

Interior of the "Elizabethan" barn

In the "White Garden"; Sissinghurst has a variety of "rooms" and
"walks"

The Priest's House, where Vita and Harold's two sons lived with
their nanny

Part of the wall astride the Elizabethan Towers;
Elizabeth I visited the place when it was a great
castle, in the 16th

A book given by Queen Victoria to Nicolson's father; inscribed
by the Queen

Tulip tree?

In one of Vita's Rooms

One of Harold's Walks

The big surprise and treat for us was that the South Cottage was
open--we'd always thought Vita and Harold lived in the wing
opposite the library, but no, they shared the South Cottage as their
living space, although Vita worked and wrote in the Tower

The South Cottage; we got on to a small group tour of the cottage--
three floors, which were left pretty much as they were when
the couple lived there--Harold lived into the 1960s; furniture,
decor, private libraries, and so on; no fotos are permitted, since
their descendants return and live there in June of each year; but
what a treat!

Friday, May 13, 2022

Wakehurst, 2022

We visited Wakehurst in 2013, and were impressed, although mindful that it is merely an "outpost" for Kew, the Royal Botanic Gardens, the world's largest and best, arguably, which we had not yet seen. (We remedied that in 2016 and again in 2021). Well, actually, Wakehurst is larger than Kew by a couple hundred acres, but it is limited to plants that can grow in the wild in West Sussex; and also the National Seed Bank. In any case, it is a beautiful collaboration between the RBG and the National Trust (who own it). The house dates from 1590, the gardens mostly from the early 20th century. Some 20,000 trees were lost in the 1987 hurricane, but it's all looking good now. My pix from 2013 give a decent look at the place, but I'll add a few more for refreshening.

We've become very fond of cherry trees; in bloom

We spent some time first in the birch collection
and the meadow bluebells

Excellent educational signage; just what you'd expect from the
people who run Kew

Definitely on the quiz

The mountains of Japanese red maples were extraordinary

Plenty of azaleas and rhododendrons going strong

Love the large flowery cascades

Been there, done that

Us, there

Note little water feature on the left

Did I mention I really like the cascade effect?

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Nymans, 2022

Our next AirBnB was in Flimwell, on the border with Kent, and we set forth early enough to take in both Nymans house and garden as well as Wakehurst, Kew's southern outpost, owned by the National Trust. We had visited Nymans before, in 2013, https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/06/nymans.html, including the house. Presently, the house is open only on Saturdays, so we contented ourselves with the garden and grounds. Beautiful enough...