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!

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?

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...

Head gardener's notes, with examples; part of the National Trust
routine that we love

High weald, south downs, whatever...

One of the best hankie trees ever

Rhododendrons starting to go strong here

Wisteria arch

The ruin, burned in 1947

Tulips going strong

Wisteria at the ruin

Color everywhere

Magnolia...we'd always thought it was a tulip tree...amazing what
you can learn on one of the guided garden tours; which we now
never miss

Also that azaleas are being written out of the taxonomy...they're
just small, perfumery, rhododendrons

Ever more color...

Across the road, into the wild, where the big rhododendrons grow...

Us, there, in one of our remembered happy places

Petworth, 2022

Our spring, 2022, visit to the UK is primarily about gardens, which we'll visit mostly in the southern coastal counties and Wales. We're in mid-spring here, the camellias and bulbs and such just at or beyond peak and beginning to close out, the azaleas and rhododendrons and wisteria and much more coming on strong. It's largely a matter of species and micro climates and such, but it appears we have once more been fortunate on the timing. Plus, as I write, we've been on the island a week and have seen only an afternoon of light rain, and that while driving from Sevenoaks to Dibden. Oh yes, we rented a car at Heathrow, a VW Polo, and are driving ourselves around, myself feeling fairly pleased and accustomed to it all, even the left-handed shifting bit, Vicki constantly terrified as always. She'll be better now that we're out of the hedgerows and holloways and passing bays of Sussex and Kent.

Anyhow, in addition to the gardens, we'll do a great house or museum or cathedral now and then, favoring our favorites and adding something new when it appeals. We visited old friend Petworth on May 6th, a major art museum doubling as one of the greater great houses. We were there mostly for the art and because it was nearby and also for old times' sake. There have been a lot of old times...

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/10/petworth.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/06/petworth-2013.html

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/06/petworth-paintings.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/05/petworth-house-2016.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2019/07/petworth-again.html.

All the best pix of the past decade or so are in the above, but a few new items warrant posting...sorry for any repeats...

Any concern we might have had about missing the height of
rhododendron season was allayed here

The weighing chair at Petworth...common in other
houses, but I don't think we've seen this here; 
interpretations vary as to why guests were weighed
coming and going...maybe to ensure you ate and 
drank well...maybe to ensure none of the silver was
leaving with you

Statue recently identified as that of a youthful
Nero, one of only three known

Just one of the twenty Turners, Hulks in the Tamar, c. 1811

The Leconfield Head of Aphrodite, attributed to
Praxiteles, fourth century BCE

Love the continuing use of Turner watercolors
to illustrate room uses and histories...

Full spring

 

Woolbeding Garden, 2022

I've looked at the two posts from Woolbeding I did in 2016--https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/05/woolbeding-1.html and https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/05/woolbeding-2.html--and, with just a couple exceptions, don't have anything better to add. It is, as I said, an extraordinary contemporary gardener's garden. I would add that the little parish church is the oldest thing there--mentioned in the 1085 Domesday Book--and that the thing I called a "rootery" is actually a "stumpery," something we've since seen elsewhere on a couple occasions. 

In 2016, Woolbeding did not have its kinetic Glasshouse, an octagonal sort of pyramidal glass house that opens out, flower-like, more or less daily. Below are a few pix, closed, the interior, and open. And, if Google and the local wifi cooperate, a stunning 5 minute video...

The video is at my YouTube channel, https://youtu.be/MFMfOa76oEg.