The drive from Chester to Kent, via Ludlow, was about as expected...3-4 hours on an assortment of A, B, and M roads, fluide, as the French say, then nearly 2 hours to go 40 miles on the M25. Eventually we got to the B&B Vicki had rented in the hamlet of Marden and settled in for a few more days of homes and gardens, and decompression, before venturing on--M25 again--to Heathrow to return the rental car, and then on into London and the flat we had rented in Pimlico.
First up on the tour was Sissinghurst Castle, a favorite we had visited at least 5 times before. Back in the days when we had a camper in Europe, 2009-2019, Sissinghurst was often our first stop in Britain after getting off the boat in Dover. Never more than a castle-in-jest...Sissinghurst was really just the ruin of a Tudor hunting lodge that Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson bought and rebuilt and then added to a great "roomed" garden that is one of Britain's best known. Just enter "Sissinghurst" in the search box for scores of flowery pix from our previous visits and more than a little information about their, um, interesting marriage. Sissinghurst was just about at prime bloom this visit, and much to our enjoyment, the National Trust had just opened the Delos garden room, finally realizing a plan the couple had had for the garden 90 years ago. An added treat for a favorite place.
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Our B&B was in Marden, a quiet and out of the way
hamlet, still close enough to the major houses and gardens
we wanted to revisit in Kent |
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Everywhere in Kent you see oast houses...barns with these strange-
looking chimney-type things...they're for the kiln-drying of hops,
a big regional product back when Kent was the major supplier
of ingredients for London's beer industry... |
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| Rare dorsal view of an oast; on the Sissinghurst estate |
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| Head gardener's display and notes |
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We'd seen the buildings and rooms before and were there this time pretty
much just for the flowers |
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Now in the new Delos garden...either we missed the signage or there
was none; we knew it was new but thought of it as a rock garden; I
guess that would be Mediterranean too |
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More of same; personally, I am a bit skeptical; I tried doing a Japanese
garden in Dallas for some years; many plants suffered, many plants died;
an Aegean garden in Kent is a similar stretch, but who knows...it would
not be the National Trust's first miracle... |
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Now in the white room, Vita's specialty; the twin Tudor hunting
lodge towers in the background |
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| Lots of white |
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| Oh no! A poppy has snuck into the white room! |
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| Still more white |
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| Ditto |
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| Moving right along |
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| Water feature |
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Mulsanne Straight...Harold loved straight lines, 90º angles;
Vita didn't; didn't even want to see soil in her garden |
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| Part of Vita's blue glass collection |
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| Portrait of Vita in the main library |
