U.K. Trip Anniversary Posts - Days 9 & 10 (Part 1)

The Grand Garden Finale!

Part 1 - Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

[Photo taken in Sissinghurst, near the Tower Lawn]

While my emotions were mixed toward the end of the week, I was nothing but excited to be visiting two gardens that I had already seen in my mind's eye. I had a couple of books apiece on Sissinghurst and Great Dixter and being able to walk in the gardens in person was almost not to be believed for this reluctant traveler. Still, I was almost eager to be going home. Being out of touch with my children for such a long time was not normal, and especially frustrating with Kristine having become a new mother earlier in the week. I had started to feel the pull to be at home.

But today would be truly exciting and our weather was wonderful. We start out the morning in London, and you'll see a few street scenes that were caught from the moving coach. We traveled along the Thames River for a period of time and there are many distinctively shaped buildings and structures in this region (that big ferris wheel is the London Eye). London is not really a single city but a conglomerate of the original city and small villages that got sucked up into it. There are different tones to the different parts of town. We stayed at the Ibis Earle's Court and were just down the hill from the Old Brompton Cemetery and Park. I'll have a few photos taken around that area in the next and last post from the trip.

What a metaphor for life... I love the juxtaposition of these two business spaces. ;-)

In this part of England you see quite a few oast houses (seen in the next photo... the cone shaped buildings). I'll grab some information on those from Wikipedia...

An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many redundant oasts have been converted into houses.

They consist of two or three storeys on which the hops were spread out to be dried by hot air from a wood or charcoal-fired kiln at the bottom. The drying floors were thin and perforated to permit the heat to pass through it and escape through a cowl in the roof which turned with the wind. The freshly picked hops from the fields were raked in to dry and then raked out to cool before being bagged up and sent to the brewery. The Kentish dialect word Kellwas sometimes used for kilns ("The oast has three kells.") and sometimes to mean the oast itself ("Take this lunchbox to your father, he's working in the kell.").

The earliest surviving oast house is that at Cranbrook near Tunbridge Wells which dates to 1750 but the process is documented from soon after the introduction of hops into England in the early 16th century. Early oast houses were simply adapted barns but, by the early 19th century, the distinctive circular buildings with conical roofs had been developed in response to the increased demand for beer. Square oast houses appeared early in the 20th century as they were found to be easier to build. In the 1930s, the cowls were replaced by louvred openings as electric fans and diesel oil ovens were employed.

Hops are today dried industrially and the many oast houses on farms have now been converted into dwellings. One of the best preserved oast house complexes is at The Hop Farm Country Park at Beltring.

There's a sign here for Sissinghurst, partly obscured by autumn leaves.

The excitement mounts... we've left the coach and are approaching the entrance (first entrance photo by Joe Binetti). Some of the structures and gardens here were familiar sites... I still can't believe I got to walk around and get the "feel" of this place. The two gardens we saw on the last day are popular with the public but were created as private gardens. They very much reflect the inspiration of their former owners and have an intimate feel to them, despite their relative size.

I'll let a lot of the photos speak for themselves. My poor roommate is seen in many of them, since I was lagging behind to take pictures as she tried to move around quickly to see everything. I wanted to stay with her so didn't wait for a clear shot as we hurried through the various gardens. Oh! This would be a good time to drop in a little bit about Sissinghurst:

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens: This internationally renowned garden was developed by Vita Sackville-West and Sir Harold Nicolson around the surviving parts of an Elizabethan mansion. It comprises small enclosed compartments, with colour throughout the season, resulting in an intimate and romantic atmosphere (the garden is more peaceful after 4). The new vegetable garden, now fully productive, supplies fresh vegetables and fruit to the licensed restaurant. The surrounding Wealden landscape, along with the property's accompanying farm, were central to Vita and Harold's love and overall vision for Sissinghurst.

We're about to enter the famous White Garden. She designed it to be seen from the tower at night. I didn't get the best pictures in here, but a couple turned out nicely. The photos you generally see of it are taken in spring, when the rose arbor is dripping with pristine white.

The distinctive tower has become the icon of Sissinghurst Castle Gardens. We will climb to the top after walking around a little more.

This was taken in the orchard. Love how it looks in the light.

The next five photos were taken by Joe Binetti. In the second one down, I had to admire his ability to get that blue salvia stalk in focus... if you use autofocus it's pretty tricky to catch a narrow target and not have it focus on the background. This looked neat. :-)

He took this in the Spring Garden. I had trouble getting a shot of this without any people!

Angie and I have made our way down to the moat where we saw a young man "casting his bread upon the waters." :-) I'm trying to remember if it was fish or birds he was feeding... I have a photo but didn't put it in here.

Oh, all right... I just retrieved it and it appears to be fish.

The "Moat Walk"

I can't tell you how long I waited for this woman to move so I could get a clear shot of the beautiful euonymous. She stood there completely unaware for several minutes and I finally had to take the photos with her in them and leave. Angie had been patient enough as it was. At least the gal wore a nice color coordinating jacket. ;-)

I've still not figured out what this tree is (below). It has whitish colored bark and those amazing seed pods. If I'd ever seen one, I would have remembered it. Wish there had been a tag nearby we could see. I've looked in the books here on Sissinghurst, in the event they'd identified it while talking about different parts of the garden... to no avail. It was in a corner near the Cottage Garden. If anyone figures it out... please let me know. :-)

The Cottage Garden has a hot color scheme and you'll see lots of orange plants here. It was supposed to be Harold Nicolson's favorite spot... that chair on the step was one he would sit in. The legs you see in the photos belong to a fellow who sat in it the whole time we were browsing. I'd hoped to catch a shot without someone in it. He wasn't as accommodating in wearing harmonious colors for his surrounds as the woman in red. ;-)

I didn't post the photo of Angie starting up the stairs, but we're now on the Tower stairwell. I'd not noticed the sign about photographs inside the tower until we descended. On the way back down, I gasped when I saw it and exclaimed, "Oh, no! I wasn't supposed to take pictures!" A disembodied voice from a docent around the corner said, "It's all right." :-) Whew!

The photos inside are of various rooms off the tower. I didn't take one of Vita's library and desk. That space was roped off and it felt very private to me. Didn't seem right to take a picture.

Here you are! We're at the top. I hung around here for quite awhile, trying to get photos of the gardens and surrounds. The lighting wasn't the best time of day, but it was still pretty neat up there. Joe Binetti caught a couple of pictures of me taking pictures and they are just below.

Well... I could have stayed up there even longer, but it's time to come down to earth again. :-) A couple more from the stairwell...

We had to be getting back to the coach to head to Great Dixter, so a quick stop at the gift shop and a trip to the ladie's loo were in order. These oast houses were between the castle and car park. The last photo was a private joke for me and my only picture of myself at Sissinghurst as far as I knew (it was taken of the Sissinghurst loo mirror). I didn't know Joe had snapped those two when I was in the tower. I'm grateful to have them.