Exploring the South East #8 ... Homeward Bound and Cliveden

Hi there everyone 😀

It has certainly been a strange couple of weeks over here in the UK. We are holed up in our holiday lodge in Wales, where we have been glued to the TV watching history unfold following the passing of our Queen. 

Whilst I prepared a stack of blog posts before I came away it’s not really felt appropriate to release them until now … as the country has been in its official mourning period. 

It kind of feels like it’s time to start to get back to normal so here we go … finally … the final post from our trip to the South East, where many National Trust properties and gardens were definitely the order of the day ... I don't think we've ever packed as many visits in during a one week period.  

It was Saturday and time to head for home ... but not without squeezing in one final National Trust visit. 

Having watched films and a recent drama series about 'The Profumo Affair' I was really keen to visit Cliveden, which featured in the series.

We had tried to visit once before, when on our way to Windsor, but had found the estate closed as a result of a fallen tree across the entrance driveway, this time there was no such hindrance, so I managed to tick another place I'd wanted to visit for ages off the list.

Cliveden is a huge estate and, as we were stopping off on the way home, we had to be a bit choosy about how much of it we wanted to explore.

We started off in the water garden, which is fairly close to the car park ...

From here we decided that we couldn't leave without at least seeing the house, though we couldn't see inside, as it is now used as a luxury hotel and can only be visited on certain days of the week ...

We walked around the front of the house to the South Terrace ... for views across the Parterre and the wider estate ...

We did walk down to the bottom of the Parterre for great views across the Thames and back up to the house ...

Whilst it was all very impressive I couldn't help but be a little disappointed with the planting. It had gone over a bit but, compared to the surroundings, it just felt a bit 'underwhelming' ... especially when compared to some of the other gardens we'd visited. I guess it was just a bit more formal.

We headed back up past the house to the rose garden, which was lovely and so very fragrant ...

We did pass a more of an informal border on our way back to the Grand Avenue ...

... where a good while was spent trying to get pictures of the Fountain of Love, with no other visitors in the shot ... which was no mean feat ...

So that was it ... time to head for home. We'd had a fabulous week exploring Kent and East Sussex and we'd really packed in lots of lovely places. I think we needed to go home for a bit of a rest 😉

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Exploring :: The South East #7 … Scotney Castle

Hi there everyone 😀

We are still in the South East for this post, still back in May of this year, and I still have more houses, castles and gardens to share with you ... I don't think we've ever packed as many visits in during a one week period.  

I think it was a case of the fact that the South East is just somewhere we have only ever visited the once so everything was new ... and I'm not sure I can see us going back down that way anytime soon so we just wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything.

This time we are at Scotney Castle ... described by the National Trust as a ... 

"Romantic Picturesque garden with a 14th century moated castle and a Victorian country mansion - all in a beautiful wooded estate"

It sounded great and had came highly recommended by friends who had previously visited ... though they did admit to having forgotten as to quite how big and how hilly the site is 😧

There are three main things to visit ... the garden, the house and the old castle ... we decided to start with the gardens ...

... which were stunning, though we could see pretty much straight away that we were in for a bit of a walk if we wanted to see the castle ... which we most definitely did as it looked absolutely beautiful. 

The old castle was thought to have been built as a fortified house as a result of the French invasions back in 1377. By the 19th century the land owner deliberately ruined much of it to create the centrepiece of the landscape in which it sits ...

It was definitely worth the walk down to see it ... though we weren't really relishing the idea of the walk back up ...

It was certainly a lovely spot to explore ... really tranquil ...

After lingering a while we built ourselves up to the walk back up the hill ... and before we knew it we were back up the top and ready for a breather ...

It was then a very quick look round the house as it was just too warm ...

... before finding a nice shady spot for Martin and I (and bright sunshine for mum) to enjoy some light refreshments before making tracks ...

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Exploring :: The South East #6 … Great Dixter

Hi there everyone 😀

We are back in the South East for this week's post where our visit was a really good chance to tick lots of new places that I’d wanted to visit for ages off the list ... the gardens at Great Dixter being another.

I’d probably seen and heard about the garden on Gardeners' World or something similar, but it was a fair while ago and I really had no idea what to expect. Whilst not a National Trust garden, we did manage to use our Gardeners' World magazine two for one ticket so it was another fairly inexpensive afternoon out.

I have to say that from the minute we passed through the entrance gate we knew it was going to be special …

It just looked so natural and abundant … and was so full of planting. We started to the right of the house with the sunken garden and I was literally blown away. I could have spent hours just taking it all in … it was just stunning … an absolute riot of colour and planting, set against the red brick of the oast houses, with the bluest of skies …

It really was magical and I could have stayed there all day, but we eventually dragged ourselves away to see what else the garden had to offer.

The house itself is also beautiful and totally enveloped by the garden ...

You can also actually have a look round inside the house and it is definitely worth a look. I didn't take any photos though ... this visit for us was definitely more about the garden ... 

Having had a really good wander around I couldn't resist another look back into the sunken garden, where we'd started ...

All that was left for us to do was to find a perfect picnic spot ... and that is exactly what we did ...

I am so glad that we got to visit this garden ... it really was beautiful, so full of beautiful planting and is such a lovely setting ... I would definitely recommend a visit if you get the chance 😀

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