Thursday 7 June 2012

A visit to Sissinghurst




The heavy golden sunshine enriched the old brick 
with a kind of patina, and made the tower 
cast a long shadow across the grass,
like the finger of a gigantic sundial veering slowly with the sun.


Everything was hushed and drowsy and silent,
but for the coo of the white pigeons 
sitting alone together on the roof.



They climbed the seventy-six steps of her tower
and stood on the leaden flat,
leaning their elbows on the parapet,







and looking out in silence over the fields,
the woods, the hop gardens,
and the lake down in the hollow
from which a faint mist was rising.

Vita Sackville-West

14 comments:

  1. One of my favourite places in the world. Last time we visited we managed to still be there just before closing time, when we were two of just four visitors left. The small birds were singing their hearts out, reclaiming their garden.

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  2. It's the best time to go. We arrived as the departing visitors jammed the narrow lanes.

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  3. Definitely on my Must See list..... Lovely pictures, Lucille.

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  4. Oh I loved it there when we visited a few years ago, such a beautiful garden.
    xxx

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  5. Lovely lovely. Haven't been for ages.

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  6. What an intriguing series of views.

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  7. So glad you enjoyed your trip!

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  8. Gosh - that does look gorgeous.

    Nina x

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  9. thank you so much for sharing this visit with us. Your photos are quite wonderful and pairing them with S-W's words truly let us feel as if we were there.

    Best wishes.

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  10. Maybe I will get to see this next time I am in England! Beautiful photos, is this where the famous white garden is located?

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  11. Oh yes, it's so lovely. Have only been there once (it's quite a long way from us) but I must get there again before I die.

    How exciting that Sarah Raven commented!!!!!

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  12. Yes, a lovely surprise! I once found myself sitting next to her on a train. It was during the filming of the BBC4 series on their plans for farming at Sissinghurst and their tussles with the National Trust who own it now. I would have loved to talk to her but of course kept my eyes primly averted from the papers on her lap.

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  13. Just lovely...is the brick what they call 'tudor rose'? Can you tell me the age of the building, please?

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  14. I looked it up - Elizabethan - so I was not far off...:) I will put this place on my bucket list!

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