My Birthday

There was nothing particularly special about my birthday this year, no big number or huge party, but we visited some rather lovely places that I thought you might appreciate, and that I would like to remember when I look back through my blog diary in a few years' time. 

I had swapped my day at work so that I could have it off and was joined by The Mother, brother and Baby F for the morning with a lovely breakfast at Bills in Lewes, followed by a walk to Southover Grange Gardens. It's really something special this time of year, and I often come throughout the year - especially after a trip to the dentist - to see how it changes. If you come earlier in the year, the Pampas grass is huge and fluffy, crowding over the dried up canal like a permanent explosion of featheriness; if you come later in the year, you may even see some water trickling through the canal itself. There's a rose garden, a clean cut looking box garden, a kind of wild and untamed garden, mowed lawns, borders, and then this beautiful strip of planted wildflowers!!

It was too pretty not to try and have some nice photos in front of. The burst of colours was really something with the red poppies, blue cornflowers, yellow and white daisies and whatever else was in there. Sadly there weren't that many bugs, bees and butterflies visible on it - there just don't seem to be that many around this year. 

There is a grange still here at Southover, but it is privately owned or operated, usually for weddings and things like that. My godmother got married here - as did the Rag 'n Bone man!

It's also where The Sussex Guild have a permanent shop so you can wander round and pick up beautiful art and craft pieces from local artists/makers. 

Baby F just likes rushing around it because of all the little pathways popping through hedges and borders. There are a lot of stone walls here as well, some of it from the nearby ruined Lewes Priory (you can also walk around what's left of it) which seems to have had its stone pilfered to build many different parts of Lewes, bits pop up all over the place. 

Once we'd wandered around the gardens enough we headed back to my parents so that Baby F could have a nap and then played there for the rest of the afternoon before going out for a birthday dinner at Pizza Express. I even got a free birthday pudding!

My birthday weekend continued with a trip to Michelham Priory House & Garden, owned by the Sussex Archaeological Society (who also manage Lewes Castle among other places). Incidentally there was a Jaguar and Classic Car show on at the same time which kept my uncle and cousins entertained, personally I'm not at all interested in cars - even the people who owned the cars didn't seem that bothered, they were all sat in deck chairs behind their vehicles just having a chat. Perhaps that's what it's all about. There were a few people polishing off imaginary specks of dust but mostly it just looked like a classic car carpark on the lawn. 

You can walk around areas of the priory, it's got a long 800 year history so there's lots to read about, and there's dress up for the little people. The best bit for me was the smells in the kitchen - a proper herby smell as if the Augustinian canons who founded the site had just finished preparing a meal for themselves - although I doubt they would recognise the place now as much was destroyed by the dissolution of the monasteries. The garden photographed above represents what the cloister would have looked like, through the use of a wooden pergola, but there isn't a cloister there now. 

It was also home to evacuees and Canadian troops during World War II so there's quite a bit about that part of the site's history too. 

We had hoped for ducks, as The Mother remembered there being a lot of ducks there and our small people love feeding them, but we think that the Jags scared them off as there wasn't a single duck there! However, we did spy this lovely Barn Owl having a nap in the glass lantern above the entry to the inside of the priory! I'm not sure how many other people noticed him and we aren't sure how he decided upon that as the best place to have a snooze - he didn't have much to hold on to and looked pretty wedged in there but hopefully he managed to get out ok. 

We had a picnic lunch, wandered around the gardens, drank coffee, wandered through the little craft market that was also there and then mooched round to my sister's house so that the boys could all play in the garden together - a proper family birthday weekend!

Mr DT's Nymans Birthday

I will never tire of these wonderful National Trust properties with the huge gardens and acres of Buttercup fields. Not having a garden myself I appreciate the grass all the more I think, and the ability to just let Baby F loose to roam around. 

We visited Nymans for Mr DT's birthday this year. He wasn't really fussed about doing anything but I think birthday's should be celebrated so my family dragged him out for a birthday picnic, complete with presents and cake, on the lawns outside the big house and I think he was secretly rather chuffed. 

Interestingly, having been a visitor of this site for about 30 years (we used to come here with my grandparents when I was small), I went in a part of it I've never been in before!! Quite a large chunk of the house burnt down in a housefire and, due to building material rations at the time, it was never rebuilt so that part has stayed a romantic ruin since then. This time when we went, they have made it into a little secret indoor/outdoor garden!

It was beautiful, really lush and calm and secluded. I can imagine that through the seasons the gardeners will have cleverly planted so that different pots flower or change colour at different times so that the scene is always changing. We'd gone in May (I know - I'm nearly two months behind writing this!) so there weren't many flowers out but lots of green, happy looking plants. Baby F was very taken with this enormous water feature quietly bubbling away in a corner. 

I can't decide whether the building is more impressive as a ruin and being able to see blue sky through those wonderful windows, or if it would have looked even more stunning as a whole building with a roof. I love that there are plants growing through the architecture, giving the stonework a cuddle, but I'm sure there would have been impressive chimneys, and I'm a sucker for a good chimney structure. 

The gardens were very pretty, lots of purples/pinks with the Wisteria pergola (although I'm sure I've seen it more covered in flowers before, there really didn't seem that many this time) foxgloves and aquilegia. There was a group of photographers bobbing around behind all of the plants taking close up photographs of leaves or butterflies, getting very excited by a sighting of something slightly unusual and going haring off together to snap photos of the new 'thing'.

My favourite bit is the walled garden. It's enormous and has areas of wild meadow, orchards, huge fat flower beds, tightly clipped and structured hedges, water fountains, carved archways... it's really beautiful. I fear as I walk around that I always take photos of the same thing but each time you see it, in a slightly different season, or a different type of weather or time of day, they look different. If you scroll up to the top of the blog, on the right hand side there is a search bar and if you key in 'Nymans' you can see all of the posts and photos I've taken and published from there - I've just done it myself and it's almost like a snapshot of the property throughout all of the seasons.

I have no idea what the above tree is but the flowers are fantastic! It looks like a birthday cake, which seemed timely, and they were massive! We were very well treated by the weather and it was such a lovely family day out. We are very lucky to have so many of these protected and cared for spaces near to us. 

Birthday Trip to Nymans

My birthday celebrations continued with a trip to Nymans garden. It's a National Trust property that we go to quite frequently (being members it's a great way to take Baby F out to lots of different places and poor Reece gets dragged through the gardens with me exclaiming over all of the trees and flowers and mushrooms or whatever happens to be there). 

I love to revisit these gardens at different times during the year to see how they change, and we will go in all weathers (not that Reece enjoys that so much) if I can get there. Luckily on this day the weather was really fine and warm so it was lovely to be out and about with extended family. 

Taking smalls out with us is quite eye opening as well. Baby F in particular sits in his buggy wiggling his bottom and kicking his legs and just saying 'wow' at everything, pointing at trees and birds and interesting bushes. As a parent I try and point out lots of interesting things and let him hold sticks and leaves and try to teach him to be gentle with flowers - not that it always works as he is still trying to eat everything. Sniffing is a strange thing to try and teach. 

The Hydrangeas were amazing, especially with the water droplets from recent rains lingering on the petals. 

It was dry enough to let the little ones roam around on the grass for a little bit, especially now ours bottom shuffles everywhere. He does not stay still and I'm endlessly washing trousers with little grubby patches on the bottom. 

We didn't go through the house this time (last time we went there was a chap playing the piano), focusing more on the garden and the beautiful planting. There's a new café at the back of the house in the old stables so we stopped for lunch there, sitting outside in the courtyard in the sunshine. It's such a nice place to sit. 

My absolute favourite part of Nymans is the walled garden. It's at the back of the house and has the most amazing central walkway through it with little offshoots to the edges of the garden with orchards and 'wild' bits, but the walkway is planted with incredible flowers. I took so many photos! The colours are amazing and there are lots of structural plants, some of which were taller than me - lovely blue thistles, bright pink dahlias, orange echinacea and many others I can't name. 

I don't know of a better way to end a birthday week of celebration. Keep scrolling for more delicious photos!