We travelled down to Bateman’s in East Sussex. The house is set in beautiful grounds and there’s a working flour mill powered by a waterwheel.
As we walked through the dappled shade of the wild garden, hubby asked me name of the delicate, nodding flowers. They were the fritillaries, of course. He was amazed by the chequered bells of the f. meleagris.
A wide expanse of lawn at the front of the house is perfect for children of all ages to pelt across and blissfully there are no “Keep Off the Grass Signs”.
One of my favourite places to visit.
I love the flowers! They look like candy or paper or something not quite real. Great photos.
I’ve never been there but it looks a wonderful place to visit. As one of those children of all ages it’s good to see that there’s no ‘Keep off the grass’ signs!
Terrific photos, especially the last one. Thanks.
Spring is such a lovely time of year. I can’t resist caputuring the flora on the camera.
What a beautiful place to visit! I can see why you like it!
[...] my recent trip to Batemans I was reminded of the joy of capturing nature on camera. In the days BC (before children) I spent [...]
I have a Bateman’s story for you. You may be aware that Rudyard Kipling’s son John was “lost” in the Battle of Loos in 1915, aged only 18. Kipling spent the rest of his life searching for his grave, which he never found. About 10 years ago I went to Loos and walked over the same fields which John Kipling advanced over on that fateful day … now all peaceful farmland. There were some lovely poppies growing around what had been the old British trenches, and some of them had seed capsules, so I collected a few. (They are the same type – Papaver rhoeas – that you have growing on your allotment.) The following year I went to Bateman’s and took some of the Loos poppy seeds with me. When nobody was looking I ’sowed’ them in the gardens … not in the cultivated part where they would probably have been weeded out, but in the wild area close to the mill. I’ve no idea whether any of them grew, but symbolically it seemed quite an important thing to do.
[...] Last Easter we visited a National Trust property in Sussex, Batemans, the home of Rudyard Kipling. I think that was where my love for taking photographs was rekindled. This Easter, with the festival falling a good few weeks earlier, the weather couldn’t have been more different, but despite the unfavourable snow flurries, we set off to another property run by the National Trust, Standen House. The promise of an Easter Egg trail for the girls drove us out of the house (the temptation to stay indoors and watch an old movie was great). [...]