This week we visited Standen, which is a beautiful late Victorian house and gardens in Sussex. (Yes, on a weekday... the joys of homeschooling!) I used to quite dislike trailing around old houses and gardens which all looked the same to me, but in recent years I've come to love visiting National Trust properties. I hadn't used my camera for a while so decided to bring it along and I was pleased because there were lots of lovely photo opportunities. The sun was shining and I was able to learn a bit more about using manual setting on the camera. First we went to the kitchen garden, which was full of produce and beautiful flowers.
Flowers in the kitchen garden, it was fun to experiment with focus.
I was really pleased to take photos of the large white butterfly and wasp because I've been trying to get a close-ups like this for ages and never succeeded!
We went for a walk to other parts of the garden, including the orchard which had beehives, and my sister pointed this beautiful butterfly out to me. I'm trying to work out what species it is.
Fresh flowers and vegetables from the kitchen garden for sale.
We had a guided 'taster' tour of the house which was very interesting as we learnt about the Beale family who lived here, Philip Webb the architect who designed much of the interior as well, and Morris & Co. which designed much of the wallpapers and other furnishings. I really liked to rather unusual style from the Arts & Crafts movement combined with the feeling that it was a family home. I went back to take some pictures:
The billiard room, where the men got together on wet days.
Some of the crockery on display in the dining room.
All the bedrooms we saw had their own dressing rooms.
I liked the colours of this bathroom. There were only two bathrooms in the house, most people used a tin bath in their bedrooms.
Mrs. Beale and her daughters embroidered this fine screen from a Morris & Co. kit.
An example of the wallpapers in the house.
After a picnic we relaxed in the garden. This is the back of the house, and you can see the sandstone blocks which came from a quarry on the large estate. Also the lovely flowers everywhere!
As you can tell I really enjoyed the day out and loved the house and gardens, especially learning about the design element. Please comment if you enjoyed reading, and let me know what you think the red butterfly is!
