The Easter Holiday

Sunday was a huge adventure. We trained down to Sussex to visit Charleston farm. Then we went the rest of the way to the seaside, where the boys played next to and then in the water without taking off their shoes, and then had pizza and pasta at an Italian restaurant, which I allowed for the first time in about a decade. 

We walked through a bit of Lewes on the way to the house. It is always interesting to see the local building materials--here there was loads of flint used in construction. 

Charleston Farm was incredible--Virginia Woolf's sister, the painter Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant moved to this house to avoid serving in the war by doing Necessary Farm Work or something like that. They stayed and then tons of the Bloomsbury group fluttered in and out for art and free love. Or in the case of T.S. Eliot, probably just for the art. 

Every surface of the house was painted. Their own decor was everywhere. The house was this incredible collage of designs and textures and fabrics. I'm so glad I got to see it. 

From the kitchen: 

And from Clive Bell (Vanessa's first husband who later moved in)'s incredible study: 

This house had just unbelievable spirit and energy. 

The tour guide used our boys to show the ages of Vanessa and Clive's sons when they first moved into the house--and then showed us that the lower pane of the door had to be repainted later because the boys kicked it out when horsing around in the study, which used to be their nursery. 

From the dining room:

From the library: 

Of course they painted the bathtub: 

A guest room:

Okay at this point I've lost some track of which room is which (we also had to manage the boys who were very excited about the paper and pencils they were given when they entered, but who did not like being moved from room to room): 

(He wrote this in his room in the house)

The views from the windows were so lovely that it makes me want to move to the country.

Circles!

I'm hoping that Blaze can grow up and paint everything we own. 

Okay, now we are to Vanessa's wing--she gets the best part of the house, and I'm ready to move in to her section. She gets her own bathtub, bed, and studio, all connected: 

The garden was totally charming: 

Then, the flinty beach: 

Then a long journey home. 

Rapeseed from the train. 

Blossoms at night.