A posh lunch out

Last Saturday MOH and I got our glad rags on and headed out for a posh lunch, we even put proper shoes on. Mine weren’t quite the heels I once would have worn out, but small steps and all that. As it turned out, it was a good test for the wedding we’re off to later this month, so that’s all good.

Lunch was at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex, and yes, we were back - it’s been a while, but it remains one of our favourite places. It’s not somewhere we go often and is definitely in the treat category, which makes it all the more enjoyable. The attention to detail is phenomenal, and nothing is overlooked. This small table decoration in the lounge is a great example of that - a yellow tulip, and leaves and flowers from a strawberry plant shows how simple can also be effective.

The menu cover picks up the detail of the image panels on the walls around the restaurant, and the view over the garden is absolutely stunning.

And the food. Well, I even managed to remember to take pictures before I started to eat. This was my starter of asparagus, it looks a picture and the taste was sublime. I followed this with hogget and wild garlic and finished with the intriguing fennel, honey and lime - which was nothing like you’d expect, or I’d be able to recreate. All of it was absolutely delicious, and it was great to see more dishes around the table as between our table we managed a good selection from the menu for each course.

The yellow tulips, along with gorse and the purple-blue irises formed another stylish but not dominating table centre.

As it was such a glorious day we opted to have coffee in the garden, which was full of spring flowers - and clearly is well looked after.

There’s plenty of grounds to explore, but after a good lunch and in our finery, a walk to the walled kitchen garden was all we were up for. But even so, the route there was calming and enticing. It was slightly further than I remembered, and previously I’d done this in heels, but we got to the iron gate and let ourselves in.

It’s another huge space, and needs to be as the produce from the garden is used in the kitchen - but what a space.

We headed back towards the restaurant taking a different route, one stepped and easier to navigate, but definitely no less colourful only to be greeted back at the stone porch by the cheeriest pots of fully in bloom tulips. They definitely make your heart sing, don’t they?

Throughout the public spaces there were large arrangements of flowers, all of which we’d seen growing in the gardens. We stopped for a picture making use of one of the large mirrors, and we just about snuck in alongside one of the large displays - so here’s us wearing flowers, in amongst the flowers.

We might not be back for a while, but I’m pretty certain we’ll be back at some point.

Succulents on the terrace

You’ll know I’m rather partial to a succulent or two, and so having been relatively ‘starved’ of ogling other people’s succulents when I saw these perched on the wall overlooking the main lawn at Standen, it didn’t take me long to be standing in front of them.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

I mean, who could be disappointed with the dusky grey pink variety above or the pink, orange and yellow flowers of the one below.

And that large rosette. Pure heaven. Though my succulents tend to do this, and migrate to the edge of the pot. I’m glad that that is usual behaviour, however frustrating that may be.

But I think the one that stole the show was this pretty, pale pink flower. How delicate, and how exquisite. And even better it let my iPhone capture its detail - always a winner for me.

That was quite an unexpected succulent fix, but one that I didn’t realise I would enjoy quite as much as I did.

A secluded spot

Over the weekend I made more of a concerted effort to tackle editing my photos, which seem to be building up, even though we’re not going out anywhere as much as in a normal year. But as some are edited there’s no reason not to share, so for a couple of posts this week we’re heading off to Standen. I visited on the August Bank Holiday with MOH and MIL, what was a nice surprise was being able to go inside the house, even though it was just the ground floor, it felt quite a treat in these strange times.

So of course we headed there first, there was a short (socially distanced) queue but being a National Trust crowd it was all very amiable and all very nice (not that we’ve queued anywhere tbh which isn’t nice!) Afterwards we headed out into the central garden, starting off on the terraces just outside the conservatory, pretending, as you do, that perhaps it was our house.

Actually Standen is one of those National Trust properties that you feel you could actually live in. But clearly we don’t. It’s the sort of place, that even now, it’s easy to find a spot to sit in, and it has the best secluded spot.

To the right of the photo above is the conservatory in the house, which is equally a fab space, but this covered space, with its tiled background has to be the best secluded spot, surely.

Even the plants on the terrace conspire to keep its secret. Though the plant itself is pretty spectacular.

Looking more closely it was the tiles, not the bench that drew my attention. It’s easy to see why isn’t it?

But where do the stairs and the little door go?

I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure this is a spot you could sit for a while or two, and maybe then you’d find out. Either way it would be time well spent.