Tuesday 19 April 2011

A Very Vintage Weekend- the Epic post

This weekend past was the second anniversary of me and my man. Only two years! Already we have made a baby, who will soon be one and bought a house. We certainly didn't waste any time! But when it's right, it's right. And I am very lucky to have finally found my prince after kissing an awful lot of frogs.
To celebrate, we went to Sussex for a long-ish weekend.

 We were staying at this beautiful sixteenth century former manor house called Ghyll Manor. It was amazing. The hotel room was bigger than our flat! Albie had a great time investigating the amenities, he found the pedal bin in the bathroom particularly appealing. Here is our four  poster bed. Very grand!

 On the Friday after arrival we sat in the lounge for a spot of afternoon tea. Oh, I love afternoon tea. Little finger sandwiches, scones with Tiptree jam and cream and a couple of beautiful tiny teeny cakes with toffee buttercream. YUM. Then we had a little afternoon constitutional, exploring the grounds. I loved this little outdoor corridor.

 And this old stone bench hidden in a little side portion of the garden.
There was a lovely courtyard area with a beautiful fountain and magnolia tree, just shedding its incredible flowers. 
 And a pretty little lake with a sole duck flitting about the water.
 In the evening we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had ham hock terrine to start, then scallops with a bacon and lentil salad and cauliflower puree for mains. Luckily the portions we reasonably small so I could manage a pudding of grilled peaches with brioche. YUM AGAIN. We also polished off a bottle of merlot, taking it back up to the room to catch up on The Only Way is Essex on telly...you can take the girl out of Essex...

On Saturday we drove into Lewes, a historic little Sussex town full of vintage charm. I loved old fashioned towns like Lewes- no chain shops or pedestrianised high streets, no millionty Starbucks and Subways. Just local businesses and rather posh ones at that might I add. Previously I have only spent time in Lewes on Bonfire night. They do a very famous and spectacular event there every year, which has taken place for centuries- burning current hate figures as the guys. And always burning a pope guy! I knew that this was just the spot for antiquing so we made the journey from Rusper to Lewes and ended up here...

Lewes flea market! Ahhhh, it's AMAZING! I wanted to buy EVERYTHING but carefully considered my purchases. It was OK price-wise, but not exceptionally cheap. However the quality of items was very good and the furniture was cheapidy cheap cheap. No room in the car for furniture or big stuff though, so I had to think small. I came away with this cake tin for £16. Quite a lot for a cake tin! But oh, isn't it amazing? So knackered and kind of musty. Will I use it for cakes? Or something more crafty?
 
I also found this gorgeous Midwinter plate. I know, I know, I said no more china. But this one is for the wall! and it's so pretty I couldn't resist. Besides which, I broke a wall plate yesterday so this is a pre-emptive replacement.

I love how the streets of Lewes are full of buildings from different centuries, and little nooks look out onto the south downs.


This bookshop was tudor- the building is all crooked and the books were all on bookshelves outside of the shop as well as in!
After lunch we drove over to Charleston House- the former home of artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. I will tell you about that in a separate post. Now back to my glass of rose and DVD. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.
While the rest of Chelmsford rocks out at the Panic awards, I know how to stay rock n roll at home...

1 comment:

  1. Happy 2nd anniversary to you both, looks like you had a wonderful time in Sussex, the hotel looks amazing and i love the cake tin that you found,have a great easter and enjoy your harry potter dvd.

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