Some friends came to stay with us for a few days. It was rather a shame that the days they chose to come were dull and often rainy, especially since the weather had been so beautiful for several days before they arrived.
At least it wasn't too cold for the visit to Chartwell, though it would have been nice to see the sun. However, even the dullness of the day failed to detract from the design of the landscape, with the swimming pool built into a terrace on the hillside and the lake in the valley below it.
The Nation Trust say that these hillside gardens reflect Sir Winston’s love of the landscape and nature, in fact they say that one of the reasons he bought Chartwell was for the water features he could create. The lake already existed but in 1924 a dam was built to create the upper lake. The swimming pool in the photo above was built in 1937, and apparently was heated, which I hadn't realised.
Below is the relaxing spot where Churchill used to feed his fish.
In this case, I've managed to include some of the fish as well. Somewhere there's a painting of Churchill as a very old man sitting here contemplating his fish, and it's easy to picture it in this atmospheric setting.
Churchill himself built some of the walls of the kitchen garden and just nearby is the Marycot, a playhouse designed for his youngest daughter Mary.
It's quite difficult to get into it because it's usually full of children. It has tiny child-sized furniture, and I imagine it would be very appealing to most children.
Just adjacent to the kitchen garden are some truly magnificent flowers.
There were some gladioli in wonderful colours.
And the dahlias must be among the best I've ever seen.
My mother used to grow dahlias, they're a lot of work with the necessity of lifting the tubers after they've finished flowering and storing them over the winter and planting them out the next year. So I guess this keeps the gardeners busy.
I know I've photographed this view before, but I never tire of it.
This is the view that is said to have particularly moved Churchill as he thought it showed the the essential England.
We saw all round the house - no photos allowed - and the painting studio - also no photos allowed, and thoroughly enjoyed our day.
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