The green at Ide Hill

We visited the village of Ide Hill in Kent the day after the early May Day Bank Holiday.  This sketch was done late afternoon while sat in the sun on a bench on the edge of the lovely village green.

The Village Green in evening sun at Ide Hill
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I assumed they hadn't got round to taking down the bunting for the May Day celebrations however it turns out The Ide Hill May Fair is on the second May Bank Holiday.

This village is a little way from Emmetts Garden.  It has the same name as the hill on which it stands.  Apparently the name of Ide Hill was first recorded in 1250 as Edythehelle and is meant to denote 'Edith's hill' - which makes it an eponymic name ie derived from the name of a person.

Which is interesting as the area is normally associated with Octavia Hill who was one of the three founders of the National Trust.  She was a a social reformer, philanthropist, artist and writer, who campaigned for open spaces for  poor people.  One of the things she did was saved Mariners Hill, Toys Hill and Ide Hill from development and these three hills became part of the Green Belt around London which has stopped urban sprawl.  Last year to celebrate the centenary of her birth, the National Trust created the Octavia Hill Centenary Trail East and the Octavia Hill Centenary Trail West

According to the National Trust

Ide Hill is 33.5 acres of semi-natural woodland that lies on the side of the Greensand Ridge. The area is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to its abundant wildlife.

People may remember the woodland which suffered very badly in the Great Storm of 1987 - that was on Ide Hill.  It lost 70% of its trees.  Emmetts Garden lost 95% of its trees and virtually everything we see today has grown since 1987.  So basically - all those trees you see in the background have grown since 1987!

Here's a view of the church in Ide Green (to my immediate left from where I was sitting) from the most easterly point of the Bluebell Wood in Emmetts Garden.  It's the highest church in Kent - and there's a pun in there somewhere ;)

The Highest Church in Kent
St.  Mary's Church at Ide Hill from Emmetts Garden
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Links to posts about Emmetts Garden:

• The view of the Weald from Emmetts Garden
• Sketching bluebells at Emmetts Garden, Kent
• Through the fence

The view of the Weald from Emmetts Garden

Every year, in Spring, we go to Emmetts Garden in Kent to see the bluebells in the woods.  This is by far the best place I know to see bluebells. I've included a couple of photos at the end of this post.

However the garden is located in one of the highest points in Kent - on top of a 600m sandstone ridge - which provides splendid views of the Weald of Kent if you know where to look and where to sit.  I confess we re-engineered the seating arrangement for this sketch with a bench moved about three feet to the right!

The view of the Weald from Emmetts Garden (May 2013)
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The water in the distance is (I think) bough Beech Reservoir - I've spent years wondering and finally got the map out and worked it out!

Believe it or not if you want to find out about the garden, you're best off going to Wikipedia as the new National Trust website tells you virtually nothing!  See Wikipedia - Emmetts Garden

The garden is mainly an arboretum and has some splendid examples of magnolias which grow to an enormous size - very Himalayas!

One of the Giant Magnolias at Emmetts Garden
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

However it is famed for its Bluebells which carpet the woodland.

Bluebells in the woods at Emmetts Garden
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Bluebells in the woods at Emmetts Garden
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Near the Rose Garden, there is a new 'natural' planting of tulips and very young cherry trees which looked splendid against the fields in the background.

a new planting of tulips and cherry trees
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Rose Garden at Sissinghurst - late Spring

Let me provide a caveat for the title of this post - this is the Rose Garden at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent in April after an exceptionally late Spring (see Sissinghurst - from 3rd hottest to 2nd coldest!)  Which means there was very little to sketch in terms of flowers.

So I went for the big shapes instead!

The Rose Garden at Sissinghurst Castle Garden (22 April 2013)
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Normally "he who must not be bored while I sketch" sit next to me on a bench and he reads his book while I sketch the scene.

However HWMNBB has got himself a new camera!  So this time you get a photo of the sketcher sketching the view as well!  He climbed all the way up the top of the tower to take this one.  Could this be a sign of things to come?  However I still retain editorial control - which is why you're not seeing the one which has provided an imperative to diet!

Katherine Tyrrell sketching the Rose Garden at Sissinghurst
Copyright: He who must not be bored while I sketch.

Here's some more photos of the gardens.

There wasn't  a lot going on in The White Garden although the absence of foliage pointed up the geometry nicely.

Not a lot going on in The White Garden, Sissinghurst Castle Garden 
(22 April 2013)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Here's the view of the White Garden from the other way on

The view of the White Garden from the Lower Courtyard 
(22 April 2013)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

In fact, one of the advantages of the visit is that it emphasised the lines of sight and views between the garden rooms which had been deliberately designed into the overall plan for the garden.

The Rose Garden Statue from the Lower Courtyard
(this is the same statue as the one which can be seen at the end of the vista in my sketch)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

For those of you who have a National Trust Calendar for 2013, compare the April page of the calendar with this view of the same corner of the Cottage Garden - that's how far behind everything is because of the cold weather!

View of the Moat Walk from a very "late" Cottage Garden 
(22 April 2013)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The one area which was holding its head up high was The Nuttery where the spring flowers were rampant - I guess because they've had some shelter during the cold weather.

The Nuttery - note the Trilliums in the foreground
(22 April 2013)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

We'll be back again when the weather is better!

Note:  The Rose Garden in Summer is amazing.  Rose growers might be interested in an old newspaper article I found about how roses are grown at Sissinghurst - see Growing roses, the Sissinghurst way

LINKS

• Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Biddenden Road, near Cranbrook, TN17 2AB (Google Maps)
• National Trust - Sissinghurst Castle Garden
• Travels with a Sketchbook - more posts about Sissinghurst
• Sissinghurst Castle Garden - a great garden - detailed information about the garden

Sissinghurst - from 3rd hottest to 2nd coldest!

We rushed off down to Kent on Monday because it looked like it might be sunny - and we've not seen much sun of late! We paid our first visit of the year to Sissinghurst Castle Gardens.

Last year we visited towards the end of the UK's third hottest March since records began and I enjoyed sketching daffodils next to the Moat sat in the sunshine with bare arms!  See Sissinghurst Moat and Orchard in Spring sunshine.

This year we had the UK's second coldest March on record!  Heavy snow covered a lot of the country and everywhere else was just very cold.  As a result, we've only just started to venture out to look at gardens - if for no other reason than it's been so cold there's very little to look at!  Everything is about 3-4 weeks behind where it would normally be.  I'm not in the least bit surprised to see that the National Trust has cancelled the Bluebell and Wild Flower Walk planned for this weekend.

On Monday, we arrived late morning and after a quick visit to the veggie garden and the nursery and the purchase of some narcissi and tulips, we had lunch in the Granary Restaurant.  The nice thing about the food is that this is supplied by Sissinghurst's own vegetable plot and tenant farmer.  So nothing travels very far!

This is my sketch done over lunch.  It's the view from the windows overlooking the fields which are part of the farm.  It's very odd because it almost looks like it's Autumn despite the fact it's the third week of April!  Compare it to Spring fields from Sissinghurst to see what I mean.

Sissinghurst - The view from the restaurant 22 April 2013 1.00pm

This weekend I'll be publishing another post about the visit - with my sketch of the Rose Garden - and a photo of me sketching it taken by "he who must not be bored while I sketch" from the top of the Tower

In the meantime here are a few photos of the gardens this week.

The Orchard at Sissinghurst

The Moat Walk, Moat and Tower at Sissinghurst

Lime Walk at Sissinghurst

Chinese Pagoda and Fountain in Viccy Park

I sketched outside yesterday - for the first time in a long time.  First the weather earlier this year was bad, then I experienced by second attack of this year's nasty bug and spent five weeks with an extremely bad cough which started on the least exertion.  Then it snowed - and was freezing cold for weeks and then I had a third attack of the nasty bug!

Plus I've mislaid my small Moleskine which does have some sketches of interior scenes on the few occasions I managed to get out.

Which is by way of explanation for why it's taken such a long time to post a new plein air sketch.

Victoria Park - West Lake: Chinese Pagoda and Fountain
11" x 16", pen and ink and coloured pencils in A4 Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I met Olha Pryymak in the Park yesterday morning for a cup of tea and afterwards sketched this scene from one of the newly restored park benches.  It's unfinished but I'd got to the stage where I was getting chilly and tired and decided it was time to get myself home and into the warm.

You can see the very same fountain and lake  in some of Olha's paintings on her website and her Facebook page

Sketching the Manet Exhibition at the RA

I went to see the exhibition Manet - Portraying Life at the Royal Academy of Arts on Thursday.
I took advantage of the seats in the different rooms to stop and record the life within the exhibition in my pen and ink - and coloured pencil - sketches in my Moleskine sketchbook.

The Status Portraits Room
Manet - Portraying Life at the Royal Academy of Arts
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Manet's portraits of his wife - with cat
Manet - Portraying Life at the Royal Academy of Arts
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The walls are painted a very dark charcoal colour - presumably because of Manet's liking for black and dark greys.  It makes for a very sombre exhibition.

The two portraits of his wife are two of the paintings I liked best in the exhibition.

Here's my "headlines" Exhibition Review: Manet - Portraying Life at the RA

You can see more of my sketching of exhibitions on this blog

Skating on the Natural History Museum Ice Rink

Sketch of the skaters and Christmas Tree on the Christmas Skating Rink at the Natural History Museum - complete with penguin stability aids for the little ones

Wishing all regular readers of Travels with a Sketchbook
a Merry Christmas 

and Happy Sketching in the New Year

Skaters at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've been saving these up since the beginning of the month when we visited the museums in south Kensington with London Urban Sketchers!

Christmas Skating Rink in front of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell 

Note the novice skaters clinging to the edge in the background.  The children had penguins to cling on to as they skated around - they seemed to work very well

Click this link for details of the skating rink at the Natural History Museum