Wednesday 12 September 2007

Wholemeal Mothers' Day Out

Had a fantastic day out last Saturday. The Streatham Wholemeal Mothers annual outing took place as usual in September. I did the driving, so it took us forever to get us there. Where did we go? well, Charleston, where the Bloomsbury Group hung out on the South Downs near Lewes.

More info here:

http://www.charleston.org.uk/


I don't seem to be able to post any photos, so you'll have to look it all up yourselves.

We didn't think there would be very much to see, but we were just overwhelmed with it all, it was so interesting.
I went home and told my husband that we were covering the house in paintings and filling it with bohemians. He took me seriously for all of a minute......
Seriously, I came away inspired. It was rented by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in 1916, used as a holiday home between the wars, and permanently occupied until 1980 when it was decided to turn the house into a museum. The idea of all these people wafting in and out, painting the walls, and talking all the time sounds wonderful.
We had a tour of the house, which took over an hour as our guide was so enthusiastic about the house and its occupants.
The grounds are lovely, well worth a wander, and of course we had a good lunch in the cafe!

If you have the chance, go.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you had such a good day out. Don't you just love it when you feel all inspired by something like that though? In my case, it's usually arthouse movies. Just one question - Wholemeal Mothers?

Mangonel said...

Try Rodmell too. Not un undecorated inch.

Sylvia said...

Ah yes, something a colleague of mine came up with for members of the National Childbirth Trust. We got together many moons ago as a group made up of working mothers. Seems really quaint, doesn't it???
We meet once a month and once a year we'll take a roadtrip somewhere to do with the Bloomsbury Group. We've been to Knowle House and Sissinghurst.

Anyway, we did think of visiting Rodmell after Charleston, but frankly we'd had enough culture and needed to get home.
But we'll get there! It'll be one for next year!