[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-rudyard-kipling-had-a-great-desk":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Yesterday Stuart and I took the train out to Robertsbridge station in East Sussex and walked through fields and little woods to \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batemans\">Bateman's\u003C/a>, the home of \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling\">Rudyard Kipling\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans6-743122dd18.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Lots more photos under the cut-->\\r\nHere's where we got off the train:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans8-2d1abbf5f0.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe'd hoped to catch some bluebells before they all wilted and we were just in luck. Here's Stuart merrily frolicking in them. We ate lots of wild garlic we found along the way and had terribly stinky breath all day.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans12-605f7b0161.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI liked this weathervane we saw while walking through a pig farm. \\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans7-1f077c85a8.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's the view, pulling up to the lovely Jacobean house. Made us feel like we had dropped into a Merchant Ivory film, maybe Leonard Bast and his bluebell fields in \u003Ci>Howard's End\u003C/i>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans13-0a61a92218.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans9-ce92a80f49.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans10-bf33c3eb7f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans15-5edeb67677.jpg\">\\r\nKipling's book collection would look shocking in a modern-day writer's house, unless they were trying to be ironic or something. Lots of stuff about savage Africa and the mystical orient. Interesting to browse.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans5-d03c3e48be.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe gardens were pretty impressive, they went way back until you crossed a river and reached a flour mill.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans4-7f00f4360d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd the inevitable National Trust tea room stop:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans2-ae2be63682.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nGoing back, we walked through a field of \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops\">hops\u003C/a> and I took lots of reference photos of the patterns made by the strings holding up the hops. They look amazing, I'd love to draw them sometime. It would be quite abstract, I think.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans3-e4e3415ccb.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans14-d96bc311fe.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nStuart grew up in Kent (which has lots of hop farms) and he remembers the school paperwork including a rule that parents weren't allowed to take their kids out of school to send them hop picking. The first time I saw hop picking was in the film \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Orders_%28film%29\">\u003Ci>Last Orders\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, with Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine and Helen Mirren (good film). \\r\n\\r\nHop Picking in Kent, 1929\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"207\"/>\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miRaKUqqfqc\">\u003Ci>YouTube link\u003C/i>\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nHurrah, lovely weather and quality time spent with hubby, hopefully making up for not seeing him all weekend. (He didn't fancy cosplaying in the Docklands.)\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/batemans1-a7c5167886.jpg\">","2010-06-01T23:06:00.000Z","rudyard-kipling-had-a-great-desk",[],"rudyard kipling had a great desk",1776628718287]