Tom Petty

Rest In Peace Tom.

Architecture Tart Tuesday: Chichester Festival Theatre

Thift Deluxe, is this a brutalist building you're aware of? I thought you would be interested in seeing it, so when we went recently, I took my camera specially and took some pictures.

Chichester Festival Theatre, located in West Sussex, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962.

Chichester Festival Theatre is one of very few 20th Century buildings to be Grade II* listed. When it opened in 1962, it caused a stir with its strong Brutalist design. After fifty years of use, the building required thorough modernisation. This project restored much of the original design, removing all previous extensions and remodelling the foyer and auditorium, as well as adding a new steel extension.

(source)

I have seen shows in here, first The Rocky Horror Show and then The Master and Margarita, which was quite the experience before the show! I had gone with a friend of Andy as she had a spare ticket. Amongst the pre show chit chat, I was asked if I go to the theatre often. I was vague in answering as I had been to the theatre, but to pantomimes and most frequently, The Rocky Horror Show and I suspected that those things weren't as high brow as the people asking would have liked!

This sits opposite and in front of the smaller Minerva Theatre.

Rang dang diggedy dang di-dang ...

Mmmm, saucepan tea ......

At 12.30am yesterday, our power went out. It was back on again soon enough and we thought that was that.

At 10.30am, just as we were ready for a second cup of tea, it went out again and stayed off until 12.30pm. In that time, we had to make tea by boiling water in a saucepan. See, I said we needed a stove top whistling kettle. And do we have one? No. No we do not.

In this initial time, I utilised my little Bluetooth speaker and listened to music via my iPod, while we drank tea. Then the doorbell rang and it was our neighbour wanting to know if it was just him with no power. As we stood there with cups of tea in hand and with music coming out from behind, we assured him it wasn't just him, but I don't think he was convinced, as I saw him eyeing my cup!

12.30pm, the power came back on and I was in the kitchen in a flash, trying to get dinner on early, for fear it would go out again and lo, it did go out again fifteen minutes later and stayed off until 7.45pm.

Initially it was all fun and games. I read a bit of It. I crocheted a square for my throw. I listened to music until my speaker lost power and then I lost my daylight, as it was also rainy and overcast, so by about 4.30pm, I couldn't see well enough to do anything. We tried to get an old Bush radio which runs on batteries working, succeeded, but the medium wave signal kept dipping in and out. There was only one solution, which I had fallen back on once, on a long journey when we had no car radio.

"Andy, sing for me," I requested.
"Sing what?" he asked, as if he didn't know.
"White lines," I replied.

I had in the car that time asked him to sing for me and he reeled off a full rendition of White Lines by Grandmaster Flash for me. I wanted a reprisal of that day. I only got part of it, as I was far too amused by the "Rang dang diggedy dang di-dang, Diggedy dang di-dang, diggedy dang di-dang" part.

We then played I Spy. He danced while flashing a torch around to some record on the radio. We had more saucepan tea and oh yes, he made beans on toast, by toasting bread on the gas hob. Mmmm, chargrilled bread.

So that was Sunday!

Thoroughly Mid Century Modern

Andy went to have his hair cut by his rockabilly barber, Mark, on Tuesday. I usually go along, but I wasn't feeling that well, so decided I would stay behind with the bunnies. When Andy returned home, he said he had a surprise for me and after handing me a bar of chocolate, said he had another for me too. I waited patiently while he went back to the car. He returned, with this!

A gift from Mark, who was getting rid of some things! He thought I might like it.

I was over the moon! Could it be any more evocative of the 1950's? The splayed legs, the pattern on the base table and the chalky pastels on the tiered tables just scream the era!

My favourite pink even features.

Obviously it was just on the bed for photographic purposes. We're going to have a shuffle around at the weekend and make room for it in the living room. It will have to sit on top of something, in pride of place mind you, as, you know ... bunnies.

National Treasures: Petworth House

Petworth House

Church Street, Petworth GU28 0AE

Petworth at Christmas

Petworth Pleasure Grounds

And today ... Petworth House itself.

Petworth, at least the parts the public are allowed to see, or in our case, as the bedroom tour was fully booked, what we could see was nothing like a house house. It's more like a museum and art gallery, which I really wasn't expecting.

It seemed to be more about what they had and owned, than being a house with fine furnishings. I can't figure out where they relaxed, unless it's dramatically changed, which I can't imagine the National Trust doing. Maybe the living quarters are upstairs, I just don't know.

It's certainly grand, but not in the least bit homely.

I might have taken my shoes off to feel the cool marble underfoot.

I rather liked this room, empty as it was.

The Grand Staircase certainly lived up to its name, it was astonishingly beautiful.

Orb! Orb!

*cough*

I am not one of those who thinks orbs are ghosts by the way.

I cannot express just how much I love the light fixtures on the banisters, reminds me so much of my all time favourite house, The Bates House.

This room was full of ornate and intricate wood carvings.

I loved the worried look on the dogs face!

Hehe, we look like that painting, American Gothic!

This part of the house really was like an art gallery.

"He looks very pleased with himself," I commented to Andy.

"Don't know why," Andy replied, glancing over and then moving on.

1592!

I really liked this painting, which I assume depicts the princes in the tower.

The glorious chapel. It was stunning.

I rather liked the view up in this random corridor outside of the chapel.

We also saw the ice house, which is underneath where those little toy ride along fire engines were in my previous Petworth post. But, it was crowded and I couldn't get my camera out. I'll tell you something though, trying to get down the steps with vertigo, was an experience!

We also went on the tunnels tour, which was really interesting, but the fact that they brought donkeys down there daily, to walk in endless circles to turn a wheel to pump water up from the ground to make a hydraulic lift work, made me sad. They also kept a small child down there to prod the donkey when it fell asleep :(

There were also bats. In the UK there are seventeen species of bat and fourteen are found at Petworth. And like the deer, we didn't see the bats either. 

National Treasures: Petworth Grounds

I hasten to add that I did not wear this fruit picking!

Join me in a trip back to July won't you?

Day two of Andy's holiday saw us at a local farm shop, fruit picking! It was Andy's idea to go strawberry picking. I was a little hesitant, picturing myself having to be on the floor in the dirt, but saw you could pick damsons and I really wanted to do that (I don't have floor suitable clothing, so saw damson picking as Melanie friendly). Alas, it was too soon for damsons, so we opted for tayberries and strawberries. Yum! Thankfully, it was just a bit of bending involved, no having to kneel on the ground.

Day three, we headed back to Petworth House in West Sussex, as we were last there in January. We thought it about time to see the grounds and interior properly. Go here to my last post for further information about the house.

Petworth House

Church Street, Petworth GU28

What I wore:

Chiffon hair scarves - vintage

Dress - original 1950's, a gift

Petticoat - eBay

Shoes - retail

Bag - retail, had for years

First, the grounds.

Petworth doesn't have gardens so much as they have pleasure grounds. I made a beeline to this, as we had seen it up the top of a hill on our first visit. It was rainy then, I had boots with heels and I wasn't feeling adventurous. 

There were lovely views from up there I must say.

Then we found this temple. The inscription amused us as it sounds like dying in battle was the family tradition! What a family tradition! "But Mum! I don't want to follow in family tradition!" 

Soon enough we reached the house.

I had to go halfway across the front lawn (covered in much goose doo-doo by the way) to get the whole house in the photo.
I believe it's one of the largest houses in the world.

There was a lovely lake ...

... with King Goose declaring some sort of military battle I reckon. That or describing the best method to get the lawn to themselves by depositing as much doo-doo as goosely possible. "You, Alan, you cover the west side. Ian, you cover the east bank! Shirley, no, no arguments, south side! Barbara, you take the north!"

We then made a beeline to this. Still have no idea what it is. It was lovely being up there and looking out to the lake though.

A quote from my last Petworth post:

"It also has an expansive deer park, landscaped by Capability Brown, which contains the largest herd of fallow deer in England."

We saw no evidence of this infamous deer herd. We didn't even see a glimpse, so I felt somewhat cheated. 

After we'd exhausted the house (post to come), we popped into the village. It's awfully pretty, but a bit hairy for pedestrians, as pavement keeps running out, so you had to keep crossing roads with blind bends. 

Oh yes, I found some flamingos!

Andy really wanted the old petrol pump.

We got a few provisions, as we had only taken tea with us, for some inexplicable reason, and had our picnic in the area between the house and servants quarters. 

Interestingly, the servants quarters were in a different building to the main house ... all for the sake of peace and quiet. Yes, you may serve us, but we don't want to see, or hear you.