Southeast England, 2

We’ve been living (short term) in a lot of houses with our 57 pet sits so we have seen a lot of different houses. Plus our 8 houses. Then add in all of the apartments we have stayed in or rented between sits, in our almost full time traveling over 9 years. So, our life has kind of been perpetual House Hunters. We are always asking ourselves could we live here; in Greenwood-Seattle; Split, Croatia; Lewes, England; etc? Could we live in this house? Sometimes we find really clever or beautiful features that would definitely go into our next aspirational house like the really great European windows that open both up and out.

More often, we are ready to redecorate our temporary home. Would you have put white carpet on a floor with so much mud outside? Wouldn’t the couch look better on that wall? There was actually an Austrian-German movie (The Edukators) about group of young people who would break into houses and rearrange the furniture as an act of rebellion. So, thusly inspired we have recently entertained fantasies of rearranging or painting a room while the owners are gone, but that would most likely destroy our run of 100% 5 star sitter reviews.

With these thoughts in mine, we went to Charleston House. The main impetus to pet sitting in the Brighton/Lewes area was due to the sisters; the Stephen sisters, Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Monks House, Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s house https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/sussex/monks-house and Charleston House https://www.charleston.org.uk/event/house-visit/, the home of artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell; the catalysts of the Bloomsbury group of artists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsbury_Group 

Charleston House was tucked away, reached from the bus stop by walking along a long driveway passed grassy, pheasant-filled fields. You approach through a lovely garden .

While Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell (and her 3 children- 2 with her husband, 1 with Duncan) were the “permanent” residents, Vanessa’s husband (Clive Bell ), Robert Fry, Lytton Stratchey, David Garnett (Duncan’s partner) and John Maynard Keyes were the “semi-permanent” residents. Duncan was the last remaining, he died in 1978. The house is as it was when they lived there.

Their goals with the house were to blur boundaries between life and art, elevate the cheap furniture that they bought and improve the existing falling apart house- much like our goals for each house we have moved to. The wallpaper, rugs and most of the fabrics, (including on chairs and lampshades) were either from their travels (fabrics) but usually designed by Duncan, Roger or Vanessa. Almost every surface painted by Duncan and Vanessa. Guests were encouraged to join in. At the time (they moved in 1916), their use of a very specific color palate (strong colors, pinks, coco browns) and bold patterns was as shocking as their lifestyle.

A lot of bedrooms.

Vanessa and Duncan painted together and designed a studio which they added on to the rented house. This was done while they were renting, another way they were inspirational to us; they acted on their fantasy of redecorating someone else’s house.

Charleston House was vibrantly eclectic. It was like walking through a house designed and decorated by naughty and precociously talented 5 year olds, every surface that could be painted on was, even cups and plates. It just felt very free- which is how they lived.

Monk’s House,  doesn’t open until April, but that didn’t stop us from walking 4 miles from Lewes through the South Downs, along the muddy banks of the River Ouse to go see it.  The River Ouse is infamous as the river where Virginia Woolf drowned herself.

We slogged through the muddy road along the banks of the river, just before we made the turn from the river towards the path to Monk’s House a woman magically appeared from over the berm of the river bank and immediately began talking to us about her tooth pain, which lead to her obsessive rumination over her tooth, which lead to loss of her job, which lead to deep depression.   She walked with us down the same final fateful road taken by Woolf continually returning to her bad tooth which wasn’t properly treated after it was extracted and how her life has spiraled downward including hospitalization, medication and diagnosis of bipolar disorder.   It was truly sad and spooky.  Her name was Annabelle (Virginia Woolf’s sister was Vanessa Bell), and later we looked up and read that Virginia Woolf was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, hospitalized, and had significant dental problems that were linked to her struggles with physical and mental health.  Too weird, feeling like we had run into the ghost of Virginia Woolf on our journey.

We walked through the tiny village of Rodmell, passed Monk’s house and then we opted to take the bus back to Lewes avoiding more mud and misery.