Take a Seat


If the embedded slide show above doesn't open for you, you'll find it via Take a Seat. 

Some of you may be familiar with my other blog, Sign of the Times. My most regular feature over there is Friday Bench, where I showcase all kinds of seats I've seen on my travels.

I've found many of my favourites during garden visits or whilst looking at public planting, so they're an appropriate subject for Veg Plotting too. I've put together a short slide show of 25 of them for you to grab a cuppa, sit down and have a good look.

I'm not alone in my predilection for benches, Sarah Salway has a whole blog dedicated to them called A Quiet Sit Down. I'm also told that Christopher Woodward - the Garden Museum's Director - is a bench aficionado. I must try and have a chat to him about it when I visit tomorrow.

I've showcased many dozens of benches over the years, so you may like to have a look over at Sign of the Times, where my most recent discovery at the Dingle Gardens is awaiting your contemplation today.

Tell me about your favourite bench in the comments below.
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Last year I wrote a more practical article about benches, which was published in The Guardian.

Comments

  1. There is a bench in my mum's garden. It's old and the paint is peeling, but it's beautiful because it's part of the garden: the garden and the bench have swallowed each other. The bench looks over the lily garden, which is planted in an old rain barrel cut in half. When I have a garden of my own, it will have at least one lovely bench. :-)

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  2. Hi Cassandra - I love the sound of your mum's bench and the way it's now part of the garden. Every garden needs at least one lovely and well loved bench :)

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  3. Dear Cassandra, what a fantastisch ideaal to blog about benches. I Will do that too. Maybe in winter, when everything is Brown in the garden. Groetjes from Holland, Hetty

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    1. Hi Hetty and welcome! The great thing about benches is they can be blogged about at any time of the year. I look forward to seeing what you come up with - perhaps we should have a bench day next year when everyone is feeling fed up and looking for something to blog about during the dark days of winter :) Best wishes, Michelle

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  4. Fabulous idea Michelle, and some fabulous benches and seating areas there! Favourite bench? The blue one we used to have that got incinerated but at least it has now been replaced, just needs repainting blue again.

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  5. Hi guys! I've featured many blue benches over at Sign of the Times including the one I've linked to at the end of this post. They do sit very well in a garden don't they ('scuse pun)? I look forward to seeing your new bench in all its glory :)

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  6. An interesting selection. I like 12, the big chair with one leg longer than the others. I think that my favourite has to be the rather swish looking 7 at Euridge Manor. Flighty xx

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    1. Hi Flighty, I'm glad you like them. It was hard keeping the show down to just 25, and whilst I too like the ones you've highlighted for me number 25 is best :-)

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  7. I love the one at Lacock - it's a work of art. I often take photos of benches too, especially unusual or sculptural ones - am gradually working through all the photos I haven't had time to sort for the last year or so, so I'll have to see what I can find for your bench day :-)

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    1. That's great - I'm having a think about timing, winter might not work for most people as it's a time when there aren't that many opportunities to visit gardens or sit outside. What do you think?

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  8. A most excellent collection! Hard to pick favourites of yours, let alone mine. Though I do love the hefty stone benches and matching table up on the cliffs near here, placed as part of the GeoPark installation. Fabulous view out across the bay, as far as the Isle of Man on a clear day, and an excellent place to watch the huge container ships making their way to and from Liverpool.

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    1. That sounds grand Janet. A great bench in a grand spot.

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  9. Great post, VP! So many interesting variations on seating, though I think the one in the Czech Republic might be a little difficult to sit on:) The large orange containers reminded me of JJ's garden in Portland; I loved those! My favorites are any looking out upon a lovely garden.

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    1. Hi Rose - I see what you mean re JJ's garden. I have posted a few benches from my Portland trip on the other blog, though these are mainly street photos rather than from the gardens we visited.

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  10. You know how much I love your bench pictures VP - one of the things I look forward to seeing when I dip over to "sign of the times".

    Its the one at Great Dixter that does it for me :)
    K
    xx

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    1. Hi Karen - I always wonder whose boots those are :)

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