One for the hard-landscaping wishlist here….

There’s a little loggia that formed the full stop to a very long pergola at West Dean Gardens (there’s a picture of it on the front page of the gardens section of their website if you want to see it in its full glory). And inside, without a word of fanfare, there is quite the most beautiful floor I think I’ve ever seen.

It’s very much in the local vernacular – the whole of West Dean seems to be built of flint from the nearby South Downs. I just fell in love with it.

It has such wonderful texture and a kind of instant agedness. I suspect the flint-knapping students at the nearby Weald and Downland Museum in Singleton may have had a hand in this. I wonder if they’re looking for a course project in Surrey….?