Aug 25, 20213 min read

Inverno

'Winter'

It snowed for about an hour this winter. I was lucky enough to capture these images of the North garden.

2 weeks earlier the pond was a mirror in the late afternoon sun.

A few of our outdoor projects have inched a bit further along. I say ‘inched’ and ‘a bit’ because we still have so many and we just do what we can, when we can. Alex has started disguising the storage container as a little shed/animal shelter; Dad planted 12 oak trees near the front gate which Alex and I collected as tiny seedlings 5 years ago from our old flat in the city; I built steps on the woodland mound using retaining wall blocks which came from Alex’s parents old house; and we widened the hornbeam alley path to create a more user friendly space for wedding ceremonies and long table dining.

While building steps in the woodland I noticed the back of the mound was looking rather empty and boring. It needed some sort of feature. Ruins were the answer since we had concrete blocks in our 'useful one day' pile and old drain pipes down by the water race; Not to mention broken pots and the resin head off a statue of David (nothing unusual about having one of those of course)

Since the pipes were too short for my original idea of standing one upright as a column Alex suggested we cast a column—well we had already dug the hole. To be honest I think this sort of thing is why we never seem to get any of our projects finished. Anyway we used corrugated iron to form a fluted mould and I think it looks pretty good. Well worth the diversion.

First we set an old fence post in concrete to be sure the pillar isn't going to fall over on someone and also to take up some of the volume and not use so much concrete. It was poured in stages to avoid a blowout disaster and to give it a seam as if it is made of two solid blocks of stone. I will plant the pot with trailing succulents that will hopefully survive the hot dry conditions way up there. Keep an eye out in future posts for the finished Ruins Garden.

With the mid winter Christmas tea coming up we wanted to put the finishing touches on the drawing room. Mum made shawl pelmets from some Chinoiserie style fabric we had tucked away, and tie backs from the offcuts. The fringing was also already part of our collection. I made a simple stencil from cardboard and over painted it as a border under the cornice. With fringing sewn on the blinds in the bay window the job was done, finally. Often you just never seem to get around to those few finishing touches.

I also stenciled and hand painted wisteria in the centre room.

The dining room stencils and hand painting were done a little while ago.

Our mid winter Christmas tea was held on the 27th of June.

If you missed it we’ll do it again next year and we’ll also have some other special tea parties every now and then such as our Spring Easter Tea on the 26th of September.

Regular tea parties will be running again from September plus we’ll also be offering brunch—a slightly more casual and heartier affair. Bookings are open for both. View details here

Mum also had a tea party of her own with 2 friends as part of her birthday celebrations...