Winter Update...

Here are some of the pictures of WBP and the progress to the end of this month...

Above: A hyacinth pushing its way up through the frosty bark mulch.

Below: The frosty Bluebell Walk

Above and Below: Cobwebs in the early morning light.

Cobwebs on the recently pruned grapevines...

Above and Below: Some pictures of the lake on a frosty morning. The frost was so deep the top of the earth was frozen and the lake had very small patches of ice on the top of it. There was a beautiful crisp crunch underfoot as I walked across the lawns.

Above: A view of the project from the same vantage point as last month. You can see the carriage house now has a roof on it and is just awaiting the slate tiles to be placed (and the cupola to be built and craned on). The raised lawn is finished (and will be sown with grass in the Spring once the earth has finished settling). We planted 200 hornbeam trees around the 3 lawns close to the house, which will start to give the closer parts of the park some definition. They were planted as per the plan below...

The sun did eventually come out. Here are some views from the opposite side to the lake...

You can see how wet it has been. We were planting the hornbeams in mud, and almost got the tractor stuck on a few occasions. It will soon grass over again - much of the dirt you can see has been newly dispersed as we had the surrounding soil leveled prior to planting the trees. 

Here is a sneak peak inside The Stables Suite of the Carriage House. It was cosy and warm up in this loft space...

The windows have also started to arrive in dribs and drabs. Here are the french and bifold doors from the Kitchen (left) and the Salon (right) onto the loggia. The glazing with the cross bars has yet to be fitted in the Salon doors.

Below: The French doors in the Gold Drawing Room...

We also planted a further 100 trees in Badger's Wood. They were assorted English and European trees such as Oaks, Alders, Chestnuts, Linden Limes, Liriodenrdons, Ginkos, Rowan, Ash, Junipers, Holly...

It will look a lot more impressive when spring comes and the 'dead sticks' as one friend calls them, bush out in green leaf. 

We made a little video of walking the serpentine walk through the wood. It transpires that there are 365 steps through the wood, and it starts facing the sunrise and finishes facing the sunset - two lovely but unplanned co-incidences!