A Lovely Pair of Knockers!

When we were mooching about Marylebone Lane looking for The Button Queen, we happened across an old fashioned iron mongers (David Penton and Sons) and I saw the perfect door knockers for WBP in the window. They were just what we had been looking for (for quite a while).

Each measures 23cm (9") in diametre, and weighs quite a lot being solid brass. We managed to smuggle them back to the antipodes in our hand luggage despite their weight.

Yesterday I set to designing a suitable front door with gold detailing on a high gloss black lacquer base to show off the knockers. The black and gold is in keeping with the park's signage and logo, and I think it is quite chic. Here is the mock up...

Barn Raising....

Well, Dear Readers, We had a lovely holiday (much to share with you). But first we are happy to say we came home to find our new barn built...

We had 'ummd and arred' for a while over where to put it, but decided in the end that it had to shift from its current position by the potager, as it is in the way of the drive and vineyard expansion; and also we didn't want  to be trekking across our nice lawns with the tractor and farm equipment, so it had to shift to the farm. 

It is in the paddock closest to the park, so there won't be too much trekking the other way with the lawn mower and mulch. We are constructing three large compost and mulch pits beside the new barn, as well as a couple of small animal pens for any stock that might need isolating or close care...

We really wanted the look of an old oak barn, but not the maintenance (or price), so we decided on a 'colour-steel' barn in a brown wooden colour with a slate coloured roof. We went for a four bay design to allow for easy access to multiple vehicles / implements from the first three bays and the fourth for a tool shed / work shop.

Above: The bare site as seen from the gate between the park and farm.

Below: The sand infill into the excavation they dug for foundations.

Willoughby surveying the new sandpit

The reinforcing mesh, boxing and polythene liner

The newly poured concrete. The farm is not looking the best in this bleak photo with the deciduous trees like skeletons on a overcast skyline...

The barn starting to rise up from pad...

The finished barn...

 

Now we can start to landscape around it to give it that rustic look; to build the animal pens and composting pits; and to move everything out of the old barn and dismantle it to extend the vineyard.

The Elysium Fields...

In Greek Mythology the Elysian Fields were a separate realm of the underworld reserved for mortals related to gods, the righteous, and the heroic. It was a place of splendour and beauty to eek out eternity. I thought this would be a great name for the field we have set aside for our Wildflower Project.

Above: The field created between the farm and the bell-shaped lawn.

Below: A map to where the sculptures and pyramid folly are planned, and where the mown allees through the flowers are planned...

The Stags...

We have sourced some magnificent stone stags with bronze antlers from the UK. They are duplicates of ones at Raynham Hall, Norfolk.

They will flank the entrance to the farm...

we did look at getting more life-like bronze stags...

but settled on the more heraldic poses of the stone ones.

The Pyramid

Pyramids and obelisks are shapes that appealed to the Georgians strong sense of geometry, which stood out as clearly neoclassical. Young gentlemen would have come across plenty to marvelous examples on their grand tours and then wanted to recreate them on the country estates.

They are simple enough to build, and I am going to have a go at creating one out of wooden framing with concrete board cladding, which I shall then have plastered when the manor house is having its exterior done. It will be much easier to move and much less expensive to construct than a stone one, but will still be the same size - one that you can walk through with an arch similar to The Needle's Eye of wentworth Woodhouse