Progress Update and Colour Survey...

Things are still on track for a December opening. The piling for the foundations of the Carriage House got under way  last week (at least the drought has had some benefit - that the ground work has not been delayed by rain)...

Above: View of  Carriage House site from roof of green barn.

Below: View of the site from roof of The Manor. 

Peter and I ventured up onto the roof for the first time through the trap door to the large central area where the outside units of the air conditioning systems will be hidden from view.

Above: Peter atop the front gable with Mt Pirongia in the background.

Below: Closer view of Mt Pirongia (west of WBP).

Below: View of me atop the roof from the Bell Lawn.

The flat roof area is quite large entirely suitable for sunbathing a la Brideshead Revisited style...

 Below: The inside units for the air conditioning, which resemble turbo thrusters...

Below: The pad for the Chapel site and the West Colonnade...  

Above: View from the East.

Below: View of the North West corner.

Below: View of the West elevation.

 Above and Below: View from atop the roof of the Bell Lawn and Urn with site for future parterre (mown circle). 

Below: The paint colour choices for the walls. The plaster for the manor, carriage house and chapel is going to be coloured to the same colour as the paint we choose, and will then have sandstone particles mixed with it so that the finished walls resemble sandstone. 

Please vote on the colour you like the most (A-E).

Building Bridges...

We have long wanted to build a bridge over the lake end of the brook. It is an essential part of the landscaping, as without it one has to either walk around the lake or jump the brook (easy to do on horseback, but not so easy for a bride in a wedding dress. Initially we were going to build a dry stone wall along the brook, and were therefore going to have a dry stone bridge to match, like the ones below. ..

However, due to a lack of schist in the north island, the cost of transporting the stone and hiring the hard-to-find dry-stone wallers (for it is a dying art), we decided to plant Dietes orchids thickly along the bank of the brook where the wall was to have gone. That left us considering other options. 

Wooden bridges are a very cheap and easy alternative that we could have built ourselves, but are not the right look for Willowbrook. Even a grand oriental-styled bridge such as at Stowe or as seen in Monet's waterlily paintings would not fit with the Palladian architecture of the folly, or the manor house. 

We had to think about something more neoclassical, more Georgian. So we began taking inspiration from the Palladian bridges of Stowe and Wilton, and down-scaling them somewhat...

We were working on this when we stumbled across these perfect examples on Tumblr of little neoclassical bridge (above and below), which could be made simply out of the same urns, plinths and balustrades that we are casting en mass for the terrace. It would tie in well with the architecture of the park, be simple and cost effective to make. So, this Winter when the terrace is being made and the lake folly erected, we will have our team build us a bridge...

Potting Shed Progress...

Peter and my grandfather have been building the potting shed by themselves out of recycled materials, and they have almost finished. It looks amazing. They started off by building the base on tow-able skids. Then they built the framing for the walls...

The erected framing...

and then built the trusses in situ...

before putting on the galvanized roof ready for painting...

Next they put up the wooden cladding over the framing...

The rest of the cladding and the windows were put in this week... 

 More evidence of the drought. The large standard rose in front of the shed will bounce back we hope...

Soon it will be painted a lovely pale cream to match the Lutyens benches, with the door being painted a French Provence blue. We will complete it with ornate wrought iron ornamental Gothic hinges on the door.

The buxus is hanging on in there through the drought ready to be planted in the front entrance this winter, and also in the garden beds in front of the house and colonnade.

Meanwhile the Hibiscus seems to be thriving in the heat. This beautiful purple species is H. coelestrus. We are going to propagate another 6 plants from it this winter.

Update: Cyclone Lusi should put and end to the drought for now. I just hope it leaves the potting shed still standing!