Sphinxes finally find their home...

The sphinxes have made it to their final resting place, as guardians of the entrance to the gardens from the cocktail lawn. The penultimate time I was home the raised cocktail lawn was a brown mess of soil and weeds, but since then Peter has sprayed, harrowed, rolled, sown and rolled it again and thanks to the spring rain it has been transformed from that patch of dirt into a burgeoning formal lawn in just 4 weeks...

So, with no more ground work required we were able to take the sphinxes out of their crates and have them placed just so...

Above: View of the pair from the upstairs balcony.

I am enjoying seeing things starting to come to fruition, especially because the space now starts to take on some scale and perspective.

Above: View from ground.

Below: The view across the raised lawn towards Badger's Wood. The walls are yet to be plastered and the travertine steps yet to be set.

Keeping a watchful eye...

Some more photos of the spring growth...

Above and Below: Badger's Wood from Upstairs and Downstairs respectively.

Above: View of manor from Lime Walk, with the Bois de Marie to the left.

Below: Our first crop of hazelnuts starting to develop on the trees in the Bois de Marie. 

Below: A panorama from the end of the lime walk.

The Dubbo Chronicles No.10: Riddle me this...

What is that which in the morning goeth upon four feet; upon two feet in the afternoon; and in the evening upon three?

Recently I went to a town called Orange with a friend from Dubbo. Orange is a country town one third of the way towards Sydney from Dubbo.

As some readers will know, I have been looking for a pair of giant sphinxes for quite a while, and I managed to find them in Orange. I found them at a shop called The Complete Garden.

Annie and Rob, the owners, were extraordinarily helpful. There was actually only one in the shop and the line had been discontinued. So, they did some calling around and found another one up in Queensland, and Rob drove up and collected it and united it with the one they had in their store, and then he drove both of them down to Sydney and dropped them off to the cargo company at the port. They should be on the water to WBP this week!

Above: One of the sphinxes. It is a French Mannerist-style Sphinx.

Below: The eventual position of the pair.

They were very excited about our project, and had sent a photo into the local newspaper along with an explanation that they were supplying the sphinxes to WBP in NZ!

Below: Another Mannerist-styled sphinx

and some more sphinxes...

The answer to the well known riddle of the Sphinx: Man.

Sphinxes...

It seems that sphinxes have always been a popular classical beast of fascination through all ages, and in particular, in the great gardens and parks of the world. Perhaps they are seen as protectors of entrances, as according to legend, the greatest sphinx of all was sent to guard the entrance to Greece.

The goddess Hera is said to have sent the Sphinx from her homeland of Ethiopia to Thebes, to ask all passers-by the famous riddle of the sphinx: “Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be?” She strangled (c.f. asphyxiate) and devoured anyone unable to answer. Oedipus solved the riddle: Man—who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then walks with a cane in old age.

I have a small pair of Sphinxes on my bookcase:

I think Willowbrook Park should have a pair to watch over its gardens.