Urn En Flambeau Parterre...

I decided that creating a garden around the Urn en Flambeau would be a great way to enhance it as a feature of the park, so I've designed a circular parterre to surround it. It was originally designed as a correctly oriented compass rose, but has been redesigned upon interlacing circles. It will stand in the middle of the Versailles Lawn, in a direct line of site from the centre of the terrace, and also in a line of sight from the Roman Rotunda down the central avenue of Lime trees.

Below: The circular garden at Kew which gave me the idea on our last holiday. It has a stone urn as a centrepiece.

Other circular parterres based on compass stars...

Below: The current design for the project...

 Pink Lavender ... 

maybe with a few fragrant malmaison carnations mixed in and some pink hyacinths for seasonal variation...

Purple Salvia...

Yellow/Orange Tulips...

 

With some cheerful marigolds mixed in...

 and finally the dramatic red tulips around the base of the urn...

We will have to come up with a variety of flowers to keep it looking dazzling all year round. The horizon is the limit when is comes to planting the flowers...

Your Suggestions Please...

Peter and I are returning to the UK at the end of August for a fortnight; and we are planning to see a few more country houses whilst we are there. We have decided to focus on the East Anglia region for a week (after a week of shopping and hospitality in London). We have made a rough plan of which houses we would like to see, allowing a half day for each (I know, a whistle stop tour!). But, before we set our plans in stone, does anyone out in the bloggosphere have ideas about places we 'simply must see' ?

These are the houses we plan to visit so far:

Your suggestions would be very welcome. David.

Dubbo Chronicles No. 12 - Take me to a zoo that's got chimpanzees

I have just joined up as a member of the Western Plains Zoo! I went on my first visit there the other day.

I didn't see all the animals, as I ran out of time. But my membership allows me to visit as many times as I like for a year. 

Above: With the Giraffes.  There was a newly born giraffe there last week, only a few days old. 

Below: Some African Gazelles

Above: More of the Giraffes (they were far away feeding). They have to splay their legs in order to reach the ground.

It is a very large zoo, about 10 kms away from my flat. There is a cycle path all the way from door to door, and once there you can cycle around from enclosure to enclosure.

Below: More African Elky Thingees

Above and Below: The amazingly lazy Hippos. They didn't flinch a muscle for the whole 10 mins I was there, even when a bird landed on one's face!

Then I saw 2 female Rhinos and a baby Rhino...

The Rhino calf is called Macheo, which means sunrise in Swahili.

There were also some Cheetahs...

And some different African Elky Thingees....

A Bengal Tiger...

Some Monkeys...

Ostriches...

Zebras with a foal...

Emus and Roos...

Another African Buck of some species...

And some Galapagos Tortoises...

I had to cut my visit short, as I was getting dark, but look forward to my next trip out there soon, and taking my camera with me, instead of using my iPhone!

The Blenheim Ensuite...

The Blenheim Suite bathroom will be a lighter colour than the other bathrooms (beige marble for Brideshead and Master suites, and red marble for Chatsworth suite). The plumbing is also going to be silver (not chrome) instead of the gold which the other bathrooms have.

I really fancy these very simple open basin stands. There are several on the market - Rowe and Perrin and Restoration Hardware being 2 popular manufacturers.

We are importing the marble tops from Greece, and so will have to find someone to manufacture the stands separately.

The rest of the bathroom will have a similar white and grey marble floor and walls to match the basin...

 

There are more White Marble bathrooms here at Whole Lotta Love