Here are some photos of Amherst, which collect together all the ones that Mum and Dad have taken as well as some others which had to be scanned
http://www.ofoto.co.uk/I.jsp?c=ghiijyl.qc9gkmx&x=0&y=ct2vpd
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Thursday, June 03, 2004
initial tweaks to the garden plan
After we'd done some more thinking about the plan, we had a few more ideas...
My email with initial tweaks to the plan - 2nd June 2004
Last night I looked some more at the design, and I still love it.
It's taken me a little while to digest, when we met I was just blown
away by the thought of it, it suddenly seemed to have moved a step
closer to reality! Now I've thought about it some more though, I do
have a few tweaks I'd like to make. Given that we have to rework it
anyway to move the driveway, would you be able to make these other
changes at the same time? If you disagree with any of them, let me
know, as you're the expert, but thought I'd ask anyway.
* Could the hothouse be bigger, say double in size. The compost area
can just be shunted sideways further
* Could the stable be bigger. Also, could the ducks have a separate
house from the chooks, down near the lake, as I figure they will want
to swim on it. The chooks it makes sense to keep near the house so
it's easy to collect eggs in the AM, etc, but the ducks don't need to
be. Eventually my hope is that they would go slightly wild and
free-range anyway
* Near the tower perhaps, could there be an outdoor picnic / BBQ area?
e.g., it could be a kind of room made of trellis that we could grow
plants up and over for shade, and perhaps the BBQ might be on the
bottom floor of the tower. Perhaps one side of the tower could be
solid, and thus a wall we could use to project films onto (Dave has
this great projector that we use here in London to project onto the
wall of the conservatory, but it'd be even more amazing outside).
It'd be nice down there near the lake. Not that we'd use it loads,
but still it'd be nice. We might even make the tower square, with a
proper enclosed room at the top, ala Sissinghurst, then it could be a
guest room. :-)
* Was the path near the petanque lawn where you've drawn the lines
across the part you were thinking of having trellised? If so, that's
brilliant. Could we extend is also along the rest of the path, near
where the olives are at the moment?
* In terms of the olives, could they be moved to behind the herb
garden, perhaps running into the orchard? That way Dave has room to
plant more if he wants. Also then I can use the bed where they
currently are for flowers.
* I love having the herbaceous border near the house. I just wanted
to check, how long will it look good for? Is it possible to plant it
so there'll be something nice to look at in almost every season - or
at least spring, summer, to mid-autumn? If not, then perhaps the
herbaceous border could move to where the olives are currently and I
could plant a different kind of border there. Or perhaps I just want
something that gives the effect of a herbaceous border but is
technically mixed. :-)
* Just so I don't forget it, could you mark a small pet cemetery area
out near the clump of trees in the distance? Not that we'd
necessarily build it right away, but it'd be nice to have it on the
plan.
And now here are two potentially more difficult changes...
First, I don't know the shape of the house yet, and I won't for
certain until Sept at the earliest when we see it. But, one thing for
sure, it's going to be larger than what's there currently, since I
want it to have a minimum of 2 bedrooms and I want the rooms to be all
quite spacious. All the plans I've come up with so far involve a
similar shape externally, it's just the rooms inside that change.
I've attached a jpg showing this, do you think you could adjust the
garden plan around it? There are verandahs all the way round too,
except on the side near the driveway. I'm really sorry, I know you
asked me for this ages back, but it's taken me a long time to come to
it. I hope it isn't too much of a pain, I think it just means pushing
the pool, etc down a little, and making the patio areas with the big
tree a different shape. Then, in the gaps between the old house and
the extension, that could be a garden area, with a part for
ferns/hydrangeas/etc, perhaps even tucked under the new extension
depending on the slope? The other side of it could be storage - for
tools etc, which'd be nice to have them handy to the garden areas.
Second, I would really like to have a big lavendar/yarrow/sage bed. I
figure it's the kind of thing that would take care of itself and
thrive out in the hot sun. I don't mind where it is, I had some ideas
- e.g., maybe near the stone maze, or maybe along the top side of the
driveway as you came to the house?. The effect I want to get is like
in the attached picture.
My email with initial tweaks to the plan - 2nd June 2004
Last night I looked some more at the design, and I still love it.
It's taken me a little while to digest, when we met I was just blown
away by the thought of it, it suddenly seemed to have moved a step
closer to reality! Now I've thought about it some more though, I do
have a few tweaks I'd like to make. Given that we have to rework it
anyway to move the driveway, would you be able to make these other
changes at the same time? If you disagree with any of them, let me
know, as you're the expert, but thought I'd ask anyway.
* Could the hothouse be bigger, say double in size. The compost area
can just be shunted sideways further
* Could the stable be bigger. Also, could the ducks have a separate
house from the chooks, down near the lake, as I figure they will want
to swim on it. The chooks it makes sense to keep near the house so
it's easy to collect eggs in the AM, etc, but the ducks don't need to
be. Eventually my hope is that they would go slightly wild and
free-range anyway
* Near the tower perhaps, could there be an outdoor picnic / BBQ area?
e.g., it could be a kind of room made of trellis that we could grow
plants up and over for shade, and perhaps the BBQ might be on the
bottom floor of the tower. Perhaps one side of the tower could be
solid, and thus a wall we could use to project films onto (Dave has
this great projector that we use here in London to project onto the
wall of the conservatory, but it'd be even more amazing outside).
It'd be nice down there near the lake. Not that we'd use it loads,
but still it'd be nice. We might even make the tower square, with a
proper enclosed room at the top, ala Sissinghurst, then it could be a
guest room. :-)
* Was the path near the petanque lawn where you've drawn the lines
across the part you were thinking of having trellised? If so, that's
brilliant. Could we extend is also along the rest of the path, near
where the olives are at the moment?
* In terms of the olives, could they be moved to behind the herb
garden, perhaps running into the orchard? That way Dave has room to
plant more if he wants. Also then I can use the bed where they
currently are for flowers.
* I love having the herbaceous border near the house. I just wanted
to check, how long will it look good for? Is it possible to plant it
so there'll be something nice to look at in almost every season - or
at least spring, summer, to mid-autumn? If not, then perhaps the
herbaceous border could move to where the olives are currently and I
could plant a different kind of border there. Or perhaps I just want
something that gives the effect of a herbaceous border but is
technically mixed. :-)
* Just so I don't forget it, could you mark a small pet cemetery area
out near the clump of trees in the distance? Not that we'd
necessarily build it right away, but it'd be nice to have it on the
plan.
And now here are two potentially more difficult changes...
First, I don't know the shape of the house yet, and I won't for
certain until Sept at the earliest when we see it. But, one thing for
sure, it's going to be larger than what's there currently, since I
want it to have a minimum of 2 bedrooms and I want the rooms to be all
quite spacious. All the plans I've come up with so far involve a
similar shape externally, it's just the rooms inside that change.
I've attached a jpg showing this, do you think you could adjust the
garden plan around it? There are verandahs all the way round too,
except on the side near the driveway. I'm really sorry, I know you
asked me for this ages back, but it's taken me a long time to come to
it. I hope it isn't too much of a pain, I think it just means pushing
the pool, etc down a little, and making the patio areas with the big
tree a different shape. Then, in the gaps between the old house and
the extension, that could be a garden area, with a part for
ferns/hydrangeas/etc, perhaps even tucked under the new extension
depending on the slope? The other side of it could be storage - for
tools etc, which'd be nice to have them handy to the garden areas.
Second, I would really like to have a big lavendar/yarrow/sage bed. I
figure it's the kind of thing that would take care of itself and
thrive out in the hot sun. I don't mind where it is, I had some ideas
- e.g., maybe near the stone maze, or maybe along the top side of the
driveway as you came to the house?. The effect I want to get is like
in the attached picture.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Garden plan - 1st pass
Prue came to London for the Chelsea garden show and we met up with her for a drink on Tuesday 1st June. It was great to meet her in person and have a proper chat, although unfortunately I was really busy at work so couldn't stay for lunch like I'd hoped. Anyway, we had a few drinks and a chat and she showed us her first draft of the plan. It's amazing how well she'd managed to fit in everything we asked for. There were a few things to tweak, like the driveway was in the wrong place, but aside from that our initial reaction was that we loved it. :-)
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