The Chateau Diaries #47 How to succeed in Business without really trying (to work)

Status
Thread locked. We start a new thread when they have over 1000 posts, click the blue button to see all threads for this topic and find the latest open thread.
New to Tattle Life? Click "Order Thread by Most Liked Posts" button below to get an idea of what the site is about:
I think Kat has had her fill of the Shitoo.
Why is she leaving?
WHY is she coming BACK????
Seriously feel that she too thinks Snorts is "cringe".

My weekly ounce of compliment ( singular) for the SHITOO as promised.

The brioche looked tasty.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
  • Heart
Reactions: 22
Selmar is cringe now. His pateron is cringe, the dancing handyman? Really? And he's being catfished all the way to the bank. Ugh.
Imagine Selmar pulling off a cry me vlog when he finally blows away every centime of his savings on TattyAnna who's then nowhere to be found!
;) πŸ˜†
 
  • Like
  • Haha
  • Heart
Reactions: 28
She may just be coming back for the royal wedding in September and the group honeymoon to Venice.
Hopefully the girls will be planning on a group drowning of Snorts while SJ is drunk as a skunk on her wedding night.

They will lure him out of the wedding chamber with a silver fork tied to a string. Like a cat.

Imagine Selmar pulling off a cry me vlog when he finally blows away every centime of his savings on TattyAnna who's then nowhere to be found!
;) πŸ˜†
We may understand his tears because we certainly CANNOT understand a damn thing he says or writes!
 
  • Like
  • Haha
  • Heart
Reactions: 28
I think Kat has had her fill of the Shitoo.
Why is she leaving?
WHY is she coming BACK????
Seriously feel that she too thinks Snorts is "cringe".

My weekly ounce of compliment ( singular) for the SHITOO as promised.

The brioche looked tasty.
Her 90 days are up?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 18
Because I'm really interested, and because bad plans are way more instructive than good ones, I have watched the entire video of Davy's plan for the garden.
First, the drawings are concept drawings, as he calls them, amenable to micro and macro change, not detailed architectural landscape plans. Some are his 7th or 8th iteration of a plan.
This is a good and wise move. To criticize him for not producing action plans is not appreciating a good strategy. I'd wager what he has done is like what politicians do, convening a commission to study the problem. Until it goes away.
Overall, pleasantly surprised. It is what it is: Very good indeed. And certainly not the demento Marie Antoinette fake shepherdess garden I imagined. Back on the Davy train.

Area 1: Potager:
βœ”He advocates calling in an expert to care for the old fruit trees, to restore them to the espalier state they were planted for. Of all the universally neglected and abused beings at the chateau, for me, the fruit trees were right up there with the chickens, pea chicks, Ruby et al. That shot of decades of lichen growing on them like yak hair haunts me to this moment. Davy FTW
πŸ”™ He avers the irrigation system will last for decades. He does not say if Matt's new pipeline will supply sufficient water pressure to use the irrigation system.🀑
βœ– No chicken house location or chicken protection fencing plan. πŸ‘Ί
πŸ”œ Stephanie suggests installing fridge, sink and kettle -- but no loo or shower -- in gardener's tea room. Again, I'd be very very careful about those chocolate pies The Help are serving. :poop:

Area 2: Two main courtyards:
Working courtyard:
βœ”Introducing the first of several oval-shaped beds planned for throughout the garden. Easy to mow around. Davy suggests each could be planted with a theme, including Asian/Moorish/African/paradise garden. This is a good anti-Versailles idea.
βœ”Extending the hedge across from the front of the chateau, including niches in the hedge for benches.
βœ”Maintaining its rural, livestock and farm machinery [camper?] character.
βœ” Subterranean ancient moat can't be restored, but is to be commemorated with bluestone paving, and planters with blue flowers, atop its length. My idea exactly, therefore A plus.
Entrance courtyard:
Safety measures:
βœ”Parenthesis of oblong-trimmed pleached lime trees around fountain box hedging: Adds structure and formality. Light, not too pretentious, not so symmetrically laid out as to call attention to the asymmetry of chateau front, see through. Another subtle anti-Versailles idea. Also, all the corners of the box hedges have been driven over by cars. πŸ₯΄
βœ”Installation of metal edging between gravel and lawn, to protect mower and driver from pinging shooting stones.:love:

Area 3: Parterre garden:
Davy has done his homework, as no one else has, and notes the origin of the pre-Renaissance jardin a la francaise in Moorish, north African, Alhambra gardens of paradise. Good one. Excellent. 🌟
The gardens of the Alhambra are probably the best place I ever visited, and the most influential. Anybody who knows that is OK with me.
Gothic architecture itself is based on Islamic. As such, it is the anti-Versailles. If not the actual revenge of Bobadil and Atahualpa.

Its location appears to be outside the old part of the chateau. It is small and simple, definitely not the OTT fountain of Apollo Versailles thing I was expecting. (Although I love the fountain of Apollo and nearly passed out when I saw it. Lots of money and the best artists and fascist art, oooohhh grrrl. Fascists do have great art.)

βœ” Davy points out the chateau is simple and not over-ornamented, and so his design for the jardin a la francaise isn't either. "It would look weird and it's an enormous amount of upkeep."
SJ seems to concur. In discussing a simplified plan of planting ornamental grasses around the box triangles, Davy says it simplifies upkeep -- over bedding plants -- and SJ says, that's good for any future financial scenario. Ornamental grasses are beautiful in the wind, more anti-Versailles natural motion. πŸ†™
βœ” Its triangular lines will not be demarcated in disease-prone box. SJ brings it up, Davy says in Flanders, where he lives, nothing is planted with box anymore.
I feared total delusion here and a plantation for box disease like the unvaxxed of Missouri are the font of all U.S. Delta variation COVID infections. Lalande-centered pandemic avoided.πŸ€‘
βœ” New oval beds to be installed between the parterre and the front hedge/wall, extending the theme begun in the working courtyard. Simple, not pretentious, more anti-Versailles.

Area 4: Swimming pond:
This is Potts' desideratum, along with the tandoori oven.🀑
Please note neither adds value to the property as a less grotty swimming pool adjacent to a hideous suburban BBQ and fire pit station would. This whole thing is pure folly, even though a good farm pond is my preferred style of swimming and this restoration sounds environmentally respectful of the former fishery pond, and appropriate. I'd go with Potts and restore this first if I were spending the money.

βœ– Requires a bespoke metal bridge from parterre, across the moat, to pond. Potty could use a walk around the long way.🐷
βœ” Repair of lime render stone walls, and installation of capstones to repair decades of water damage
βœ” Tree removal.
βœ” Installation water plants, frog friendly riparian areas, respectful of historical intake and outtake systems. 🐸

Area 5: Landscape garden, right side of rear garden leading to the lake:
In discussing tree removal, Davy brings up trees in the lake and says he's leaving them for now, because there's so much they don't know about how the lake is to be restored.
βœ” Let the grass grow a little taller to appear like a meadow, and mow in a semi-circular grass path, along the moat to the lake bank. Natural wind motion, anti-Versailles. :love:
β†˜ Regrade the entire lawn, which has a hump in the middle, so it slopes evenly toward the lake. This hump foreshortens the view. This would drive some people crazy, but I'd put my money in restoring the lake first. As promised.
βœ” Decorative edging plants along the dry moat, the edge of which is dangerous to mow.

Area 6: Back yard, left side of rear garden, including chapel and amphitheater:
Davy once again goes for financial prudence and simplicity. But for the proposed chapel wall and OTT amphitheater.
He says he could design a very elaborate garden for this space, but the upkeep would be disastrous.
βœ”Her weenie box parade is to be demolished and the poormouth plantlings, Davy says diplomatically, "used elsewhere" which I suspect is a euphemism. Quite right too. He still is the only person who says no to her. To be replaced with a "more impressive" rank of clipped, non-disease prone, yews. Planted farther apart as they recede in the distance toward the lake to increase the elongation of the view.
βœ”Parterre-like geometric beds paralllel to terrace to be delineated with sheared box-like plants.
βœ” No plantings against old walls, which Davy says are to be repointed.
βœ”Terrace to be extended, levelled, surfaced with water tight pavement, keeping the renovated walls stable for the next two centuries. Emphasis on restoration, good. SJ appears to agree.🌟🌟
βœ”Extends wall from edge of terrace all the way to the chapel. This is his big move and I'd call it a qualified success, about visually levelling the view of the chateau and chapel from a distance. Nothing I care about. Could be done with planting.
βœ”Installs steps on chapel incline to lawn.
βœ”Paint the pergola white or dark because the present preservative green is hideous. He has a way of pointing out her errors of taste in the nicest but most pointed way.
βœ”Installation of horizontal and vertical sunshades on terrace pergola. Adds value
βœ– Visually where the lawn dips into the forest, jars the view. Davy installs more steps here, which bisect the upcoming....
βœ–.....amphitheater. Spare me.πŸ•Ί
↙ Night-blooming moonlight white flower garden around the chapel. Stephanie says the moonlight hits the chapel and for the after-party glass of wine she wants a white garden. Davy handles this stoner vampire idea rather well. πŸ§›β€β™‚οΈ Clipped non-box cubes of hedge material to match terrace parterres.
βœ”Maze garden behind the chapel -- beautifully executed for the site, which is not level, but slants upward toward the forest. Thus it could not accommodate the too-high-maintenance, disease-prone clipped box maze SJ had in mind. For me this transition from lawn to forest was the most problematic aesthetic issue of the garden. Well played, Davy. πŸ₯‡
βœ”Davy has just explained the area behind the chapel slopes and can't be used for a traditional Maze. PJ says, well what about this part, can't you put the maze in here? Davy quietly says this is for the clothesline. Washing hidden by hedges as planned by Davy. PJ's impertinence skewered by yet another expert. Well played, Davy. πŸ₯‡ PJ's dickless one-upsmanship game foiled again.
β†˜ The installation of the swimming pool where the tennis court is makes sense. While this and its accompanying hideous suburban BBQ set up adds value, I personally like it least. Except perhaps for the amphitheater.

Area 7: Island in the lake
I love this.
βœ” Dream big. This posits the restoration of the lake, and also a place to stack excavated swimming pool soil.
 

Attachments

Last edited:
  • Like
  • Heart
  • Wow
Reactions: 50
Also guys....I don't know how to screen shot on here from the offering SJ has tatted together today...but when showing the bust that daddy made and Ian fixed ( WHERE WAS PHYLLIS AND HIS SUPER GLUE?????) please take note in the background of the VERY dead plant in the boudoir.
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Reactions: 26
I am thoroughly 'done' with all the chateau grifters. I haven't watched any of Petherdicks output for months and I'm losing interest in CD too, have not watched the cadge channel for months either, it's so cringeworthy, I despise it . Will of course be an avid follower of this thread ! Not sure why I felt the need to get that off my chest !
Recommended viewing: Bilbo TeaBaggins cuming out at Back End
 
  • Haha
  • Like
  • Sick
Reactions: 14
BJJ is slowly investing in a lot of stuff for the tit-oh. From cutlery to napkins, a work desk to (for f*ck's sake) a park bench for the courtyard(?)!
He might need a big moving van when he finally falls out of favor one day when SJ finds a new gay-bi best friend which was MPK's place for a time.

bench.png
 
  • Like
  • Haha
  • Heart
Reactions: 35
Because I'm really interested, and because bad plans are way more instructive than good ones, I have watched the entire video of Davy's plan for the garden.
First, the drawings are concept drawings, as he calls them, amenable to micro and macro change, not detailed architectural landscape plans. Some are his 7th or 8th iteration of a plan.
This is a good and wise move. To criticize him for not producing action plans is not appreciating a good strategy. I'd wager what he has done is like what politicians do, convening a commission to study the problem. Until it goes away.
Overall, pleasantly surprised. It is what it is: Very good indeed. And certainly not the demento Marie Antoinette fake shepherdess garden I imagined. Back on the Davy train.

Area 1: Potager:
βœ”He advocates calling in an expert to care for the old fruit trees, to restore them to the espalier state they were planted for. Of all the universally neglected and abused beings at the chateau, for me, the fruit trees were right up there with the chickens, pea chicks, Ruby et al. That shot of decades of lichen growing on them like yak hair haunts me to this moment. Davy FTW
πŸ”™ He avers the irrigation system will last for decades. He does not say if Matt's new pipeline will supply sufficient water pressure to use the irrigation system.🀑
βœ– No chicken house location or chicken protection fencing plan. πŸ‘Ί
πŸ”œ Stephanie suggests installing fridge, sink and kettle -- but no loo or shower -- in gardener's tea room. Again, I'd be very very careful about those chocolate pies The Help are serving. :poop:

Area 2: Two main courtyards:
Working courtyard:
βœ”Introducing the first of several oval-shaped beds planned for throughout the garden. Easy to mow around. Davy suggests each could be planted with a theme, including Asian/Moorish/African/paradise garden. This is a good anti-Versailles idea.
βœ”Extending the hedge across from the front of the chateau, including niches in the hedge for benches.
βœ”Maintaining its rural, livestock and farm machinery [camper?] character.
βœ” Subterranean ancient moat can't be restored, but is to be commemorated with bluestone paving, and planters with blue flowers, atop its length. My idea exactly, therefore A plus.
Entrance courtyard:
Safety measures:
βœ”Parenthesis of oblong-trimmed pleached lime trees around fountain box hedging: Adds structure and formality. Light, not too pretentious, not so symmetrically laid out as to call attention to the asymmetry of chateau front, see through. Another subtle anti-Versailles idea. Also, all the corners of the box hedges have been driven over by cars. πŸ₯΄
βœ”Installation of metal edging between gravel and lawn, to protect mower and driver from pinging shooting stones.:love:

Area 3: Parterre garden:
Davy has done his homework, as no one else has, and notes the origin of the pre-Renaissance jardin a la francaise in Moorish, north African, Alhambra gardens of paradise. Good one. Excellent. 🌟
The gardens of the Alhambra are probably the best place I ever visited, and the most influential. Anybody who knows that is OK with me.
Gothic architecture itself is based on Islamic. As such, it is the anti-Versailles. If not the actual revenge of Bobadil and Atahualpa.

Its location appears to be outside the old part of the chateau. It is small and simple, definitely not the OTT fountain of Apollo Versailles thing I was expecting. (Although I love the fountain of Apollo and nearly passed out when I saw it. Lots of money and the best artists and fascist art, oooohhh grrrl. Fascists do have great art.)

βœ” Davy points out the chateau is simple and not over-ornamented, and so his design for the jardin a la francaise isn't either. "It would look weird and it's an enormous amount of upkeep."
SJ seems to concur. In discussing a simplified plan of planting ornamental grasses around the box triangles, Davy says it simplifies upkeep -- over bedding plants -- and SJ says, that's good for any future financial scenario. Ornamental grasses are beautiful in the wind, more anti-Versailles natural motion. πŸ†™
βœ” Its triangular lines will not be demarcated in disease-prone box. SJ brings it up, Davy says in Flanders, where he lives, nothing is planted with box anymore.
I feared total delusion here and a plantation for box disease like the unvaxxed of Missouri are the font of all U.S. Delta variation COVID infections. Lalande-centered pandemic avoided.πŸ€‘
βœ” New oval beds to be installed between the parterre and the front hedge/wall, extending the theme begun in the working courtyard. Simple, not pretentious, more anti-Versailles.

Area 4: Swimming pond:
This is Potts' desideratum, along with the tandoori oven.🀑
Please note neither adds value to the property as a less grotty swimming pool adjacent to a hideous suburban BBQ and fire pit station would. This whole thing is pure folly, even though a good farm pond is my preferred style of swimming and this restoration sounds environmentally respectful of the former fishery pond, and appropriate. I'd go with Potts and restore this first if I were spending the money.

βœ– Requires a bespoke metal bridge from parterre, across the moat, to pond. Potty could use a walk around the long way.🐷
βœ” Repair of lime render stone walls, and installation of capstones to repair decades of water damage
βœ” Tree removal.
βœ” Installation water plants, frog friendly riparian areas, respectful of historical intake and outtake systems. 🐸

Area 5: Landscape garden, right side of rear garden leading to the lake:
In discussing tree removal, Davy brings up trees in the lake and says he's leaving them for now, because there's so much they don't know about how the lake is to be restored.
βœ” Let the grass grow a little taller to appear like a meadow, and mow in a semi-circular grass path, along the moat to the lake bank. Natural wind motion, anti-Versailles. :love:
β†˜ Regrade the entire lawn, which has a hump in the middle, so it slopes evenly toward the lake. This hump foreshortens the view. This would drive some people crazy, but I'd put my money in restoring the lake first. As promised.
βœ” Decorative edging plants along the dry moat, the edge of which is dangerous to mow.

Area 6: Back yard, left side of rear garden, including chapel and amphitheater:
Davy once again goes for financial prudence and simplicity. But for the proposed chapel wall and OTT amphitheater.
He says he could design a very elaborate garden for this space, but the upkeep would be disastrous.
βœ”Her weenie box parade is to be demolished and the poormouth plantlings, Davy says diplomatically, "used elsewhere" which I suspect is a euphemism. Quite right too. He still is the only person who says no to her. To be replaced with a "more impressive" rank of clipped, non-disease prone, yews. Planted farther apart as they recede in the distance toward the lake to increase the elongation of the view.
βœ”Parterre-like geometric beds paralllel to terrace to be delineated with sheared box-like plants.
βœ” No plantings against old walls, which Davy says are to be repointed.
βœ”Terrace to be extended, levelled, surfaced with water tight pavement, keeping the renovated walls stable for the next two centuries. Emphasis on restoration, good. SJ appears to agree.🌟🌟
βœ”Extends wall from edge of terrace all the way to the chapel. This is his big move and I'd call it a qualified success, about visually levelling the view of the chateau and chapel from a distance. Nothing I care about. Could be done with planting.
βœ”Installs steps on chapel incline to lawn.
βœ”Paint the pergola white or dark because the present preservative green is hideous. He has a way of pointing out her errors of taste in the nicest but most pointed way.
βœ”Installation of horizontal or vertical sunshades on terrace pergola. Adds value
βœ– Visually where the lawn dips into the forest, jars the view. Davy installs more steps here, which bisect the upcoming....
βœ–.....amphitheater. Spare me.πŸ•Ί
↙ Night-blooming moonlight white flower garden around the chapel. Stephanie says the moonlight hits the chapel and for the after-party glass of wine she wants a white garden. Davy handles this stoner vampire idea rather well. πŸ§›β€β™‚οΈ Clipped non-box cubes of hedge material to match terrace parterres.
βœ”Maze garden behind the chapel -- beautifully executed for the site, which is not level, but slants upward toward the forest. Thus it could not accommodate the too-high-maintenance, disease-prone clipped box maze SJ had in mind. For me this transition from lawn to forest was the most problematic aesthetic problem of the garden. Well played, Davy. πŸ₯‡
βœ”Davy has just explained the area behind the chapel slopes and can't be used for a traditional Maze. PJ says, well what about this part, can't you put the maze in here? Davy quietly says this is for the clothesline. Washing hidden by hedges as planned by Davy. PJ's impertinence skewered by yet another expert. Well played, Davy. πŸ₯‡ PJ's dickless one-upsmanship game foiled again.
β†˜ The installation of the swimming pool where the tennis court is makes sense. While this and its accompanying hideous suburban BBQ set up adds value, I personally like it least. Except perhaps for the amphitheater.

Area 7: Island in the lake
I love this.
βœ” Dream big. This posits the restoration of the lake, and also a place to stack excavated swimming pool soil.
Wow!!
I watched the whole video too. Great summary from you!!!
I did cut out at the end when Ugly Snorts had to horn his way in front of the camera and pretend he is some kind of historian because he can look things up on Google. HE MAKES ME NUTS!
 
  • Like
  • Heart
Reactions: 24
There is no way the La La Land crowd are anywhere near the class of Milligan, Sellers and Secombe. The Goons were in a strata of their own; this bunch is seriously low end mediocre.
It's malgrΓ© eux, which makes it extra special ... they're in a class of their own and they always manage to keep a straight face ...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 10
I am surprised SJ did not film Phyllis in the "pool" with his girl friends.
But maybe his pasty chest with 3 hairs and his stick arms didn't convey well on film!

And I am sure he looks a fright if that"hair" gets wet.

On his baldy head
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: 21
Because I'm really interested, and because bad plans are way more instructive than good ones, I have watched the entire video of Davy's plan for the garden.
First, the drawings are concept drawings, as he calls them, amenable to micro and macro change, not detailed architectural landscape plans. Some are his 7th or 8th iteration of a plan.
This is a good and wise move. To criticize him for not producing action plans is not appreciating a good strategy. I'd wager what he has done is like what politicians do, convening a commission to study the problem. Until it goes away.
Overall, pleasantly surprised. It is what it is: Very good indeed. And certainly not the demento Marie Antoinette fake shepherdess garden I imagined. Back on the Davy train.

Area 1: Potager:
βœ”He advocates calling in an expert to care for the old fruit trees, to restore them to the espalier state they were planted for. Of all the universally neglected and abused beings at the chateau, for me, the fruit trees were right up there with the chickens, pea chicks, Ruby et al. That shot of decades of lichen growing on them like yak hair haunts me to this moment. Davy FTW
πŸ”™ He avers the irrigation system will last for decades. He does not say if Matt's new pipeline will supply sufficient water pressure to use the irrigation system.🀑
βœ– No chicken house location or chicken protection fencing plan. πŸ‘Ί
πŸ”œ Stephanie suggests installing fridge, sink and kettle -- but no loo or shower -- in gardener's tea room. Again, I'd be very very careful about those chocolate pies The Help are serving. :poop:

Area 2: Two main courtyards:
Working courtyard:
βœ”Introducing the first of several oval-shaped beds planned for throughout the garden. Easy to mow around. Davy suggests each could be planted with a theme, including Asian/Moorish/African/paradise garden. This is a good anti-Versailles idea.
βœ”Extending the hedge across from the front of the chateau, including niches in the hedge for benches.
βœ”Maintaining its rural, livestock and farm machinery [camper?] character.
βœ” Subterranean ancient moat can't be restored, but is to be commemorated with bluestone paving, and planters with blue flowers, atop its length. My idea exactly, therefore A plus.
Entrance courtyard:
Safety measures:
βœ”Parenthesis of oblong-trimmed pleached lime trees around fountain box hedging: Adds structure and formality. Light, not too pretentious, not so symmetrically laid out as to call attention to the asymmetry of chateau front, see through. Another subtle anti-Versailles idea. Also, all the corners of the box hedges have been driven over by cars. πŸ₯΄
βœ”Installation of metal edging between gravel and lawn, to protect mower and driver from pinging shooting stones.:love:

Area 3: Parterre garden:
Davy has done his homework, as no one else has, and notes the origin of the pre-Renaissance jardin a la francaise in Moorish, north African, Alhambra gardens of paradise. Good one. Excellent. 🌟
The gardens of the Alhambra are probably the best place I ever visited, and the most influential. Anybody who knows that is OK with me.
Gothic architecture itself is based on Islamic. As such, it is the anti-Versailles. If not the actual revenge of Bobadil and Atahualpa.

Its location appears to be outside the old part of the chateau. It is small and simple, definitely not the OTT fountain of Apollo Versailles thing I was expecting. (Although I love the fountain of Apollo and nearly passed out when I saw it. Lots of money and the best artists and fascist art, oooohhh grrrl. Fascists do have great art.)

βœ” Davy points out the chateau is simple and not over-ornamented, and so his design for the jardin a la francaise isn't either. "It would look weird and it's an enormous amount of upkeep."
SJ seems to concur. In discussing a simplified plan of planting ornamental grasses around the box triangles, Davy says it simplifies upkeep -- over bedding plants -- and SJ says, that's good for any future financial scenario. Ornamental grasses are beautiful in the wind, more anti-Versailles natural motion. πŸ†™
βœ” Its triangular lines will not be demarcated in disease-prone box. SJ brings it up, Davy says in Flanders, where he lives, nothing is planted with box anymore.
I feared total delusion here and a plantation for box disease like the unvaxxed of Missouri are the font of all U.S. Delta variation COVID infections. Lalande-centered pandemic avoided.πŸ€‘
βœ” New oval beds to be installed between the parterre and the front hedge/wall, extending the theme begun in the working courtyard. Simple, not pretentious, more anti-Versailles.

Area 4: Swimming pond:
This is Potts' desideratum, along with the tandoori oven.🀑
Please note neither adds value to the property as a less grotty swimming pool adjacent to a hideous suburban BBQ and fire pit station would. This whole thing is pure folly, even though a good farm pond is my preferred style of swimming and this restoration sounds environmentally respectful of the former fishery pond, and appropriate. I'd go with Potts and restore this first if I were spending the money.

βœ– Requires a bespoke metal bridge from parterre, across the moat, to pond. Potty could use a walk around the long way.🐷
βœ” Repair of lime render stone walls, and installation of capstones to repair decades of water damage
βœ” Tree removal.
βœ” Installation water plants, frog friendly riparian areas, respectful of historical intake and outtake systems. 🐸

Area 5: Landscape garden, right side of rear garden leading to the lake:
In discussing tree removal, Davy brings up trees in the lake and says he's leaving them for now, because there's so much they don't know about how the lake is to be restored.
βœ” Let the grass grow a little taller to appear like a meadow, and mow in a semi-circular grass path, along the moat to the lake bank. Natural wind motion, anti-Versailles. :love:
β†˜ Regrade the entire lawn, which has a hump in the middle, so it slopes evenly toward the lake. This hump foreshortens the view. This would drive some people crazy, but I'd put my money in restoring the lake first. As promised.
βœ” Decorative edging plants along the dry moat, the edge of which is dangerous to mow.

Area 6: Back yard, left side of rear garden, including chapel and amphitheater:
Davy once again goes for financial prudence and simplicity. But for the proposed chapel wall and OTT amphitheater.
He says he could design a very elaborate garden for this space, but the upkeep would be disastrous.
βœ”Her weenie box parade is to be demolished and the poormouth plantlings, Davy says diplomatically, "used elsewhere" which I suspect is a euphemism. Quite right too. He still is the only person who says no to her. To be replaced with a "more impressive" rank of clipped, non-disease prone, yews. Planted farther apart as they recede in the distance toward the lake to increase the elongation of the view.
βœ”Parterre-like geometric beds paralllel to terrace to be delineated with sheared box-like plants.
βœ” No plantings against old walls, which Davy says are to be repointed.
βœ”Terrace to be extended, levelled, surfaced with water tight pavement, keeping the renovated walls stable for the next two centuries. Emphasis on restoration, good. SJ appears to agree.🌟🌟
βœ”Extends wall from edge of terrace all the way to the chapel. This is his big move and I'd call it a qualified success, about visually levelling the view of the chateau and chapel from a distance. Nothing I care about. Could be done with planting.
βœ”Installs steps on chapel incline to lawn.
βœ”Paint the pergola white or dark because the present preservative green is hideous. He has a way of pointing out her errors of taste in the nicest but most pointed way.
βœ”Installation of horizontal and vertical sunshades on terrace pergola. Adds value
βœ– Visually where the lawn dips into the forest, jars the view. Davy installs more steps here, which bisect the upcoming....
βœ–.....amphitheater. Spare me.πŸ•Ί
↙ Night-blooming moonlight white flower garden around the chapel. Stephanie says the moonlight hits the chapel and for the after-party glass of wine she wants a white garden. Davy handles this stoner vampire idea rather well. πŸ§›β€β™‚οΈ Clipped non-box cubes of hedge material to match terrace parterres.
βœ”Maze garden behind the chapel -- beautifully executed for the site, which is not level, but slants upward toward the forest. Thus it could not accommodate the too-high-maintenance, disease-prone clipped box maze SJ had in mind. For me this transition from lawn to forest was the most problematic aesthetic issue of the garden. Well played, Davy. πŸ₯‡
βœ”Davy has just explained the area behind the chapel slopes and can't be used for a traditional Maze. PJ says, well what about this part, can't you put the maze in here? Davy quietly says this is for the clothesline. Washing hidden by hedges as planned by Davy. PJ's impertinence skewered by yet another expert. Well played, Davy. πŸ₯‡ PJ's dickless one-upsmanship game foiled again.
β†˜ The installation of the swimming pool where the tennis court is makes sense. While this and its accompanying hideous suburban BBQ set up adds value, I personally like it least. Except perhaps for the amphitheater.

Area 7: Island in the lake
I love this.
βœ” Dream big. This posits the restoration of the lake, and also a place to stack excavated swimming pool soil.
Pretend that I read all of the above text (nice summation)...I did like the screenshots of Davey's master plan. The project looks very expensive.
SJ should just rename the place Hameau de la Reine A Lalande.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 13
Add bookmark
#1,056
We really need a new thread before this is closed. @MojoDublin seems MIA at the moment. Anyone could create it but I haven't kept on top of the title suggestions at all.
"How to succeed without trying (to work)" ?
There's rather short space for the title.

@Jikki2
🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈
Agent 007 superb work !!!!
WTG thanks πŸ™ ….

It’s so sunny here and I took off to enjoy island life … zero WiFi πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

Stepped wayyyy back after the alumni METHERICK baby Jedi
From THE donkey sanctuary university of SSB and its followers …..
had the double digit audacity to try the help fund my hedonistic life
I’m gay and ppl don’t understand!!!!!

I’m about 15 pages behind / but wanna get to read it all

Tattlers don’t rattle
They surpassed themselfs with another thread 🧡

Long live tattle πŸ˜‡
M
😈
Just have been wanting to say for quite some time now: I ❀ Reading and finally β€˜Understanding’ Mojo’s witty posts. TY for the fun!
 
  • Like
  • Haha
  • Heart
Reactions: 17
It's malgrΓ© eux, which makes it extra special ... they're in a class of their own and they always manage to keep a straight face ...
La Land needs someone with real talent to elevate them to a serious comedy, if that is not too oxymoronic. One can't laugh at those who have no idea of their funniness; it's cruel.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
  • Heart
Reactions: 10
Threads are. racng along at the speed of light! Thank you @Jikki2 for doing the honours.

Quoting myself, apologies!

From Thread 2, comment posted 24th October 2020:

Goodness me, the Boy Trotter doesn't half irritate with the constant rattling of his virtual begging bowl. Costs are spiralling out of control with the cottage restoration? However did that happen, Michael? It couldn't possibly have anything to do with bad (non-existent) project management, cock-eyed decisions, a meaningless budget-written-on-the-back-of-a-stamp versus extravagant expenditure way beyond the worth of a one down, one up cottage and, in general, laughably grandiose ideas that others are actively encouraged to chip in towards.

As for the oak beam malarkey, all I saw was a truculent toddler throwing a tantrum and the grown ups caving in. Michael says it's all about authenticity. All very commendable, but does authenticity really include panelling on the walls and kitchen units created to a bespoke design? In a tiny and unremarkable cottage. Money being spent like water. And talking of water, I wonder what chaos will emerge when it comes to plumbing..and the electrics.

The cottage doesn't even belong to him. He has no security of tenure. What happens if it all goes belly up at Trotter Towers? Of course, it's in his brother's interest that the cottage is done up and this is a convenient way of saving it from becoming a collapsed pile of stone without spending a sou himself. None of this should matter a jot, or be the business of anybody else. EXCEPT that by relying on and courting contributions from strangers it becomes other people's business.

The cottage is a vanity project, plain and simple. I can just about get my head around the Patreon contributions - chacon a son gout - but I find the use of gofundme really distasteful. To me, gofundme is about an individual raising funds for a worthy cause, i.e. a charity (I've several friends who've used GFM for things like London Marathon sponsorship with a nominated benefitting charity) or a specific charitable project. Not to provide the means to pay for doing up a decrepit cottage attached to an estate* in France. Frankly, it stinks..


* I can't think why I didn't put estate in inverted commas in the original post.

And today, 22nd July 2021...

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. Except now, 9 months later, the "narrative" has become a dark and forbidding sea of deceit, avarice and arrogant contempt for those who've supported the chateausphere Peter Pan.

I feel not even the smallest twinge of sympathy for this very public unravelling of the tarantula's web he has spun. He's a sham, a charlatan, a hustler, a fraud and all the other fancy words which mean the same thing: a barefaced, downright liar.
It’s truly all so sad and draining. It’s also why I am beginning to really feel for his parents. They must be so worried about him and his life.
That’s the thing about one’s child, they are a blessing when babies, but they can destroy you when they are older and you have no control over what they do. All you can do is pray and hope their choices don’t destroy them.
 
  • Like
  • Heart
Reactions: 23
Status
Thread locked. We start a new thread when they have over 1000 posts, click the blue button to see all threads for this topic and find the latest open thread.