Escape to the Chateau

It’s winter and a snow shower has turned the Chateau into an icy palace - with a load of gardening jobs attached! Despite Dick and Angel’s never ending ‘to do’ list, there’s still time for the Strawbridge family to make snow angels, challenge each other to a snowball fight and collect the very first super-sized goose eggs of the season.

It’s the beginning of spring and in the walled garden, it’s the start of a new year of pottering and planting for the Strawbridge family.

This year, life at the Chateau has been a tad quieter than normal, but Dick and Angel decide they can make use of the large walled garden to hold the first event in nearly two years - a party for Arthur and Dorothy’s school friends.

It’s summer at the Chateau and time for the annual tradition of family measuring - a chance to see how close Arthur and Dorothy are to catching up with Dick and Angel in height, and if Petale the puppy is fully grown yet or not.

The major job of re-slating all of the 150-year-old roof is continuing and as the work progresses, some astonishing parts of the Chateau are revealed for the very first time - a huge area of attic that not only reaches to the height of the roof’s ridgeline but runs the full length of the Chateau.

The Chateau is a hive of activity. With the major job of re-slating all of the 150-year-old roof now well underway and the scaffolding in position, Angel has a moment of realisation. It’s not just the roof that is filled with holes and in major need of renovation but the Chateau walls too - but how do you go about rendering an entire chateau, let alone matching the existing colour? Soon Dick and Angel are not only up to their eyes in slates but immersed in colour boards and computer mock-ups.