Chateau Barrosa

I've been looking at your Facebook photos from your weekend away, said Pliny the Elder, and one thing puzzles me, well, two things actually.

What are they? I asked.

Why is there a grand baroque eighteenth century chateau in the middle of Lyndoch? And why is it called "Chateau Barrosa" ?

Aha! I said. I can tell you the answer to both of those questions. The grand chateau was built less than ten years ago, by a local character called Hermann Thumm. He surrounded it with rose gardens containing 30,000 roses. He called it Chateau Barrosa as a reminder to everyone that the name of the Barossa Valley is mis-spelt.

I do not understand, said Pliny. why anyone would build an 18th century chateau in the middle of the South Australian countryside.

I dont think anybody understands, I replied. That is what it means to be a character. Did you notice that some of the rose gardens looked well tended while some of them were wild and overgrown with weeds?

I did, said Pliny. Why was that?

Because responsibility for the gardens had been split between the Chateau and the Lyndoch Hill Retreat, and the managers of the Retreat had let their side of the gardens go.

What a pity, said Pliny. I suppose you spent most of your time walking on the well-tended side.

No, we didn't, I said. We felt drawn towards the weedy paths, the collapsing trees and entangled bushes, the toppling arches and the broken follies and the choking ponds. We were enchanted by the pathos of the Ballerina Lawn, the Tea Pond and the Magic Sunset Garden, now visited only by birds. We read the names of the thirty thousand roses and marvelled at their strangeness. We sat on a wooden seat and contemplated the vanity of human wishes. Returning, we changed direction twice to avoid a young man careering down the path towards us on a motor mower.

These feelings would be understandable, said Pliny, if your chateau and gardens were really old. But had I been there I would not have wasted my time contemplating the vanity of human wishes. I would have complained about the laziness of the management.

You wouldn't, I replied, if your stay there was a gift.