You probably won’t view a piet-my-vrou or red kite from here but you could do a wood pigeon or guinea.

I have always been a fan of underground houses and buildings set into the side of cliffs or hillsides as at the Earth Centre at Bodenham, near Kidderminster (UK), but sadly, in the UK, our planners give few planning permissions to such earthy architectural adventurers.

Maybe, before the prolific ‘projecting’ house is fully splattered across this once green and pleasant land, planners could be asked to court proposals that streamline the more boring modular buildings into their landscapes.

I enjoy designing ways to ‘streamline’ build into the environment. One such structure within the HoBB Gardens is the ‘hide’ which will house seating for six and ‘hide’ those inside from the planned pond and its duck population.

The structural aspects of this ‘hide’ are nearly complete. The stone and cement carving stage comes next to provide ornament and ledges for planting. We are on the look out for a couple of small timber row-boats in any condition to adapt as duck houses within a central island ‘boathouse’ position.

Contact us if you know of any such boats in the UK in need of a good home.

Contact also if you would like to volunteer your time through the wwoof scheme (www.wwoof.org) to do some concrete carving and stone construction at HoBB Real.

Waves from the hills ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ Grant