Work is worship! The days are gloriously long this time of year, the sun still waxing to the solstice, Canada geese grazing on high summer’s grass tips, and the ever green Yews of Compton Verney are welcome shade for a natural house builder. This little wattle hermitage is taking on shape and character… …druid’s hut… …yew tree bower… …the staff here are already talking about organising shifts as the hermit.

I sited this dwelling here in the designated picnic area to be embraced by the Yews, and look out between two Sequioas… a gentle revelation surfaced throughout the day that it probably faces the sunrise this time if year. I slept inside upon the straw the first night to check the station of the sun through the door… and… indeed out of the mist there stood our star, red and full of generosity, framed between two red trees.

The fresh Willow has been working well around the sturdy posts of Ash, Sycamore and Yew… the youngest and shortest withies make excellent cordage, binding the rafters and purlins… all measurements so far made with arm, shoulder and thumb and the only piece of external technology…a very old compass and some string. The wood working tools be a brace and bit, bilhooks, knives and a froe. The earth working tools be a spade, a mattock and a barrow. The thatching tools be oak leggets and shears. The earth here is dark and rich… …soon to fetch local horse manure to add to the mix of water and straw.

Not one piece of elec-trickery here m’dears… …oh, apart from this key pad, the photo-maker, and all the ‘mystery to me’ behind them… which I suppose I choose not to seek and understand because of an instinctual aversion to unsustainable phenomena and gadjetry that lies out of reach of direct human experience. To know and indulge in the traction before the abstraction is my preference… Give me sustainable, raw technology any day… sustainable art & architecture (alas, they may take this wee hermitage down in September), sustainable materials, sustainable relationships with all of life’s seasons and the people we share our days and wend our ways with… and what sustains a hermit? Contemplation, prayer, slow food, and the unending blessings of this beautifully cultivated bit of nature in Warickshire… …hope to see some of you here during architecture week for some daubing and thatching… …not sure how or when I’ll be able to bring my digits to a key pad again, but hope to communicate some more to you soon.

May all your houses become natural… smell natural, feel natural and stay natural
Chris

All pictures by Chris Park