We've just been watching an old episode of Grand Designs Revisited that is one of the most inspiring I've seen. This couple built an amazing place with literally no money in Puglia, Italy. They did all the work themselves, from carving the stone and building the terrace arches, to making furniture, etc etc. You can see more about it on their website.
My favourite part though was the natural swimming pond they made. So much so that I'd like to do something similar at Amherst. To keep for inspiration, I filmed the bit where they talked about it off the TV :
This wish for a natural pool isn't new, but I'd been close to abandoning it given all the ones I'd seen previously required you to have plants in the water to keep it clear... which would be bad in our situation as it would attract snakes and goodness knows what which could hide amidst the greenery. But this pond is just made from rock so no hiding places for any nasties to hide. It would also fit much more naturally in the landscape given we're on the edge of a quartz reef.
Even better, it solves my second issue - how to have a fence that doesn't look hideous. The stone wall surroundings here look wonderful. I think we would do something similar that enclosed the pool area on three sides, including a small terrace area alongside. And if we built it on the hillside alongside the olives, as I'm thinking, we could use a ha-ha to provide the fence on the 4th side - and thus retain the lovely view.
It's not going to be the first project we do, of course, but it's nice to have the idea. :-)
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