The more astute and eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed a sudden shifting of ground in the last thee stories… an inconsistency of detail, an uneasiness that creeps through the undergrowth of news like the neighbour’s cat stalking our chickens.
It centres around the names. What exactly are these new domes called?
Are they ‘Stone Domes’ because they are solid and look like stones – and it rhymes nicely?
Are they ‘Hobbity Domes’ because, well, they just are Very Hobbity?
or are they ‘The Pebbles’ – after the extraordinary pebble-like eco structures that encouraged us down this path in the first place?
Much of the original inspiration for the domes came from a series of small buildings in Ukraine where the individual elements had a strongly pebble like appearance. So it was logical that, as our three little domes became ever more ‘Pebbley’, they would, as a group, be called The Pebbles. And for anyone growing up in the 60s 0r 70s that could only lead to one thing. If Pebbles is there, then Bambam can’t be far behind… so to cover all the options we decided on Sandstone and Flintstone, with Bambam for the little one at the back.
That was it – fixed.
Until of course the resurgence of the Hobbit franchise which made it impossible to ignore their remarkable resemblance to the imaginary Hobbit holes of Bilbo’s beloved Shire.
‘They are just sooooo, well, Hobbity!” one visitor remarked, wading around knee deep in mud last winter.
But can we really not acknowledge the fact that Tolkein – or JRR, to his mates – apparently came up with much of his inspiration for The Hobbit right here in the Forest of Dean. Just imagine, the true birthplace of Bilbo and Gollum – just up the road at Puzzlewood.
But from one literary masterpiece we then bounced to a televisual one. What can we say about The Tellytubbies except that we have yet to encounter one bounding over the flower covered mounds with a purple handbag. Then again, you can’t rule that out either!
So the naming thing had become a dilemma with everyone calling them something different…and we had to be decisive… there had to be one name… one snappy term… for once and for all.
Let me introduce to you… drumroll…
‘The Pebbles’. Three solid stone domes, Hobbity style holes over where the Tellytubbies are, individually known as Sandstone, Flintsone and Bambam.
And you can pull from that any cultural influences you like that float your boat!
Now, what was I saying about elegant solutions?