Midland has long been known for having a dry, flat and desolate landscape. Many residents make the hours-long drive east and southeast to the Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio areas to get a taste of hills and water, and some of them have been buying second homes in the Highland Lakes area of the Hill Country.

With the years-long oil boom has come an increase in the size and scope of the homes that Midlanders are not only buying, but building, as they try to find a home away from home.

With the oil boom, it seems like the families are wanting homes where everybody can come and visit, said Larry Schwarze, owner of Brother Sun Builders in Kingsland. So were seeing homes with a lot more bedrooms and a lot more baths, so that the whole family, whether its the kids, the grandkids, a home that can sleep 12 or 15 people or more. For the second home market, theyve gotten bigger, because it just feels like they want the whole family to come and be able to get together.

The Highland Lakes were created from a group of dams along the Colorado River that made large reservoirs that are also used as areas of recreational use. For Ken Burns, former owner of Melco, Burnsco, and Townsend BPOs, the lake drew him to it after he retired in 2009.

West Texas is dry and tumbleweeds, and Highland Lakes is a constant level lake, said Burns, who has owned his home in the Hill Country for over two years.

Burns originally bought a single home on the lake and outfitted it with a new dock and multiple jet skis. He then bought the home next door, tore it down, and built a new guest house. While his kids visit him and his wife sometimes, he said that the house was bought mostly for himself, and that he has no intentions of selling his home in Midland anytime soon.

Amy McMurrough, marketing and public relations for McMurrough & Associates, echoed Burns reasons why West Texans move to the Highland Lakes.

Having that vacation home for Midlanders is about the water. Its about the hills and the water because youve got that whole change of scenery, she said.

Jayne Mortensen, the executive director of professional trade organization the Hill Country Builders Association, said that in the 1950s and 1960s the Hill Country area was nothing more than a big scrub lake with a bunch of fish cabins on it. The growth of Austin and San Antonio brought more people wanting access to the water to the area, and the popularity of the Hill Country grew with Texas.

But the last five years have also seen the dynamics of the Hill Country change as the focus of why people bought homes in the area morphed with their economic situations.

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Midlanders buying, building bigger homes in the Hill Country

Last year, Michael and Suzanne Naler won a landscape makeover for their backyard in Newport News, courtesy of Landscapes by Eric Bailey of York County.

Before the $10,000 redo, the yard was bland, according to the Nalers. They won the prize at a 2014 home and garden show in Hampton, where owner Eric Bailey had a landscape display.

"We couldn't get any grass to grow up on the hill," says Michael Naler.

"We had a deck that we built, but the yard was missing something. Now the bottom of the yard flows into the upper yard and the plants makes the hill look more inviting."

To pull the back yard together, Bailey and his crew created a circular patio area where the family can relax around a wood-burning chimera. They also installed lights on two trees in the back natural area to make the space feel larger and romantic at night.

"They already had a beautiful deck and look out to a shaded natural area," Bailey said.

"I wanted to give them some color, fragrance and texture while keeping it fairly low maintenance. We placed hydrangea for summer color, fall-blooming camellias for fall color, osmanthus for sweet fall fragrance and fatsia and yew for texture. Miniature gardenias were planted close to the deck and sunroom for more good smells.

"The biggest maintenance they have to do during this first year is to water plant material. Then, there will be annual weeding and leaf raking."

Stylish Adirondack chairs with foot stools make the patio a relaxing place to sit and watch the evening unfold, the couple says.

"We really don't use the backyard much different than we did prior to the make over, but now it is more relaxing and we enjoy the scenery more," says Michael.

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Backyard makeover in Newport News extends daytime enjoyment, relaxation

Last night while taking the ferry from the mainland to Penang Island, I gazed at Penang Hill. Whereas in the past, the lights at the summit of Bukit Bendera (Flagstaff Hill) would twinkle in the clear night sky, this time other specks of light in the middle of the hill were piercing through the black shroud enveloping the hill after sunset evidence of more hill-slope development or clearing.

At this rate, Penang Hill will soon be transformed into a giant Christmas tree rising from the centre of a fairyland island surrounded by smaller Christmas trees (highrise condos for the wealthy at the sea front, built on reclaimed land). Do we want this sort of hill-clearing and hill-cutting in Penang? Surely, these bald patches are visible from Komtar.

So it is timely that two dozen Penang-based residents associations and civil society groups have signed an open letter to the Yang Di-Pertua of the Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang expressing concern about the degradation of hills in the state.

Call for public forum on the hills of Penang

Dear Yang Di-Pertua Dato Patahiyah bt Ismail

Penang is famed for its hills, beaches (sadly no longer clean) and heritage. Very few places in Malaysia are blessed with this combination of assets. But alas, we residents of Penang are very concerned that our hills are being desecrated right in front of our eyes.

Bald patches are appearing all over the state from the hills on the mainland to Bukit Relau (the most notorious), Balik Pulau and Tanjung Bungah on the island (see Anil Nettos blog posts).

The forests and hills of Penang, besides providing a soothing landscape, cool the morning air that flows down the slopes and ventilates our city. All these are threatened by the wanton clearing of our hills by housing developers and farmers, some done illegally.

We support the Councils recent effort to strengthen its geo-technical division. We call upon the Council to jointly organise a public forum to inform the public what steps are being taken to address this issue.

Some questions the public would like clarified are:

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Penang Hill turning into a Christmas tree; 24 NGOs say no more botak hills

It has long been speculated the huge man-made structure in Wiltshire was an ornate grave or a ceremonial hilltop for religious rituals But expert claims mound was built as lighthouse and harbour to help Neolithic traders navigate post-glacial waterways Believes southern Britain was a series of islands linked by waterways, channels and swollen rivers, and that Stonehenge was located on coast

By Rachel Reilly for MailOnline

Published: 11:24 EST, 5 March 2015 | Updated: 07:10 EST, 6 March 2015

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The ancient mound of Silbury Hill was built as lighthouse and harbour to help Neolithic traders navigate waterways, an expert has claimed.

Archaeologists have long speculated that the enormous manmade structure in Wiltshire was an ornate grave or a ceremonial altar used in rituals.

But a cartographer and local historian claims he has found evidence of a stone avenue between the mound and the nearby stone circle of Avebury.

Land ahoy! The expert a claims southern Britain was a series of islands linked by waterways, channels and swollen rivers, and that Stonehenge was effectively located on the coast. The mound (pictured) would have acted as a lighthouse and harbour for those travelling by boat

Read this article:
Was Silbury Hill a Neolithic LIGHTHOUSE? Ancient mound was built as a beacon for a once waterlogged Wiltshire, expert ...

Eric Pickles has agreed to visit Shropshire over controversial plans to build homes and holiday chalets next to a beauty spot in Church Stretton.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has said he will contact campaigners this week about arranging a site visit to Church Stretton and Caer Caradoc hill fort, next to which 85 houses and 16 holiday cabins are planned to the outrage of nearby residents.

The news was announced at a public meeting called by the Campaign to Protect Rural England at which more than 150 people gathered to talk about fighting the proposal by developer Morris Property. Church Stretton resident Martha Tryers, a 66-year-old retired paralegal researcher, said she had been in touch with Mr Pickles over intervening in plans to build Coventry Airport on greenbelt land, which she had successfully convinced him to do.

Now she had raised the matter of the houses at New House Farm, by Caer Caradoc, with him and only the night before the meeting he had told her: If only to get rid of you, Martha, I will come, she said.

The meeting heard Shropshire Council was convinced to remove the proposal last year, but a new planning application had been made which moved the site a little down the hill. The applications accompanying landscape strategy claims to assimilate the development into the surrounding area and the AONB it does nothing of the sort, said George Chancellor, chair of the Shropshire Hill Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) partnership.

He said the planners did not seem to understand that it was not simply about the look of the site, but about the wider impact such a large amount of houses could not fail to have on the surrounding countryside.

David Wilkes, of Strettons Civic Society, himself a former planning inspector, said the application would not go before Shropshire Councils south planning committee now until May at the earliest.

It was expected to be decided on March 10, but has been put on hold as the Highways Agency has requested more detail on access to the New House Farm site.

He said if approved the estate could set an unfortunate precedent opening the way to hundreds of houses on the greenbelt land around Caer Caradoc to the east of the A49.

John Woolmer, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, who called the public meeting, said campaigners would be protesting at Shirehall and called for people to get involved.

Read more here:
Eric Pickles to visit Shropshire over hill fort homes bid

Jennings: The outcome of the grocery wars is still uncertain.

SAN DIEGOAlong with consolidations and specialty grocery stores, consumer expectations have changed dramatically in the last decade, Cushman & Wakefields John Jennings and Aaron Hill tell GlobeSt.com exclusively. We spoke with Hill, director of retail services, and Jennings, senior director of retail services, about some of the retail leasing trends they are noticing in the San Diego market.

GlobeSt.com: What trends are you noticing among leasing transactions in San Diego with regard to size and location?

Jennings: Were excited that mom-and-pop-shop leasing is coming back. Last year, we saw core centers come back to occupancy, and were seeing rent growth in core centers for the first time. The mom-and-pop recovery is allowing us to move the needle in B centers that have been sitting in the 7% to 8% vacancy zone. We expect those centers will move up to 4% or 5% vacancy by the end of the year.

As for location, we have core A+ centers in every trade area. Tenants who are expanding are only willing to consider the best location in a marketplace.

GlobeSt.com: What types of tenants are becoming more prevalent in the market?

Hill: The bulk of activity in the market is consistent with the last couple of years. There are a tone of restaurantsneat concepts that are expanding into San Diegoand there has been a lot of activity in the restaurant category in the last couple of years. There was the burger craze, and how the pizza craze and healthy concept Farm to Fork and Urban Plates; Lemonade, which is from L.A.; and Native Foods Caf. There are also a lot of fitness tenants as wellboth boutique fitness and larger playersthat have absorbed a lot of space in shopping centers. Tenants like Orangetheory and CorePower Yoga have expanded aggressively in San Diego over the last couple of years.

GlobeSt.com: How are retailers and retail property owners here dealing with e-commerce?

Jennings: Its hard to put a needle on that. Brick-and-mortar retailers and Internet retailers are demonstrating that they can work together now. The Internet is not going to eliminate retail stores; rather, retailers are using the Internet to advertise their product and allow another avenue for retail sales. Its a supporting element to their business.

A lot of people think that the Internet accounts for 30% to 40% of total retail sales, but that is inaccurate. Its actually in the 6% range, but people cant believe it because they think its so much more. Retailers today have a much more positive point of view about the Internet; they see that it allows them to increase their sales element. This may not work for electronics and bookseven Stapleswhen you have a product that can be bought at Costco and also on the Internet via Amazon. Certain categories will be eliminated, but from a macro perspective, the Internet will be helpful for retailers to reinvent themselves and meet the demands of the consumer, which are harder to meet every year.

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How the Grocery Landscape Has Changed

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Posted: 03/4/2015 10:25 AM | Comments:

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Workers set fire to building debris from the former ski chalet at a nearby landfill site. Photo Store

The last remnants of the Agassiz Ski Hill, on the eastern slope of Riding Mountain, are being erased from the landscape.

On Tuesday, workers set fire to building debris from the former ski chalet, after the debris was transported to a nearby landfill site. The ski hill is inside Riding Mountain National Park, near the town of McCreary.

Chair lifts and T-bars are also being removed. The demolition is being conducted by Winnipeg Environmental Remediations Inc., based out of West St. Paul.

Mount Agassiz was the only "mountain" ski hill between Thunder Bay and the Rockies, the other ski resorts being valleys. The Mount Agassiz ski hill operated from 1961 until 2000.

The federal government recently rejected a $4.5-million plan to reopen the ski hill, put forward by the Agassiz Mountain Development Group, a coalition of residents and ski enthusiasts. Parks Canada plans to return the site to nature.

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Agassiz chalet dismantled and burned

THERE'S not an inch of the Clyde Valley that artist Duncan Shanks doesn't know like the back of his hand.

For decades Duncan, one of Scotland's finest landscape painters, has depicted the area's waterfalls and glens in a long series of brilliant paintings.

But because he is publicity-shy, and wary of the social demands that come from being involved in the art world and all its trappings, his profile is not as high as it should be.

All of that looks likely to change, however, with a new exhibition that opens in Glasgow on March 14. An authoritative new book is being published at the same time.

His entire collection of 106 sketchbooks from the last 55 years, containing some 6,500 drawings and gifted to Glasgow University's Hunterian Art Gallery, will go on show there.

The book, The Poetry of Place contains dozens of his sketches, their subjects ranging from Davingill burn in spate to 'Carmichael Road, Tinto, morning' is being published at the same time.

The exhibition and the book both involve Anne Dulau Beveridge, curator of pre-1945 French and British Art at The Hunterian since 1997.

She has come to know Duncan well since 2008, when contact was first made with him to discuss the possible gift of his sketchbooks.

"What Duncan has said to me, again and again," says Beveridge, "is the fact that he works for himself. He was determined to find a new way of looking at landscape. He didn't want to do what had already been done by others.

"He has great facility as a draughtsman and a very good eye. He is very good at quickly capturing what catches his eye. But he isn't interested in the commercial aspect of the art world."

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Artist Duncan Shanks launches new book.

Feb. 25, 2015, 4 a.m.

WEEKENDS, my mate Pud and I hitched billy-carts to our pushbikes and sweated our way up a lonely track on the slope of a long-dead volcano.

WEEKENDS, my mate Pud and I hitched billy-carts to our pushbikes and sweated our way up a lonely track on the slope of a long-dead volcano.

The ruins of the old native police barracks on Mount Eckersley at Heywood. Picture: Heritage Victoria

It was a hard ride, the slope getting steeper, the landscape below spreading forever, but we had the hill and a fast dusty track to ourselves.

Drifting around south-west Victoria the other day, I drove out to the hill to check the authenticity of memory. The track was still there among the trees, the slope as terrifyingly steep, the view as extensive as ever.

The place has come to assume a treasured spot in my personal dreaming, but it has a larger, barely whispered role in Australian history.

The old volcano is known as Mount Eckersley. It rises above the small town of Heywood. A branch of my family a century ago lived and laboured up there on the grazing station, Oakbank, that flows over the hill and boasts a fine bluestone homestead.

In a corner of the property, however, not far from our childhood billy-carting adventures, exists a ruin with the power to haunt.

A stone chimney stands above broken stone walls, the roof and the floorboards gone.

Read more here:
Heywood ruins hide a sinister history

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A DEVELOPMENT of greenproperties has been completed in Kings Hill.

Environ Communities built the detached eco homes at Keepers Court in Kings Hill.

The new properties have followed the principles of biophilia - biophilic design incorporates fresh air, daylight and natural materials, with a view to creating a more pleasurable environment in which to live.

The benefits of biophilia include faster recovery rates for patients, decreased dependency on medication, reduced stress, and improved emotional wellness.

The five bedroom properties at Keepers Court are light with significant expanses of glass used throughout.

The large picture window in the upstairs landing and sky lights in the roof allow light to flood down on to the landing and stairs.

The landings are double height and some master bedrooms have cathedral ceilings, to continue the light and airy feel.

Natural materials are used throughout the properties, including oak wood flooring and granite Pyram kitchen worktops.

The ground floors have a seamless continuation of the indoor space outdoors.

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couriereditor published New green homes for sale in Kings Hill will keep you healthy -...