Basil in the Garden
Some drawings from burningman 2012
Temple 2012You can see photographs and read about the Temple construction here.
Front Porch - Camp Carp - 2012
Gardens @ NIMBY - A Playground for Adults
About 5 years after NIMBY moved to a new location in East Oakland I finally made it over there for a fundraiser and got to check out the space. The first thing I noticed that there there were plants everywhere and I was really surprised. Thinking about it now I'm not surprised at all. who better to create gardens from cast off junk than the founder of the largest do-it-yourself industrial art space in the Bay Area? The second thing i noticed was that they have an old metals twisty slide from a Mcdonalds and I WANT IT! Like, really want it. It could totally fit in our side yard and would be awesome.BEHOLD:
But, back to the gardens at NIMBY... one of the first containers of unexpected food were these old ducts filled with kale and then this pink bath tube with more food plants:
Apparently it is very east to get cheap discarded hydroponic/pot grow house equipment like these huge trays:
Love the tree house going up in the background. I saw that out on the playa about a month later. :)I counted about 5 big trays of food plants and many smaller pots scattered about. That's a lot of fresh veggies to share!And here are the beginnings of some aquaponics tanks. I think they could build a decent chicken coop on top of this that dogs would not be able to get in to. A sort of chicken condo, if you will.
Then there was this huge tank filled with beautiful glass sculptures, fish and plants used to a be a huge gas tank. I think? I could be remembering wrong, but either way, it was very pretty and soothing!There were some great succulent gardens as well. I wish I had written down the name of the person who made this lovely wall sculpture with succulents:
And outside, there were these great plastic pipes filled with succulents. I can see this working really well on a back porch or even front yard.
Industrial junk being turned to good use, whether for art or to grow food or to make a playground is always beautiful and inspiring!
Fall leaves in watercolor
Every fall I get obsessed with the changing leaves. I love to paint them.I have only just discovered the joy that is a niji waterpen. This changes everything!I'm sketching in a Moleskine sketch, not a watercolor one. I know it doesn't take watercolor very well but it's the kind i like to carry with me. And there are tricks for making it work. As long as a do a prewash the sizing on the paper will become more receptive to absorbing your color.
Planometric/Isometric
I have just learned how to make quick planometric drawings by putting tracing paper over my plan views. How handy! And fun! Sorry for the less than stellar photos taken using Photobooth, if I get up to use the scanner in the other room my child will notice me and demand I spend time with him.Front yard, new paving/gate
Backyard concept for a very tiny backyard in A.
Second backyard concept
Possibly I shouldn't post my ugly quick unfinished sketches...
Boston Children's Museum
This picture is taken out the window of the Boston Children's Museum while waiting for the tour of the authentic Japanese house (very cool, btw).
I watched the painted hopscotch game get used by several passers-by. There was also a great paver maze at the entrance to the museum. I love using the ground plane as a design element, it's something that kids especially notice and can't resist reacting to.
SF airport - New Terminal 2
Anyone else been to the new(ish) SFO Terminal 2? Kudos to all who made it happen, srsly. It was like traveling on a fluffy cloud filled with unicorns, sushi and coffee.Right after going through security the first thing that hit my eye was the 'Yoga Room'. Say what?Then, tons of art. filtered water stations. sushi.You can read all about the art here.ANDAn indoor play area for kids. SQUEEE!Just that fact that an airport would admit that kids might be actual humans who deserve having their needs met in public was kind of shocking and, obviously, refreshing.
It was a tad spartan but such a great idea. One of the coolest features was the Butterfly Wall built and designed by Charles Sowers.
It had some fun climbing elements with an airiness that I assume was designed it to it so that parent's wouldn't freak out when they couldn't see their child.
Please pardon the terrible blurry pics. I was juggling like twelve carry-ons and a coffee.
Berkeley Adventure Playground
What is an adventure playground?I think of them as a free form playground built by kids and the grownups with them. It's a space where the way kids play hasn't been decided for them already, they get to see a bunch of raw materials and see the possibilities and create their own spaces.They get wood and nails and discarded playground equipment and rope and old boats and whatever other cool stuff the staff can find or is donated. And the kids can use it however they want.I feel lucky to live in an area with an Adventure Playground, you can read about it's hostly here. It's such a cool idea and we have been taking my son since before he could walk. There is something for everyone!You have to earn tools and paint by helping clean up or gathering up old nails. Once J. could walk he loved to collect nails with a magnet fishing pole in order to trade the nails for paint.Here's J as an almost or maybe just 1 year old sitting in a boat filled with sand. Neat!This is an ever evolving instrument. It's got drums and harps and tons of other things that make great noises.I wish I could figure out how to embed this video of my son getting bonked by a hanging float.He is at about 2 years freaking out with excitement at some junk hanging around. At about 28 seconds he gets bonked with the hanging rescue float.Hiii-larious!The last time we went T. helped him build an airplane out of scrap wood.More awesomeness. In this picture you can see not only a a cool boat in the foreground but several boats filled with plants in the middle and then the oh so cool zipline in the background. Kids line up for this over and over and it's so fun to watch them. You must be 6 in order to ride it. I'm not sure if J. will want to!
Indian Rock
We went off to explore Indian Rock in Berkeley this week. It did not disappoint.J is just now 5 and somehow, once we climbed to the top of the rock (using the awesome stairs cut into the side), I was REALLY nervous having him up there. I like to pride myself on not being a helicopter mom but in this case I just kept picturing him sliding down to his doom and I couldn't hack it. I made us go back down. There was plenty of scope for imagination around the lower parts of the rock.We established our forts...
And attacked!
Foolishly I did not look up the rock before hand and so could not spout knowledgeably about the geology. Check the wikipedia article or this post from the awesome Oakland blog Oakland Geology. Rhyolite! Neat!We had to leave because I was getting grumpy (I've been grumpy a lot lately) and I had to pee (this park lacks a bathroom making it totally unpractical for me) and we had to go to the store. We'll be back to explore the more north side of the park later though definitely! Also, need to bring more kids so they can like play capture the flag or something!
Sometimes all you need is a big ass field
Amiright? A big field of clover is so pleasing, especially when it is empty of other people. As is the field near our house. During the week it is often surprisingly empty.J was going all Charlie Brown on this soccer ball. He would run at it very fast from very far away and try to kick it but mostly ended up on his back. hehehh.This is Mosswood Park near my house. It's quite a good park. There are two playgrounds, a baseball diamond, basketball courts, a community garden, a huge field, plenty of trees, a neat stone amphitheater, and buildings with bathrooms (SCORE!) and activities for the community.Mosswood Park is also home to two bird houses built by the FLUX Foundation and local schools. The project is called TweetHaus and is an art and ecology project. Read more about it here. I took pictures of the birdhouses bu can't find them right now. So far, the houses are unoccupied by birds but I have hope for them!
Kid in a box
Need I say more?
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2012
My first Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post a few days late. :PWhat is happening back here flower wise these days?Zucchini Flower!
Poppies, poppies and more poppies.
Yarrow and CA fushias and salvia clevelandii.
Roses.
Cerinthe major
Mimulus.
I bought a few small plants yesterday so maybe I'll have an actual in bloom flower bed later this year. :)
About my garden
In late 2010 my partner and I bought a lovely 1896 Victorian in Oakland on 5,000 sq ft. It had stood empty for several years and had the usual urban squatters occupying the house and garden at various times. RE: various crack pipes in the attic, backyard overgrown, uncared for, and filled with broken glass and trash.Here's a picture of it in October 2009 when we first came to look at the house:Here it is about a year later. Not much is going on accept we have one raised bed in. We took out a couple of the rampant plum trees, pulled up tons of black plastic, a took out all the gross jade plant and a bunch of other boring stuff.November 2010:In summer of 2011 I put in an herb spiral in the center of the yard:August of 2011 we have TONS of veggies growing. This was the summer of the 20 million tomatoes and 10 million of zucchinis:Here it is right now. man, it looks pretty crappy from overhead...The herb spiral is mangy and cleared out and the over crop on the greensward area is not filled in. you can see our new big-ass white coop in the back left.June 2012:At some point early on my plan was to have a mostly native garden but I ditched that in favor of sticking with food plants and at least Mediterranean plants. There were just too many awesome plants out there to experiment with.Back yard == 2000 sq ftFruit trees so far: 2-3 plums, meyer lemon, lisbon lemon, orange, lime, two apples and two avocados.Animals: 6 chickensBeds: 2 large veggie beds, herb spiral with flower bed attached, native bed, 3 round planters with blueberries, strawberries, zucchini and herbs.Other elements:awesome chicken coop and run, embankment slide, kids playhouse area under lemon tree.Left over from some cute little old lady who must have lived here once: many pretty roses, fuschias and a camellia.Plans: Eventually I'll put in a native meadow for our grassy are and we'll have a deck. I keep waiting for the supposed construction we need to do on the house to be over but we keep not getting started with it so we just keep doing cover crops and our patio table is on an old rug. Our 2011 backyard had a sad dearth of actual flowers so, MOAR flowers!
Let's talk about plants! Nicotiana and Dymondia
Early in the spring I bought a tiny four inch Nicotania alta 'Lime Green' from Annie's Annuals. I love chartreuse flowers, look how adorable these are:
I have this in a pot and it grew quite quickly, is blooming prolifically, the flowers are big, and it is nicely bushy. I really love this plant and I want a couple more. The Annie's site says it reseeds itself easily so I'm going to wait to see how that goes and I'll do some seed collecting as well.This is a good plant for a kids garden, its got interesting big flowers and since it's a prolific bloomer who cares if kids pick some to make fairy dresses or potions or whatever.Dymondia margaretae - Silver CarpetI bought a four inch Dymondia thinking it would be good as a ground cover for a kid trampled, high traffic area near the hill slide. The soil here isn't sandy at all and it might be too shady a spot. This is an easy plant to propagate and I turned the 4 inch plant into like... 6 teeny plants. Once you shake off the soil it's super obvious how to gently separate it.
Read up on Dymondia margaretae at the Stepables web site.