Jane, the Mulchmaid suggested that this would be a good Christmas card image, and I agree. So…I am sending it out to all of you, who have enriched my life in the year that is drawing to a close. I wish you well…more than well…I wish you joy! It can’t get much better than that, and you deserve the very best.
Just when everything was beginning to look slightly bedraggled, along came Jack Frost with his pot of ice crystals. See how each seed head on the Northern sea oats is outlined with icy edges.
Even something as mundane as fallen leaves on the driveway takes on a shimmering beauty.
The tiny leaves of the Ceanothus could pass for a courtier’s embroidered frock.
The leaves of Phlomus.
This is what I think Christmas should look like.
This reminds me: I’d better get out there with some warm water to help the birds out…suet & seed already in place. But before I do, let me direct you to Linda’s site. She has posted some stunning frost photos the last couple of days.
Now that things are slowing down in the garden, it’s a good time to trot out some of the things stored away that didn’t quite make it into previous posts. When I visited Mississippi Ave a few weeks ago, I took quite a few pictures of a place I find inspiring, The Rebuilding Center. If you drive toward the river on Fremont, you will come upon it where Fremont intersects with Mississippi.
It is a place where builders and remodelers can drop off unwanted building materials that are then sorted, priced and put on display.
Bulletin boards hold ideas for ways to use cast off materials in ingenious ways, but perhaps the most inspiring examples are to be found in the building itself. Here is a wall incorporating a hodge podge of reclaimed windows. Greenhouse, anyone?
Scrap metal has been welded into a decorative fence.
The main entrance is a fantasy land, with built-in benches at the base of trees whose branches, adorned with sparkly elements reach for the vaulted skylights.
Here’s another look at that entryway.
The space is huge, with enough room for separate areas dedicated to doors, windows, etc.
In the lighting department, whole fixtures hang from above while shelves of globes and shades fill the dense shelving below.
This is one of those places to come with an open mind and let the imagination roam free. Who knows what manner of garden structure might result.
We were googling solar towers for a project R was working on, and came across this vision of the future. It is one of many proposals for blending horticulture and technology in ways that look like story boards for a John Cameron flick, but are actual bids by architects to fulfill calls for new buildings in places like Singapore and Dubai. It makes me want to live a long life just to see some of these fantasies come to fruition. Go here to see more…and let me know what you think.