Category Archives: landscape architecture

Secrets of Rejuvenation

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Rejuvenation in the Northern hemisphere autumn–why not?

Looking for landscape journeys…

…a distant view that promises journeys of discovery…future opportunities…

…a distant view that promises journeys of discovery…future opportunities…

Like certain batteries, I need to recharge–I need rejuvenation from time to time.

Plants, gardens and landscapes, from time to time, in any season, have that magic combination, that secret of rejuvenation.

…that distant view that promises journeys of discovery…

…that distant view that promises journeys of discovery…

…that close inspection that promises journeys of discovery…

…that close inspection that promises journeys of discovery…

…that close inspection that promises journeys of discovery…

…that promise of a short walk, a journey of discovery…

…that promise of a short walk, a journey of discovery…

…that beauty of past, present and promise of future…

When I find all of these in a one hour walk, I have been rejuvenated.

Ahem–but, excuse me, Mr. Writer–do you have any skin in this game?  Do you grow plants?  Do you farm?  Or are you just one of those nouveau naturalists?

Myths…and…fairy tales…

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Amanita muscaria pushing up from the forest floor.

On the northern hemisphere forest floors, this is the season to discover and examine mushrooms and toadstools.

Mushrooms are edible fungal growths taking the form of domed cap on a stalk, while toadstools are similar but traditionally poisonous.  This world of the forest floor is a dangerous place for casual and naive human visitors.  Beware.

Amanita muscaria from underneath…now where is that dwarf?

With its bright red, white-spotted cap the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) has delighted people since time immemorial.  It is inedible (with a psychoactive asterisk, a risk) and yet considered one of the most attractive and most familiar species of fungi–a subject of many myths and fairy tales–valued also as a good luck charm.

Its white-spotted, red cap covers the head of a dwarf who carries out all sorts of mysterious activities in the forest.

Correct me if I am wrong but anyone who has silently walked through a rich, multi-layered forest knows that there are movements that strangely occur…movements on the edge or just beyond the capacity of our senses.  Algernon Blackwood’s short stories examine those areas.

I’ll say no more.  But I would appreciate the comments from readers who themselves have experienced, in the forest, that which cannot be explained.

Landscapeyness

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I like the essential lightness in this word:  landscapeyness.

In real life, I find lightness both in landscapes and also in gardens. Among their many aspects, I like them for their landscapeyness.

Landscapes and gardens–this ultimate pair of two syllable words–each carrying an immeasurable gravitas buried within the burls of all human civilizations–each twisting and turning through the world’s cultures and around and through the time lines of human history–twisting and turning, forming and reforming, always in a deep harmony.

Can landscapeyness and deep harmony co-exist? Of course!  Look at these images brimming with landscapeyness and deep harmony.

These images are SchnerenSchnit (German). SchnerenSchnit is scissors cut–the art and craft of cutting paper.  It has been practiced in Swiss mountain villages before modern media, and continues on in some places still today.  I have included these images of ScherenSchnit because they demonstrate the skeins, the threads, the cellulose, that connect and combine landscapeyness and deep harmony into an almost transcendental relationship between people and plants, gardens and landscapes.

Shelter, water, work, nurture, people, craft, landscape…

Forest, animals, people, nurture, rest, music, landscape…

Flowers, forest, animals, children, parents, play, nurture, landscape…

Flowers, forest, family, shelter, animals, people, nurture, landscape…

The tree of life…

Now why did we move to the city?  What are we missing in the city?