Oooooopps—more than a pair!
What a pair!
Category Archives: landscape
The promise is yet to come
Corylus avellana, 600 meters above sea level, 12June2010, North facing slope, Bernese Highlands, Swiss Alps.
Hazelnut or filbert. At the risk of sounding too much like an oldtimer…
Once upon a time, before European mass produced chocolate became common in the United States, if you wanted chocolate with nuts, you had primarily chocolate with peanuts. Then if you took the big voyage to Europe and tried to find chocolate and peanuts…impossible. Chocolate and nuts in Europe meant chocolate and hazelnuts. Need I say mouth watering?
Elderberry
Sambucus nigra, 11June2010, 600meters above sea level, North facing slope, Berner Oberland, Switzerland.
Dig into this one. Elderberry ice cream. Elderberry cordial. Elderberry jam. And on it goes. Wait until ripe, if you haven’t already harvested the flowers. So light. Heavenly.
Making Civilization
I love to see an agricultural community in transition. Everything counts. Nothing is wasted.
People still remember that everything counts and, for security, nothing is wasted.
Silver, Gold, or?
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, mid 1980s, tourist export
Silver, Gold, or? Death or date palms? Take your pick.
Enzian Facing South
Found at approx 1600 meters above sea level in the
Swiss Alps, Bernese Highlands, Jungfrau Region
Gentiana acaulis
22May2018
Enzian Facing North
Found in Swiss Alps, Bernese Highlands, Jungfrau Region
Gentiana verna
22May2018
Hedge your bet
Prunus laurocerasus has become very popular as a hedge to secure privacy for people in the small gardens around the houses of the Bernese Highlands.
This plant is evergreen, takes to trimming, makes a nice tall, thick hedge, and has a light but pleasant fragrance in flower. Bees like it and birds like it.
But I have observed a huge amount of pollen gather on Lake Brienz while this plant is at and past its peak flowering.
Interesting no? Comments please?
Talk about a dream
The past quickly becomes a dream at best and worst–Dubai Dreamland.
Well, while I was dreaming about walking distance green and blue in local parks…
How does that shopping work if you don’t want to get into your car every day?
And what if I have to be driving through a neighbourhood and need to shop?
Dubai urbanification–this is the Coastal Zone. In fact, it is the heart of a growing 200km long megalopolis connecting Ras al Kaimah in the north to Abu Dhabi in the south. And it was once…Empty Quarter.
The serviceable part of a lot of those hi-rise apartment neighbourhoods is that ground floor has retail space. I don’t want to turn this into some kind of planners manifesto; but if you must live in an apartment building, it is hugely practical to have retail on the ground floor of hi-rise–especially if your goal is to reduce numbers of local auto trips.
600 m above sea level
Swiss Alps spring pastures
At 600 meters above sea level, early May in the Bernese Highlands, grassland pastures are full with first wild flowers. Imagine in the air, the fragrance of fresh green pasture spring.