Lexiaguo, Southern China

It's real! A mixture of oxidised iron in the soil and disorganised terrace farming has left the landscape of Lexiaguo a patchwork of red, white, green, pink...

Gaudi's 161st Birthday!

Gaudi was the first architect I became aware of and began an obsession with organic architecture that I never really got over. In 2009 I went to Barcelona, mainly to see as many of his designs as I could, and today would have been his 161st birthday, so I'm going to share a few photos from my trip (hopefully not the usual Gaudi postcard photos).

 Casa Batlló

 Casa Vicens

Park Güell

 Park Güell

 Some people I don't know at Park Güell

 Park Güell

 Park Güell

Plant of the week: Lady's mantle

Lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is a hardy herbaceous (dies down after growing season) perennial (pops up again every year) plant, native to southern Europe but grown in UK gardens, with fan shaped leaves and lime green flowers in summer. 

I planted Lady's mantle in my parents' garden when I was about 11 and the other day I spotted that it had spread wildly and was covered in water droplets and looked sort of cheerful and exotic. My font of all knowledge (Dad) couldn't remember what it was called but it's name was found after a bit of stealthy googling. Apparently most people find such an easy to grow and exclusively green plant a bit boring, but I'm quite fond of it, though 'Lady's mantle' seems a bit of a fluffy name for such a tough plant.

Devil's Bridge

Everything a bit weird gets named the devil's something, doesn't it? This strange set of bridges is in Ceredigion, Wales and the teeny bridge is believed to have been constructed between 1075-1200, the middle bridge in 1753 and the top bridge in 1902.

Aqua Vita Farms

Aqua Vita Farms in Sherrill (Near Syracuse), NY is an indoor seafood and vegetable farm that provides Central New York with fresh food. The farm uses Aquaponics, a combination of fish farming (aquaculture) and growing plants in water (hydroponics) to create a balanced system where the fish provide nutrients for the plants and the plants filter the water, eliminating the need for fertilisers or water changes. Being indoors, the farm doesn't have to rely on seasons - which means all produce, all year round - without the environmental guilt of the miles it's travelled to your plate.

Basically it's a warehouse full of great big tanks of fish and vegetables, that's environmentally friendly and space saving and very clever but also simple. It's also very likely to be a large part of the future of farming.

Plant of the week: Cow parsley vs. Elder

Following a recent incident when I made an arse of myself by insisting Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) was Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria), I thought I'd do some research and create a handy guide for myself and any one else that gets pedantic about wild flowers.

 

Spot the difference.. left: Ground elder, right: Cow parsley

Both plants are found all over the country, have similar flowers and grow up to 1m and share carrot family heritage, but the most important similarity is to not confuse either of them with Elder (Sambucus), and get annoyed that your elderberry/elderflower alcohol tastes funny.

 

Initial research (googling) shows a lot of love for Cow parsley as an 'important link in the food chain', but everyone hates Ground elder; the 'fast-growing, invasive, perennial weed'. The main physical difference in the plants is that Cow parsley has leaves that resemble flat parsley (surprise!), while Ground elder leaves resemble Elder tree leaves (though they're completely unrelated species). People seem to partly hate Ground elder for tricking them in to thinking it's lovely tasty Elder, though Ground elder is edible (though the only tasty part are the young shoots, which is still better than Cow parsley which isn't edible at all). Flowers appear on both plants in May and June but Ground elder carries on blooming until August.

May you never be confused by plants you drive past and hardly notice on country roads again!

Eigg: the answer to Britain's housing crisis? by Patrick Kingsley

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis

Bit too much greenery for Italy, right? This is the fancy little village of Portmeirion, in North Wales, created by Sir Clough William-Ellis. Sir Clough was also fancy and Welsh, and set up his own architecture practise in London after only a few months training when he was 22. He promoted logical strategies for planning and conservation, writing critically about random development after WW1 in England and the Octopus (a book I'd do some pretty obscene things to get my hands on) and he was also instrumental in designating the first National Parks. 

From the research I've done, he appears to have been of balanced beliefs; preserve what is useful and beautiful and build more useful and beautiful stuff. It's refreshing to discover someone who is not against development or conservation, shame he died 35 years ago.

Desire lines

I was alerted to the term 'desire lines' by Camera Obscura's new album (can you guess what they've called it?). For those who don't follow Glaswegian indie pop; desire lines are those paths created by people taking shortcuts through woodlands/fields/scraps of planting around retail parks, instead of following the designated paths that Landscape Architects spend most of their waking hours planning, drawing, re-drawing, testing materials for etc (some of us even dream about paths. I'm not even joking). 

Rather than seeing desire lines as a direct insult to my sleep deprivation; I follow them. I have been led to such secret locations as: large collections of beer bottles and condoms, stunning views, people's gardens and perfect climbing trees. Which induced experiences of disgust, awe, being chased by dogs and feeling like a fearless child again. Frequently I find myself walking in a large circle or to an excellent patch of grass (livestock make desire lines too, their desires are usually different to mine) but it's always an adventure and reminds me to take some time to discover something new about places I know well, and places I don't.

On one of those sunny days we had at the weekend I followed a desire line to an adorable Scout-camp-weekend-activity-style bridge which was a genuinely delightful experience and reminded me why I risk finding evidence of dogging/grumpy dogs.

Plant of the week: Beech tree

I always forget about Beech trees (especially in winter when they're quietly all around me with their smooth bark that leads me to confuse them with Sycamores (a heinous crime)). But now there's been a couple of days of sunshine and a couple of days of torrential downpours and their deliciously fresh green, satisfyingly sturdy-shaped leaves have burst forth in my little corner of north west England and I am in awe.

Beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Plant of the week: Giant sequoia tree

The Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)

I'm writing about these absolutely massive, badass, hunks of tree because I spent a bit of time staring at a mini version in someone's garden on Tuesday and fell in love with their rusty bark, chubby trunks and lumpy feet.

They are only native to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, which is also the location of  The Sequoia National Park where the largest Giant Sequoia - and also one of the oldest trees in the world - can be found; General Sherman. The General is around 2,300 years old, almost 85m tall and weighs approx 1225 tonnes. 

Less famous Giant seqouias will be 50-80m tall but they're all incredibly tough; their bark is fire resistant (in fact, fire handily takes out weaker specimens and opens sequoia cones), it laughs condescendingly at wood-boring beetles and has inbuilt tannic acid-based protection against fungal rot. Even lightning very rarely kills them. They spend about half the year covered in snow and - instead of delicately recovering from being frozen - grow furiously as soon as it melts, with more growth happening in very old age than when they're young whippersnappers. Practise of felling stopped when it was discovered a lot more money could be made from tourism than trying to flog their often shattered carcasses.

Despite being overwhelmingly humongous and incredibly tough; they seem to be beautiful, endearing, trustworthy, comforting trees. Though I've only met a mini version and looked at photos, I'd probably be terrified if I came across the General...

Plant of the week: Saguaro cactus

I made this last week:

Which prompted me to research the Saguaro a bit more and discover that they are only found in the Sonoran Desert, in southern Arizona, USA and Western Sonora, Mexico. Here's a handy map showing the Sonoran Desert in yellow:

The Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) is very appropriately latin named, as they can grow up to 18m tall, although they also grow very slowly; a ten year old Saguaro can be only 1.5 inches tall, so it's estimated that massive Saguaros can be up to 150-200 years old.

Some Saguaros never grow arms, which must be quite disappointing and make it difficult to catch buses. The stripey appearance of these plants is caused by woody 'ribs' that expand and contract as water is taken on and used, dead Saguaro 'ribs' are used - in a horror film fashion - for roofs/furniture/fences etc.

 
White flowers in late spring                                Red fruit in summer

George Finch 1930-2013

In February I read George Finch's obituary in a newspaper (unusual, I buy a newspaper maybe once every two months) and instantly added him to my list of inspirational people; his desire to create interesting and playful designs for ordinary people to comfortably live in makes me very happy. Luckily morbidly, his recent death means it was fairly easy to read lots more about him.

George began studying at North London Polytechnic where he found the teaching uninspiring;  behaving in a "wayward and impractical" manner and running off to join the Architectual Association (AA) and then win their only London county council (LCC) scholarship in 1950. 

Architecural Association students (George is working the bow tie)

While with the LCC he developed his skills and beliefs in utopian socialism and good quality building; in the 1950s he designed the first mixed housing block of flats in Central London and in the early 1960s, refuted claims that pre-cast housing construction was quicker and cheaper than conventional methods.

Lambeth Towers (opened 1965) - designed while George was working for Lambeth council, funnily enough -  is probably his finest housing design; providing good quality at reasonable rents for people who lived and worked in London while being visually playful, stacked maisonettes provide each of the 35 dwellings with dual aspect and a balcony. 48 years later, residents still like living there! Which is a lot more than can be said for most tower blocks built in the 60s; a lot of them aren't even still standing, let alone enjoyable places to live.

Lambeth Towers on the front cover of RIBA Journal July 1965

Brixton Recreation Centre (opened 1985) - Finch's last design for Lambeth council - recently avoided demolition, despite being the only built part of a giant design called Brixton Towers, which accompanied eventually abandoned plans for an overhead ringroad through south London (thank god! Overhead ringroads are hideous! (Can you tell I lived in Birmingham for 4 years?)). The Recreation Centre design links facilities with a stepped internal atrium and includes a pool so high you can watch trains on the adjoining viaduct while swimming, unsurpisingly it became the hub of Brixton's community.


After leaving Lambeth council, George indulged his love of the theatre - designing Derby Playhouse and Wolsey theatre, Ipswich - and collbaroating with his partner Kate Macintosh (as Finch Macintosh Architects), designed the RIBA award winning Weston adventure playground.

Weston Adventure Playground

George Finch designed to bring dignity and pleasure in to people's lives, which should always be the top priority of design - definitely higher up the list than shock tactics and landmarking. His site specific buildings are still enjoyed, proving that good quality, people-centred design doesn't date; long live architecture with a heart!


Written with a little help from AJ, Utopia London, Guardian and The Independent 
AND NOT WIKIPEDIA! My ex-tutors will be so proud!

Plant of the week: Heath/Heather confusion

Technically this post should be called 'Plants of the week', but you can't really talk about Heather without getting confused and talking about Heath.

 Heather (Calluna vulgaris)

Heath (Erica carnea)

Heather (Calluna, the one traditionally found in Scotland, name sounds a bit like 'Candida' and reminds me of vaginal thrush) and Heath (Erica, the one with the prettier latin name) are almost identical; Heather handles cold weather better but they are both well behaved and low maintenance, evergreen shrubs with white or pink flowers.

I'm talking about Heather and Heath because my local SSSI lowland heathland (Lindow Common) celebrates 50 years since it was first designated this year, which is great excuse to remind everyone that lowland heaths are rarer habitats than tropical rainforests, and for me to go and see if the Heather there has started to wake up after winter. Photos soon!

Plant of the week

To begin what will hopefully be an every Wednesday occurrence (procrastination dependent); I'm going to write about my favourite flower; 

Snake's head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris)

My 1963 Readers Digest Complete Library of the Garden Volume 2 says:

Fritilliaria meleagris, curious, hanging flowers patterned in purple and white squares like a chess board. Plain white and reddish-purple forms frequently appear in naturalized colonies

They are my favourite plant because:

• They flower in April and May so can be found on my birthday
• They are a native wildflower and make me proud to be British  
• There is some scepticism on their native-ness due to there being a century between records of them being in gardens and in the wild - a plant with a dramatic back story! 
• They like being in the light shade of a woodland, which I would also always choose over direct sunlight 
• They're also known as the guinea-hen flower, which is an adorable name
• I like playing chess

 
Sadly they can't be found in florists and so I'll never be truly satisfied when presented with a bunch of flowers...