Art

“Wail of a Weekend”

ESPatch Sep 13, 2014 8 comments

Kids at grandparents…check

Photo ID…check

Uniform…check

Bagpipes…check, hmm not quite?

We were off with the Silver Thistle Pipe Band http://www.silverthistle.org/ to compete in the Capital District Scottish Games, Albany, NY but first I had to get a set of highland bagpipes through airport security as hand luggage.

Bagpipes are a tricky instrument to play and equally tricky to travel with.

Vintage sets containing ivory mounts now require extra permits, inspection fees and run the risk of confiscation and delays.

I stood in line and privately winced as my multi-chambered set slowly rolled (with a few raised eyebrows and general chatter) through the airport x-ray security machine.

The inverted image looked like a ‘portable’ Bangalore torpedo, naturally I was pulled aside.

Pipes, drones, tubes, tongues, zippers, stocks, valves, flaps, gussets (well it is a funny word), drone-reeds (that resemble small plastic projectiles), you name it, this instrument has it all.

I won’t even get into the moisture control systems that reside ‘inside’ the actual bag itself.

A few “so what does this bit here do?” questions later and we were flying high.

“och its just a moisture control system, that’s a’ it is”

The following day we were at the games surrounded by some great weather and scenery.

Warming up:

Very warm at this point:

Then it was onto the battlefield with our Medley Selection performance:

Back down to Earth:

Remember this swash buckling opuntia?

Well it appears all the rum and debauchery has finally taken its toll.

After witnessing it stagger uncontrollably under this bamboo muhly canopy, I found him,

grass lying face down in a pool of his own paddles.

While the rum is taking care of my opuntia, it is the spider mites that are sucking the life out of my rosemary bushes.

A common problem in the warmer, dry months.

Spider mites are not insects but are more closely related to other arachnids like ticks and spiders. Like spiders they produce silk from a pair of glands near the mouth.

Itching yet?

spider-mite The silk strands allow the mite to spin down from infested to non-infested leaves and before you know it…your rosemary could look like this.

A regular blasting of water from the hose usually takes care of things and our recent rain will help, these mites hate the water.

This front area is about to be reworked.

Small flagstones will be replaced with large slabs, brick walls will be removed and some large boulders positioned.

Here is the area is almost prepped…but should this vitex stay or go?

I do feel like I have been polishing this particular

for way too long.

I have hacked limbs off it for years to raise the canopy and still it grows over and onto my roof where it insists on making irritating little grinding and squealing noises as it tries to claw its way inside the house.

Here is the side of my house after my latest frenzied attack on it…ugh.

This poor tree already had ‘issues’ when we inherited it over a decade ago and I think they are only getting worse.

Inspirational Image of the week:

TERRA fluxus LLC: Design for a rooftop terrace

Stay Tuned For:

“Beans Boots & Mullein”

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“The Normandy Phase”

ESPatch Jun 20, 2014 5 comments

Here is a front garden in South Austin I spent a few days beating into shape and these are the visuals I generated to communicate the design to the client.

The first one incorporates pavers for a more formal look:

This one introduced flagstone for a preferred meandering, organic look.

Both designs called for the existing linear sidewalk to be removed.

And removed it was, expanding exponentially with every tooth rattling blow from the 18lb sledge hammers.

This concrete expansion phenomenon is explained in detail in…

The concrete expanded so rapidly it had filled a dumpster up in the time it took to say “why did my design have to call for the removal of the sidewalk?”

I refer to this part of the installation process as the ‘Normandy’ phase and it can be a little unnerving for the home owner should they come home in the middle of it.

Next came turf removal, grade reduction, flattening and sprinkler capping.

Here is the area almost prepped.

The hedge in front of the porch was removed to open up the view from the front porch. Removal of the sidewalk made the space feel much larger.

Final Implementation:

Grey Tejas black aggregate, Mexican beach pebbles and Silvermist flagstone blend up to the grey lower story of the house.

No more sprinklers or lawn cutting required here.

A solar powered art installation by Melissa Borrell

http://www.melissaborrell.com/

called Glowave is designated for the rectangular area to the left of the front porch.

The existing spineless prickly pear cactus and agave were pruned up and a couple of large limestone boulders were brought in to pull down the white of the house.

Three sculptural whales tongue agave are given plenty of space to spread their spiny wings.

And spread they will.

The rest of the plantings combine rosemary, basket grass, compact sage, gopher plant and a few muhly grasses that will fill in and soften the scene over time.

It is very rewarding to see a space transform like this one. The final result is almost enough to mentally fade away the ‘storming of the sidewalk’ and the battered nerves of the Normandy phase…

…almost.

Back in the Patch:

Talking of transformations,

it seems like only yesterday that he was a small man trapped in a box,

and she was only a few feet shorter than the first cypresses that I planted in the Patch.

Nothing gives you a better appreciation of the passage of time than children and Arizona ‘blue ice’ cypress trees.

Plants and trees have matured over the years, the neighboring house has now receded behind a tall wall of foliage yet

battles rage on and on in the Patch…

…like the stand of Bermuda grass that insists on growing in the safe haven around the base of my barrel cacti

urgh,

and this huge vitex that constantly strains and leans to scrape the roof of my front porch.

The dollop of silver in the middle is ‘Silver King’ artemisia,

Artemisia ludoviciana

a rapid spreader.

I keep mine in check by surrounding it with five rosemary bouncers.

It pairs well with Gregg’s mist flower.

Finally:

The cone flowers have apparently liked the deep soakings we have received this spring.