Photographs by Edward Burtynsky - black things

Photographs by Edward Burtynsky.

1. Nickel Tailings No.1 (Ontario) from the Tailings series.
2. Sip Breaking #23 (Bangladesh) from the Ships series.
3. Oxford Tire Pile #9b (California) from the Oil and Urban Mines series.
4. Oxford Tire Pile #4 (California) from the Oil and Urban Mines series.
5. Tanggu Port (Tianjin) from the China -Coal and Steel series.

Post Halloween and I still have a fairly large collection of black images I wanted to share. These ones are all by Photographer Edward Burtynsky (his photos aren't always black). Whenever I waiver in my consumer or energy use restraint I should look at his website and remind myself of what is involved, before and after, in our culture of mass consumption. Makes me want to get out in the garden and grow more seeds.

Solar charger & other power saving items

We had no power yesterday, the perfect day to enjoy the benefits of the new toy I bought (well, he had to pay!) for Mr P's birthday recently, a Solar Power Monkey eXplorer. I was really impressed with the quality and usefulness of my brother's regular Power Monkey when we were in LA, he was able to charge his phone, iPod, GPS and numerous other gadgets from it. The solar one, though much more expensive, has all the same attachments & adaptors, but can also charge from a pocket sized solar panel. He loves it, I love it! It's the best bit of kit for anyone who wants to be greener without giving up their gadgets because it works on lots of things.


Solar Power Monkey with lots of adapters and connectors

It's water resistant and the 'solar slave' will even work on cloudy days or beside incandesent house lights. Once you have charged the Monkey (by solar, mains or USB) just pop it in your pocket (genuine pocket size, unlike some lumpy ones that claim to be) and you have a charge ready even if you are up a hill or on a beach. Mr P uses it to charge his iPod, mobile phone and PDA - all for free.

There are lots of similar chargers on the market but the Power Monkey consistently gets the best reviews and least complaints in buyers feedback. If the connector you need isn't included there's a good chance you can buy o. Given their track record for quality, I am very eagerly anticipating the new Power Gorilla which is being developed to power laptops, and yes, there will be a Solar Gorilla, finally solar power for the laptop, no more guilt... if you can afford it (assuming it'll be much more expensive than the solar monkey).


Freeplay radio Wonder Wash

My old wind up/solar radio used to be my favourite hand crank item, but I finally got my Wonder Wash (washing machine) last month on Ebay. It was touch and go, I noticed Ebay prices were suddenly rising and have since found it it's because the man that makes them is unwell and hasn't found anyone else to fill the orders yet. It uses no electricity and it's easy to collect the waste water for the garden on dry days or for the toilet cistern on rainy days.

Blue signage

LA Trip, March '08

I've not internet access until Tuesday so I'm scheduling photo's for each day I'm away.

Sheds & National Work from Home Day (UK)

Just accidentally deleted most of the images and links for this post! Here's what is left...


Ukrainian architecture found via microscopic

What an amazing building, I'd like that as a home office. Here in the UK it's National Work from Home Day today which I discovered this when browsing the great blog Shedworking. I've been wanting to use waste pallets in the rebuild of my mobile home as well as for fencing and I've spent months trying to find examples. I was very pleased when I strayed upon Shedworking (I'm a true shed lover) and lo and behold, they had this post about a pallet built temporary shelter for refugees but it can be adapted for permanent use.

If I lived anywhere else I would have been testing all my house plans by building sheds (goodness knows I can never have enough storage space) but wooden sheds are now forbidden where I live, we are only allowed to put up metal ones, though luckily a wood one was already in place when I bought the house (and a metal one, I love having 2 sheds) and the rules only apply to new additions.

On the subject of sheds (and work), I was watching The Apprentice last night. What has the Apprentice got to do with sheds you ask? Well, according to this post on Shedblog (yes, another shed blog) contestants Michael and Lindi were carrying on in a shed in the garden of the house this year before Lindi was fired. UK readers probably already knew, but that is quite literally the only piece of gossip I have heard in months. If I got a man into my shed there'd be no nooky, I'd have him fixing a cross-brace to the back wall because the shed is slowly but surely tipping sideways on the sloped ground!

My current plan, for when I'm well enough to tackle things again, is to build a dog house for Lucy to stay cool in on hot days, a hedgehog house (he/she currently has a little leafy corner but it's not weatherproof) and some birdhouses... all with different types of green roof. Here is a link to another black lab called Lucy sitting outside her green roof dog house.


Sustainable Pet: Heart cat house (found via groovygreen)


Sustainable Pet: Birdhouse, bluebird

This will be my way of experimenting what will grow well because I really hope, one day, to have a green roof on my house extension. That is a very long way off, but it seems a good idea to start getting some practice with the plants now to see what survives best where I live.

I'm planning 3 tests. One with grasses, one with succulents and one with mosses. I suspect a combination of mosses and succulents will best suit the final roof, given that parts are in the shade (mosses) and the rest is nearly full sun. I like grass roofs, but I think it would cause too much trouble with the neighbours if it got straggly and I wouldn't be up there cutting it, though perhaps a loan of a rabbit would work.


Gallie Craig Coffee Shop, Drummore, Scotland.
Architect: IB McFadzean

I started the experiment a few years ago by putting broken bits of succulents on the nearly flat garage roof that backs onto my garden. The rain washed a lot of them away (it's not my garage so I can't build a retaining lip on it) but there was moss up there already and it held some in place. They are now doing quite well, though a lot is lost due to birds always pulling out the moss. On a proper green roof the succulents would have something to root into so I could pre-grow areas before putting them on the roof. Blimey, I didn't expect to witter on so much, but I never get to talk about my building passions these days with everything on hold.

Bleeding heart

Editing my flower photo's as I watch Grand Designs Live. I really liked the one last night with the guy who did lots of inventive things. He's the sort of bloke I've been looking for all my life so make my ideas a reality. He had made this brilliant running wheel in the garden for their dog, and the dog loved it. I'd have made one small change, I'd have it hooked up so the dog was generating electricity while running. I wondered if anyone was making wheels commercially and found this, not on sale yet but I will be keeping an eye open. It's presumably not as unique as the home-made one, but handy for those with no carpentry skills.

Little and often

More from that fabulous box of goodies Daphne sent last month, I really love her illustration for the foxglove packets! And the hand stamped papers around the ribbon are ace, as are the colours (see, I'm not only about the brights and the blues, as Daphne knows) Daphne, the foxglove seeds are going far and wide to all the places ravaged by trucks and diggers in the last year. They seem to be munching up the Edinburgh Greenbelt at a steadily increasing pace but at least now the dumped soil ca begin to have new life thanks to you. I'm also mixing in other seeds from my own plants, like feverfew and herb robert, buddleia and even transplanting some snowdrops, a few bulbs at a time on each walk with Lucy. Little and often.

Not much blogging, I had several emails to catch up on on Wednesday and it totally wiped me out. Not been reading any either, which is driving me crazy. However, I have managed, in small bursts, to finish the O' Brian book I had picked up again, and am half way through the next one. Again, little and often, even if it's only 2 pages at a time.

Have a great weekend folks, not sure if I will blog before next week, I'm really trying to rest up.

Tiny Buildings

Tiny Buildings: Post Office Blue, 1976

I was doing a search for stuff related to my mobile home eco-renovation, but what google showed me was a wonderful blog called Tiny Buildings. A place documenting the work of Sharon and her late husband James, who in the 70's began making "tiny buildings crafted from business cards, packaging and other nice papers." read the lovely story of how she started here. Sharon continues to make them today and they are the most delightful and personal creative recycling I have seen.


Tiny Buildings: Wedding Chapel Three, Maryland 2007


Tiny Buildings: Hiltl Cottages, Zurich 2005

My trip - clue No.6b

The newer plants are growing so well some are huge already. As you can see this one is bigger than me. I was so excited to see all this change. The place looked incredible, lush (in a dry way) and each garden was really individual. No more dusty patches covered in dog poo. People are taking real pride in their plots and in the spaces between the sidewalk and the cars, which were so often ignored before except in areas with more money. It's so good that people have embraced being eco friendly. All this water saving is making the streets and gardens look amazing and it must be great for biodiversity now that there is so much cover around.

Nek Chand: The Rock Garden, Chandigarh

Camel ride at The Rock Garden, Chandigarh
originally uploaded by Velachery Balu

I don't mean to give the impression that I watch TV all day, but did you see the Indian episode of Around The World in 80 Gardens? I was besotted by Nek Chand's Rock Garden in Chandigarh. The unique garden is a perfect marriage of passion, obsession, recycling, sculpture, gardening and bloody hard work created in secret (and what is better than a secret garden) over decades.

Nek gathered all the waste remnants on his bicycle to bring back and transform in the 25 acre garden on land he didn't even own. The garden was threatened with demolition several times and one of those times was saved by people forming a human shield to stop the bulldozers. A great story, a magical place.


originally uploaded by jratcliffe (a great flickr set of the garden)
also a wider shot with more of the people was taken by Matthew Winterburn.


originally uploaded by Bailoo

These photo's are from flickr, but to see it at it's best you should watch the program because this place is full of movement and life. There are 5 days left to watch online though I now realise some of you are denied access if you live in other countries, not fair. The filming shows best how the areas interlink, how the people connect with the spaces and how stunning the waterfall areas are as they flow. I'd love to spend a whole day there walking the "more than a kilometre of long meandering pathways, full of natural and handmade wonders' with all the birds and animals that are said to fill the garden.


originally uploaded by Iharkness


originally uploaded by krazykrayons


originally uploaded by Chris Walker


originally uploaded by menakanayyar


originally uploaded by Koshyk


originally uploaded by ToreaJade

Update July 2011: I was concerned to see that the Nek Chand website hadn't been updated since I originally wrote this post so I did a check to be sure it hadn't been demolished and happily, it's still going strong. Earth Drifter visited it last month and talks about how the people were as much a part of the experience as the place. I'm so pleased it's still there and going strong. If you'd like to visit Travel Tips has information on transport.

There is a website called Friends of Rock Garden which has photo's, videos and blogs from people who have volunteered. Here is a link to the Nek Chand Foundation Student and Volunteer program . The website has a lot of backround to the garden and includes a page listing books featuring the garden. As someone who has done a lot of volunteer work I've learned that it doesn't always turn out as you'd expect and I've often had to be very proactive in creating work to do. The same may be true of volunteering at the rock garden. I read a link from a design student Katie who's 2009 volunteer group left half way through the program because they weren't being given any volunteer work to do. Hopefully the program is more organised now and this isn't an issue, but it's always better to be prepared for things to be different from your expectations so that you can find a way to still make the most of the experience.

And for those of us who may never get to visit the gardens in person here is a link listing places to see Nek Chand's work internationally, which shows he's finally getting the recognition he deserves.

December already

This is Mr P's cat doing an impression of Marley sleeping on his own face. I think he was simply overcome by the speed at which the months are flying by. December already, scary. One minute it was May and then we blinked, got wet, had a little sunshine, blinked again and suddenly there are Christmas lights being switched on all over the place. Nice to hear that so many places are using solar powered lights this year.

I'd love to get some solar LED's for the tree in my garden but I'm not keen on the blue-ish light from the cheap LED's and the ones with the pure white light cost to much just now. Hopefully the prices will have dropped by next year. Speaking of energy saving light bulbs, I finally found somewhere that sells dimmable eco-bulbs and daylight (full spectrum) eco bulbs - Nigel's Eco Store.

Theo Jansen - kinetic sculpture

Theo Jansen: Kinetic Sculpture
photo uploaded to Flickr by VotreX

It's a long time since something gave me such major goosebumps of inspiration and creative excitement as the amazing kinetic sculpture of Theo Jansen that I saw on You Tube recently. He combines so many things I love, kinetic sculpture, beaches, eco design, wind. And they have that beautiful structural quality that I've always loved in old wooden piers. Visual heaven.


Theo Jansen: Kinetic Sculpture
photo uploaded to Flickr by Iskandr

I saw this short video first and was amazed. I also recommend this one, it's longer (10mins) and describes some of the technical aspects like how they know when they reach water and so turn around and head the other way.


Theo Jansen: Animaris Percipierre
photo uploaded to Flickr by MarionRose

They are so beautiful to look at even when still, but to have made them move as well...it's complex yet simple at the same time, he's a creative genius. Absolutely stunning. Visit Strandbeest to see more including more video clips, buy the DVD or, from 8th October, buy his new book which will include the DVD. The site also has several video clips.

Another good place to visit is the Strandbeestmovie weblog, full length film due next summer, I will have to be patient waiting for that. Courtesy of that site here is a photo of Theo himself...


Theo Jansen at work, via Stranbeestmovie
visit to see more photo's of work in progress
including this peaceful video clip, Ypenburg graveyard

Water siphon

My 1st ever Ebay purchase! Best of all, it's white, so it will blend with my house.

I've avoided Ebay because I know I'd get addicted, but since this purchase was eco-friendly, practical, genuinely needed and loads cheaper than buying in the shops I went for it. You pump the brass end in your bath water, water butt or whatever to get the water to siphon with no need to suck on the hose. At last, being green doesn't need to involve a mouthful of dirty water.

Liz, got your mail, will reply when I get some free time and a clear head.

Sun and smoothies

The sun is shining in Mr P's kitchen window for a 3rd day and they say it will last all weekend! Outside the window is a large Buddleia, usually teaming with butterflies. Due to the soaking summer only one butterfly seems to have survived. I hope it finds a girlfriend so there'll be more next year.

Another flood related loss seems to be carrots, which may explain the sudden and mysterious disappearance of the tastiest new-ish drink by those wonderful folks at Innocent. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Innocent Smoothies and drinks. Not that I can afford them, but I use a little to pep up my own blends so I get more variety into them and don't get bored and go over to the dark side (chocolate). Their carroty drink was the best shop bought fruit/veg drink I've ever tasted, so sweet and refreshing. We bought it twice and have never seen it since. Till the next crop of carrots I'm enjoying Innocent Superfoods - Natural Detox which we tried when K was staying. It's yummy. Now I realise they are not organic, but they are a good company, I like how they work and I hope that as they grow they will add organic to the range. This page shows what their packaging is made from and how to recycle it. And they don't air freight their fruit.

I took a load of photo's in Edinburgh recently that I forgot about till yesterday, these were among them, taken on a cloudy evening. Imagine how bright this looks on a sunny day...





I may or may not blog over the weekend, I'm planning to get a lot done while we have no rain (so much DIY has been delayed it's scary). Goodness knows what state my muscles will be by Monday (Camilla, I never did have that bath, I was too tired to even move). For those sharing our weather, enjoy it as much as you can, even if it's just letting the light and fresh air into your home.

An entire dry day!

That's more like it, 10pm sky in July and no rain for a whole day. Shame the weather folk said there would be showers, I could have got some washing done if I'd known it would be hot and dry and windy. Instead, I obsessively unscrewed kitchen gadgets that had been stored in the back of Mr P's cupboards so that I could evict the tiny tiny tiny spiders that had set up home inside them. Who could blame them, some of those things hadn't been used for 3 years.


Last week

The things I'll do to take my mind of food cravings. I'm having to go on a pretty serious allergy detox/elimination diet to try and figure out what has been making me sick recently (well, sicker than what I already was). So no naughty treats like chocolate covered sesame snaps. I'm generally wheat free but not always gluten free cause I eat ryvita and oatcakes. I'm dreading the return to only having rice cakes now (the other suitable things are too pricey for me, or too tasty so they don't last). I'm slightly worried that rice and nuts seem to be causing problems recently. But for now I'm just cutting the ones I'm sure of. If there is no improvement in a month I'll try the others.


Last week

I had to go through the cupboards double checking the ingredients on the things I use and sure enough there were offending ingredients hidden in the things I use like my corn syrup (has malt from barley = gluten) and to my soya margarine had bloomin' dairy in it! Mr P bought that one so he's not used to label checking. Lucky I never use it much. Did I talk about the margarine already? This memory thing is freaking me out. The irony is, it's only 2 months since I applied to do voluntary work with Alzheimers patients.


Last week

So anyway, once I started looking in the cupboards I couldn't stop hence the discovery of the spidery gadgets. After the eviction there was some intense washing with lots of vinegar (kills bacteria). I have to be in the right mood for that sort of obsessive cleaning, and today I really was, I think because of the sunshine, it was like getting the spring cleaning urge. My hands, which are normally rough from gardening, are now the softest they have ever been in my adult life. Vinegar is such great stuff. I buy it in big 5 litre bottles for cleaning, chemicals are not given shelf space in this house. There's not much you can't clean with vinegar, bicarb or lemon, and for the rest there's Ecover.


Last week

Another benefit of intense washing was that the warm water really eased my aching hands and wrists after my mini drama yesterday where I locked all my different sets of keys inside my shed! The torrential rain appeared suddenly and before running to the house I closed the shed door and clicked the padlock shut - then yowled as I realised what I had done. Because I was pet sitting everywhere I had lots of keys with me so I couldn't feed anyone's animals without them. Mr P was away at a school reunion so no hope of getting into the house later on both our houses were locked.

I had to borrow a rusty almost blunt hacksaw off a neighbour and stand in highly inappropriate clothing (it had been very hot and sunny before the rain) hacking at the padlock for half an hour before I managed to cut through. I tell you, if ever there was a reason to treat myself to a naughty snack that would have been it, but I was good, I resisted temptation! This morning when I woke my body had seized up completely. I t took 4 hours to get enough movement to go and pee (too much detail, I know). I won't be locking my keys in the shed again.

My Metalwork - bowl

'Mermaids purse' bowl (detail) 1993
(real shark eggs shown for scale)


'Mermaids purse' bowl filled with water
Approx 40cm across

I was looking out an old ceramics photo for Paula and I remembered I said ages ago I'd show a some mermaids purse (sharks egg) inspired metalwork of mine. Photo's are of out of focus photo's from years ago, not ideal but you can kind of see the shapes.

I still have this bowl. I love when themes I've been working with interconnect, eggs and pods, and the sharks egg is both in it's way. Then the aquatic element, and the fact that the common name, here at least, is mermaids purse, and mermaids are another of my themes.

I made this from scrap copper (and old hot water tank) with fused edges to add to the decayed feeling that I like in my work. I used the silver dust that people made when sawing their earrings to fuse onto the 3 bumps in the raised detail. Me and my 3's.

No thunder today! Lots of sun and rain in equal measure.

Organic veg plot in tubs

Jill just emailed last week asking about the salad tubs I mentioned. We had some sun with only a few showers on Wednesday, so I was finally able to whip back the breathable agricultural fleece and let the fresh air in. The fleece keeps the slugs and wind out whilst allowing light in and usually isn't needed much in June. The Mizuna, Pak Choi and Wong Bok above (about 18 plants per tub) should have been packed like sardines by now and bulging out the top of the tub, growing faster than I can eat. Instead it looks like this...



But hey, I'm amazed and pleased they are alive at all given the weather (sun, rain and hail later on that day). Usually the fleece is enough to keep off summer showers, but with so much torrential rain to contend with I've used some salvaged ridged plastic over the top. It funnels the rain off but , crucially, still allows airflow through the fleece below so the plants don't get mouldy.

For anyone who wants details:
I drill about seven 1cm holes in the base and put a little bit of landscape fabric over the holes to stop the slugs and beasties sneaking in. That is followed by 1cm of drainage material (sand, grit, stones, broken brick or even old chopped bits of polystyrene will work). I add about 15cm of compost from the previous years courgettes mixed with some garden compost (yes, the stuff I pee'd on last year) and a handful of perlite for water retention in drought.



I love growing salad leaves in these discarded Ikea storage tubs because they provide such a protected little environment for tender seedlings. In the early stages I let them have sun all day and then tuck them up for the night with the fleece when it gets chilly and the leaf munching monsters come out to slime everything. I put a lot of plants in because I 'graze', picking a few leaves off each plant each day so they never get too huge for the space. I can usually harvest each tub for 3-4 weeks that way, less if Mr P starts munching too.

It works incredibly well and it means they need very little watering compared to normal tub planting. Last year, which was hot, I only needed to water them once a week once the the main leaves had spread out ( I pack them in close. I can also move them each month to the sunniest spot and the white surface stops the sun from overheating the soil in the tub which also reduces the need for watering.



Each tub is at a different stage so that there will always be fresh plants every few weeks to replenish the supply. When the plants from one tub are finished the tub can have a little fresh garden compost added to the mix before sowing more seeds. I like the Chinese salad leaves best as they seem more able to deal with extremes of temperature, the slugs don't like them as much once they are large, and I love the taste of them, especially Mizuna, I LOVE Mizuna.

So Jill, I hop I answered all your Q's, much easier with the pics I hope. I've farted around for days trying to make this read OK, my brain is increasingly mushy just now and it's seriously impacting my ability to do anything other than short posts. Hoping lots of sleep and green veggies will eventually improve things. It means I'm having trouble keeping up with comments and emails,
sorry, I'll do my best but rest is a higher priority, I'm trying not to spend much time on the computer.