The weather is wretched here today. No need to pretend, and I go window shopping with Le Flaneur. Pretend the weather is impossible and while away some time perusing these sites – no need to buy a thing, but it’s always beneficial to have a notion of just where you might find something when the need arises: Seibert-Rice offers a vast and expensive array of pots. What appeals is the robustness and visual strength of their designs. Pot rims…
The Flaneur du Pays continues his disquision on Containers. Materials Pots and containers are available in all the materials that a sculptor might employ: woods, metals (zinc seems to be the current favorite), clay, and recently fiberglass and synthetic resins. The natural materials remain the most aesthetically pleasing, but utility, lightness of weight and weather-durability all have their virtues as well and this is why the newer materials must be considered. These materials have, like the plants they’ll…
My friend, the Flaneur du Pays, is an architect and claims to be more of a vicarious gardener than a knees in the dirt type, but he has a lot to say about cachepots, jardinaires, urns and plain old pots. He will be guest posting from his cottage moderne set amid a grove of trees, in sight of a salt marsh and Long Island Sound, for a couple of days while I put my knees in the dirt.…
This posting just in from my friend Peter in Connecticut.Hello, Pat!This morning I was greeted by the arrival (or blooming) of my Inaugural poppies! Once every four years they bloom, although these haven't bloomed since January 1997 - they refused to bloom in 2001 or 2005 when George W. Bush took the oath of office. They're possibly, according to some nomenclatural set of rules, in the same class as Christmas or Epiphany cacti as far as blooming according…
When Peter travels he needs to fill his eye with ART. And do he went looking for works by Louise Nevelson - and others. His journey continues.If a flâneur were to select the ideal urban spots for his dawdling, no doubt two of three places selected would be a park and a museum. Fortune smiled when our San Francisco trip’s plans included a visit to the de Young Museum, located in Golden Gate Park. The museum is newly…
My friend Peter is not a devoted gardener, but he is discerning and witty with a strong visual sense and a lot to say about the world around him. The following is his dispatch from San Francisco.Being an architect can be difficult if one lives in a rural and relatively remote part of the country. Architecture is largely an urban exercise. For an architect the city is his garden. Sometimes it can be highly instructive or illuminating to…