Review of the Year - Graffiti Art December 14, 2008 Click on View All Images if you don't want the puzzle style effect and/or you would like to view a larger image.It's that time of the year when our media starts their picks of the year and Veg Plotting isn't going to be the exception. Today's post is the start of several compilations to keep you entertained over the darkest days of winter. I thought it was also a good opportunity to have a play with another Slide option as it fits the subject matter so well. Besides, it covers up the fact there's only 10 pictures in the slideshow!2008 was the first time graffiti appeared in Chippenham in its more 'artistic' guise, though of course whether it's art is still being hotly debated. Suffice to say Banksy, its most famous proponent, has seen some very lucrative sales of his work this year, plus the recent publication of a 'coffee table' style book. Sadly the stencil-style works appearing around Chippenham and Trowbridge aren't Banksy, though I do hope to show you some real examples from Bristol in the New Year.I doubt anyone dislikes the examples I found in Bristol in September. These very colourful pictures decorate the hoardings outside the refurbishment of the dockside Industrial Museum. It was a project a group of graffiti artists held with local schoolchildren and portrays their views of what Bristol is all about. If you look carefully at the 3 pictures (new to Veg Plotting) in the slideshow you'll see a small metal grille in each of them. These provide a tiny window onto the building work going on behind.Artistic developments have not been so dramatic in Chippenham since my previous posts on the subject, but several signature style examples have started to appear in the town. Apart from these, I'm not documenting the rest of the town's graffiti as it would take forever and isn't that interesting. Our newspaper this week suggests there will be a clampdown on this type of graffiti in the coming months, particularly where it is offensive (e.g. at St Andrew's Church).I've been sent a timely article this week about Graffiti in the Garden, particularly the work done by a group of Brazilian artists at Kelburn Castle. Whilst I like the work used at Bristol docks to cover a temporary eyesore, I'm unsure about an entire building, particularly an historic one. Have a look here and see what you think. You'll also see there's a lively debate going on in the comments!Previously on Veg Plotting:Was it Banksy, Is it Art?Chippenham's Banksy - UpdateGraffiti Spread Get link Facebook X Pinterest Email Other Apps Comments petoskystone14 December 2008 at 13:22wow! kelburn castle is beautiful now :)! that is certainly one way to generate interest in your public garden. the artists are some brave folk to be painting that high up on the chimney & turrets.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyVP14 December 2008 at 20:09Hi Petoskystone - good to see you and thanks for Following too :)I was worried that no-one would read to the end and actually see I'd found a gardening angle to all of this! Thank you for doing so. It's an amazing transformation isn't it?ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyAnonymous15 December 2008 at 20:30I read to the end too. Sometimes I go on botanical and pick a bunch I like and then go back for a good read. Glad I came back for this one. Such a lively debate going on. I think maybe they should pick which buildings to paint. So I sorta like the idea. Cheap way to get unsightly buildings refurbished. But the castle pictured? I think it ruined it. I prefer to see the beautiful old stone and brick.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyVP16 December 2008 at 12:10Hi Anna - glad you read to the end too. Yes, I think painting a lot of our bland 60s concrete buildings would be an improvement. In fact thinking about it, they've done that in Bristol already with some of the big blocks of flats. The residents chose the colour schemes too. However, they were huge slabs of colour rather than pictures!ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyAdd commentLoad more... Post a Comment I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :) Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!
That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide April 12, 2020 Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ... Read more
Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone? March 13, 2009 The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape... Read more
Jack Go To Bed At Noon July 22, 2011 Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl... Read more
#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe June 03, 2017 Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee... Read more
VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants February 05, 2010 Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the... Read more
Make Use of Mildew August 06, 2014 On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi... Read more
Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce March 22, 2013 I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing ... Read more
Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I May 17, 2014 The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom: Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter, ... Read more
The 52 Week Salad Challenge Begins January 06, 2012 Hurrah - lots of you have said you're up for the 52 Week Salad Challenge and lo, here we are in week 1! We have people from the UK, France and the USA all eager to have a go, so our salad is fast taking on an international flavour :) Quite a few of you asked questions on how this is going to work, which is where today's kick-off post comes in... The main idea is that we all grow and/or forage some salad leaves to eat every week this year. What and how much is entirely up to you. We're in completely different locations, have different tastes, levels of skill and resources available so devising something more specific to suit everyone would be very hard and might not be what you'd really like to do. Over the year I'll be posting every Friday with ideas of what to grow, techniques to use and anything else I can think of that's salad related. I've already got oodles of ideas, but if there's something you'd particularly like me to post about, t... Read more
For National Tree Week December 01, 2024 It's the final day of this year's National Tree Week today and I want to celebrate the tree which stopped me in my tracks recently. At other times this has been a very big week for me, having organised and helped to plant thousands of trees in south Wales as part of an Earthwatch project in the 1990s. Those days feel like they're part of another life, but it's good to be reminded how important trees still are to me, simply by just being there. The pictured tree is towards the end of my walk into town and I must have walked past it hundreds of times, but for once I saw it properly for the first time. It was just as the different combinations of colour from green through yellow and orange to red were at their finest which helped to catch my undivided attention. It's not the tallest specimen in the world, but wow, it really helps to soften the brutalist concrete of the shops behind it. Then I looked at the leaves more closely, and realised it's a liquidambar aka... Read more
wow! kelburn castle is beautiful now :)! that is certainly one way to generate interest in your public garden. the artists are some brave folk to be painting that high up on the chimney & turrets.
ReplyDeleteHi Petoskystone - good to see you and thanks for Following too :)
ReplyDeleteI was worried that no-one would read to the end and actually see I'd found a gardening angle to all of this! Thank you for doing so. It's an amazing transformation isn't it?
I read to the end too. Sometimes I go on botanical and pick a bunch I like and then go back for a good read. Glad I came back for this one. Such a lively debate going on. I think maybe they should pick which buildings to paint. So I sorta like the idea. Cheap way to get unsightly buildings refurbished. But the castle pictured? I think it ruined it. I prefer to see the beautiful old stone and brick.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna - glad you read to the end too. Yes, I think painting a lot of our bland 60s concrete buildings would be an improvement. In fact thinking about it, they've done that in Bristol already with some of the big blocks of flats. The residents chose the colour schemes too. However, they were huge slabs of colour rather than pictures!
ReplyDelete