Fertilising what?

Grime on Lisbon stone - arguably including sulphur dioxide deposits

On Thursday I came across a fascinating article in Science Daily (see link below) about the possibility that the use of potassium fertilisers in flower-beds on top of a Belgrade fortress had contributed to a dark crust on the limestone of the structure itself.  Previously this effect has been thought to be more to do with the effects of sulphur dioxide pollution from coal-based industry and heating activities.  It is also an effect that occurs widely in the UK and the rest of the world and this research gives much-needed pause for thought on the very use of high levels of fertiliser in horticulture and also in agriculture.  It ties in with other effects on biodiversity and landscape that I have noticed in myriad locations.

This blog post is more complicated than some, so instead of weaving the point through the text as I often do, this time I am being very up-front about what it is about:
Economics – why use more than is absolutely necessary, surely having it leach away is throwing money literally down the drain?
Aesthetics – why make what we want to look good look anything but?
Practical common sense – why use too much and at the wrong time for it to benefit the intended recipient?

Guano buildup in Chile is a key source of fertiliser

What is fertiliser? Traditional farming methods have used all manner of extra nutrients to augment the soil in order to improve crop yield and give a better return on investment, of both time and money.  Horticulture is similarly interested in promoting growth and vibrant foliage with the aim of making plants grow for longer, flower for longer and, with some but not all, to help them live for longer. Manure, potash, lime dug from lime pits, all have been used widely but have been finite in their availability.  In recent decades far greater emphasis has been laid on the use of inorganic fertilisers, many of which are heavy with nitrogen and create ammonia as a by-product. These inorganic fertilisers are ready to be taken up by the plants immediately, which means very speedy results, but the risks of leaching loss are magnified as a result.

Oh! I didn’t expect that!

This is one of my favourite responses to the world I pass through.  Much used by many purveyors of advertising, done well it can provoke a huge range of reactions and often-times includes the production of happy endorphins!

This first photograph took only a few short steps out of the back door to achieve the enigmatic ‘You what!’ moment.  Apparently a box-load of rubber gloves had been lurking in our neighbour’s shed and she decided one morning to wash them.  Obviously the next step was to hang them up to dry.  Very practical, but a very strange sight....

The next photo is part of a series that I used in a blog post last year, but it is such a remarkable piece of craftsmanship and warm sense of humour that I have to use another from the set.  Kaffe Fassett’s murals for the Highland Stoneware company utilised broken shards from some of their very popular designs.  The sheep design just visible adorns a well-loved vase of mine as well as this rock in the bay at Lochinver.

Some sights are utterly normal to those for whom they are a part of their daily life.  For the rope-makers in Reykjavik this bobbin delivering stock for the creation of fishing nets and tough mooring ropes are part of the daily routine.  For those of us whose grandmothers used smaller bobbins, it is an insight into a world we normally take so much for granted. It also raises questions about the work done behind the scenes, in a way that many other pieces of equipment would be hard-pressed to achieve.

Not always built to last.....

Autumn.
A time of year that triggers reflection, often on the ephemeral nature of things.  As deciduous trees respond to the night frosts and the sun sits lower in the sky, leaves turn brown and fall to the ground.  This can also be a time to celebrate a spontaneity that can come from short-lived design. 
 











The plan here is to avoid the temptation to get darkly reflective on the short-lived nature of the built form, but to look at items in the landscape that are designed NOT to last, but maybe to give cover to the construction of things that will last or to celebrate an event.  Sometimes these designs are for an ephemeral experience, but most often they are in order to add to one that in days past would have been dull-thudding boredom and a trigger for an exotic variety of graffiti.  Graffiti comes in many forms and will be the subject of its own post.  There is graffiti that is many centuries old, so it is not all eligible for this blog post!

The two photos showing construction boarding were taken in Helsinki and Madrid.  In Helsinki the construction perimeter surrounding the new Music Hall was stamped with designs that were echoing the elements of the modern city, such as mobile phones and screaming babies, lawn mowers and bicycles.  All sound generators, so a subliminal message of sound went along the distraction from the cranes and steel work on the site.  In Madrid airport the construction barriers within the new Terminal 4 had various emblems on them, again with subliminal and up front messages about the future use of the areas behind the screens.  The designs interact with the highly polished floors to create patterns for the eye and cease to be about just a wall up to block people out of an area, giving something back in exchange.

Traffic wind-up schemes

Usually when I put these posts together they are to comment on small features we tend to overlook in our day-to-day lives and they are primarily rant-free zones.  No blog can be fully rant-free forever, however, their very existence is for individual expression.  Today it is a bit of a rant, but I don’t believe that it is a lonely rant....

There is no visibility to oncoming cars and streams of
vehicles head off regardless of priority

We in the UK have an expanding population alongside increased vehicle ownership.  More people mean more houses and this means roads that had developed for lower levels of traffic now bear the strain.  While attempts to force people to adopt laughably inappropriate and inadequate public transport options fail in rural areas, parallel attempts at slowing the traffic down have varying levels of success.

In our Sussex village, inside the new South Downs National Park, we have what has to be one of the most ridiculous and irritating sets of traffic calming measures ever implemented.

There is a clue in the phrase 'Traffic Calming' that ought to imply that the idea is to calm the traffic down.  It is hard to remember this through most measures experienced.  Traffic Wind-up is by far the more appropriate phrase.  There has been considerable research done on this subject in both the Netherlands and in Germany.  It is of no great surprise to learn that traffic behaviour is at its very best when drivers are calm, unstressed and not confused.

Land of Harps and Puffin'

Harpa – the new Icelandic National Concert and Conference Centre in Reykjavik, Iceland

In August, for various reasons, I found myself in Reykjavik, dropped down by a bus right outside the unexpected sight of ‘Harpa’, the soon-to-be-opened new Concert Hall for Iceland.  It was in the last few stages of construction, to get ready for its official opening a few days later.  As a result of all that has happened to Iceland over the past few years it looms out of the edge of the harbour all dressed up for a party, surrounded by blank ground where new buildings are apparently intended to turn up sometime soon.

The unfinished landscape treatment added to this strange aura, but all sense of perplexity vanishes in a flash of blue and green-gold light as you look up to the facade as you get closer to it.

The building itself was designed as a collaboration between the Danish Henning Larsen Architects and the Icelandic Batteríið Architects.  The dressing up of the facades was planned and designed by a Danish-Icelandic artist called Ólafur Elíasson, apparently to echo the variety of geological and landscape features in Icelandic terrain.  (The Harpa website is here).  Certainly the effect is mesmerising, and for anyone interested in photography and light it is a playground.  The name Harpa I gather is a result of public consultation, Harpa being both Icelandic for harp and a popular girl’s name.

Weather 1 – WIND

Level crossing sign pushed over by 1987 winds

Last month, as Hurricane Irene rushed her way up the east coast of the United States of America, quite a few people put up their two-penneth on the subject of our own 1987 UK Hurricane.  There were references to over-reaction because a few tiles got shaken in the breeze, which I found troubling on two counts:
a) it seemed a bit of an attempt to belittle the very powerful forces heading towards areas of the US that were not used to them and the action taken by politicians to minimise the risk to life of their people; and
b) it seemed an attempt to re-write the story of that time. 
Now we have inherited another US storm, Katia, this morning.  All this has woken up some very strong memories from 1987 and the consequences for the landscape of Sussex and neighbouring counties.  Needless to say the damage in the US has been substantial.  The damage in Sussex in 1987 was the worst for 200 years and in many places our skylines still bear the scars.

Tweet Tweet TWITTER

Tweeting in birds is to attract attention - and food....

It is hard to believe but only a month ago I started to embark upon the roller-coaster ride of learning Twitter, how it works and how people play the game. It has been an incredibly momentous period, with huge world events occurring in tandem, my learning curve including different aspects of how this phenomenon works and otherwise feeding an obsession to follow the Hackgate soap opera. The appalling events in Norway unfolded before my disbelieving eyes once I had spotted the first notice of trouble on the Reuters website, right down to a first tweet on the shootings.  To follow that on the same day with the news of losing a very talented musician who had suffered so much pain and be prompted by myriad users to a very fine piece of writing that was strong, compassionate and understood terribly well how these things happen was truly unexpected.  I am purposely not naming names here, those names are not why I am writing this blog.

Twitter is so young.  It was born in 2006 and took a few days of hatching before it was given such a profoundly apt name, apparently intended as much as anything else to reflect the success of Flickr (I must be one of the very few who are concerned about Flickr but that is different stuff). A collaborative effort following on from brainstorming, with development and input from users and non-users, software developers etc, it has grown into a global presence, sometimes being given credit for more influence than is quite true. Having done a lot of tour-leading and group escorting I know a lot about group dynamics, the nature of the group is frequently at odds with the individuals that make it up, a disconcerting truth that impacts on behaviour patterns. This appears to be something that happens with Twitter as well and is plausibly part of its addictive power.