I think I forgot to mention …. we have chickens now!! Yes, in addition to our Royal Plam turkeys, we now have 8 teenage chickens.  We think they are all girls, but suspect that Bones might be a boy — time will tell. (other names for our new crew ….Scoob, dooby, Daphne, Precious, Glinda, Chloe, and Mutmee)

My garden shed was converted to the henhouse (at least part of it) — but had I not had this available, I think I would be coveting the Nogg.  It is handcrafted by in the UK, and is a modern chicken coop that looks more like sculpture.

Designed to encourage domestic farming, the coop is made from cedar wood, which is fresh scented and naturally antibacterial. It  features stainless steel trimming, locks & fasteners and an elevated glass dome.

I know I am ‘away’ but as I said — in an out –and I am kinda loving this garden idea and had to take moment to toss it up here to share.  I recently adopted (temporarily) a whole bunch of house plants and this sketch looks alot like my three seasons porch — I have the challenge of keeping them just warm enough all winter without hiking up my utilitiy bills until I give them back — a glass toll booth roof woudl actually be helpful.

This and about a dozen other ideas for improving various work environments were created by illustrator Steven M. Johnson as part of GOOD’s Work Issue.

Head over to GOOD to see more of Johnson’s  ideas, or check out a slideshow of Johnson’s workplace solutions.

I had intended this post for sometime next week….but it seems it just needs to come a bit early.   I am going be on a little hiatus until the end of the month (November).  Don’t worry,  I will be right back here with renewed vigor on December 1st.  I am already looking forward to returning.

I am going to do a little traveling, a little family time, a little getting over illness and a lot of writing — of the novel sort.    I have a few posts that I have been working on, but as my mind has been elsewhere they are not complete — so I’m going to finish them all up this weekend, I hope, and make them post every few days or so in my absence — so there will still be some good reasons to come here and check out what is new, but I won’t actually be ‘here’  – until December. See you then — Happy Thanksgiving!  -R

By ooma90

I came across this excerpt (which I shortened slightly at Ian’s blog).  It is quoted from Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren:

Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.

It is a beauty of things modest and humble.

It is a beauty of things unconventional.

Wabi-sabi is a nature-based aesthetic paradigm that restores a measure of sanity and proportion to the art of living.

Wabi-sabi — deep, multi-dimensional, elusive — is the perfect antidote to the pervasively slick, saccharine, corporate style of beauty.

Get rid of all that is unnecessary. Wabi-sabi means treading lightly on the planet and knowing how to appreciate whatever is encountered, no matter how trifling, whenever it is encountered. …..
Mud, paper and bamboo have more intrinsic wabi-sabi qualities than do gold, silver and diamonds.

By jamesjustin

This little story of wabi sabi and the spirit of garden design is what really caught my attention:

Sen no Rikyu desired to learn The Way of Tea. He visited the Tea Master, Takeno Joo. Joo ordered Rikyu to tend the garden. Eagerly Rikyu set to work. He raked the garden until the ground was in perfect order. When he had finished he surveyed his work. He then shook the cherry tree, causing a few flowers to fall at random onto the ground. The Tea Master Joo admitted Rikyu to his school.
Rikyu in due course became a great Tea Master. It was he who introduced the concept of wabi-sabi, or elegant simplicity.

By tanakawho

Here is more of the quote from the book:

“Greatness” exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details. Wabi-sabi represents the exact opposite of the Western ideal of great beauty as something monumental, spectacular and enduring. Wabi-sabi is about the minor and the hidden, the tentative and the ephemeral: things so subtle and evanescent they are invisible to vulgar eyes….

By lolagranola425

Things wabi-sabi are unpretentious, unstudied and inevitable looking. They do not blare out “I am important” or demand to be the centre of attention. They are understated and unassuming, yet not without presence or quiet authority. Things wabi-sabi easily coexist with the rest of their environment.

Things wabi-sabi are appreciated only during direct contact and use; they are never locked away in a museum. Things wabi-sabi have no need for the reassurance of status or the validation of market culture. They have no need for documentation of provenance.

Things wabi-sabi can appear coarse and unrefined. They are usually made from materials not far removed from their original condition within, or upon, the Earth and are rich in raw texture and rough tactile sensation. Their craftsmanship may be impossible to discern.

By missjanetb

Simplicity is at the core of things wabi-sabi. The essence of wabi-sabi, as expressed in tea, is simplicity itself: fetch water, gather firewood, boil the water, prepare tea, and serve it to others.

The simplicity of wabi-sabi is best described as the state of grace arrived at by a sober, modest, heartfelt intelligence. The main strategy of this intelligence is economy of means. Pare down to the essence, but don’t remove the poetry. Keep things clean and unencumbered, but don’t sterilize. (Things wabi-sabi are emotionally warm, never cold.) Usually this implies a limited palette of materials. It also means keeping conspicuous features to a minimum. But it doesn’t mean removing the invisible connective tissue that somehow binds the elements into a meaningful whole. It also doesn’t mean in any way diminishing something’s “interestingness”, the quality that compels us to look at that something over, and over, and over again. (end quote)

By dezainur

What is wabi -sabi in your life? In your garden? These thoughts have been bouncing around in my head for last few days and I think they will have a profound effect on my future designs.

photo Alain Delavie

The Terrace Apartments Decoration, Designed by Christophe Ponceau, for the Tuileries Jardin Jardin show in June 2010, photo Alain Delavie.

With the theme “Inventing the urban nature” designers for the 2010 Jardin jardin show in Paris created Spaces in paris to display innovation and mark trends in urban gardens.   I quite enjoy the way the chairs are set so formally but are also surrounded by the planting — it all has a very regal effect. And I am not sure I would tend towards green furniture for the garden…I generally like a bit more color…but this works for me.  What do you think?  Do you like green furniture in the Garden?

- oh – and you might ask — where would you get a chair like those in this garden….well I found that too…(not exactly — I am working on it – but close) — it seems there might be a trend here for this kind of furniture…

This woven chair is from Aprro.

Surely you have seen the beautiful Harmony Farm by James Doyle, the APLD Landscape Designer of the year?  It is a beautiful place and I have meant to feature it as the Daily garden for some time now — however in the chaos of the planting season, it simply got lost in my inbox.  It feels so good to be clearing things out a bit and catching up.  So just in case you haven’t already enjoyed the beautiful garden at Harmony Farm and all its clipped boxwood niceness…here it is. Again.