I am not sure how I feel about being old enough to see fashions and fads truly recycle themselves.  I remember my grandmother and mother saying to me “Thats not new….I remember when blah blah was the fashion back when I was….blah blah”.  Well, now I am saying it.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with my sun block printing kit.   I loved it and it seemed at the time like something lots of other people did too…..so the resurgence of this pretty way to capture a bit of your garden for your home couldn’t please me more, even if it does make me sound like my mother and make me wonder if I may need to begin lying about my age.

Have you noticed the resurgence of sun prints?

Sun printing was originally developed by Anna Atkins (a British botanist, 1799-1871) who used the process to document and catalog plants.  She felt it was more accurate than her drawings.  There is a great telling of the story of her and the algea that she first documented at Venetian Red.

The process (as applied to not just scientific record keeping) reveals beautiful results that are perfect for decor of all kinds.

Here is my round up of all the sunblocking that is catching my attention:

Blueware Tiles, vases and even lampshades by Studio Glithero.

Both Martha  Stewart and Garden Design have nice write-ups about the how-tos and you can get printable fabric at blue prints on fabric.

You can also learn more about doing it yourself from a new book by  Christine Schmidt of Yellow Owl Workshop.

I am excited to give this old craft of mine a new twist….maybe I can even get my kids hooked on it, and one day when they are 30 something, they can say, hey- “that’s not new,  I used to do blah blah back when I was blah blah…”;)

To see more sun-spiring print inspiration, check out my newest pinterest board.

images from Martha  Stewart , Garden Design, Rinne Allen,  and that cake (which is not really cyanotype but an airbrushed edible copy) is from Once Wed.

Just down the road from where I live is the one of the most notable bridges in history.  The Concord bridge is the sight of ‘the shot heard round the world’; renowned in American history as the the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

This morning, when I realized I had all but forgotten about today’s water post, a friend quickly (and thankfully) gave me much needed inspiration when she said that the first thing she thought of when I said water was bridges. (and we have so many famous bridges in our midst!)

Bridges, of course! They go hand in hand with water….(unless, like me, you are just as likely to charge straight through a babbling brook, soaking a perfectly good pair of shoes).   Bridges are the elegant, and if you think about it, often iconic way, of crossing water.  They are boundary breakers and funnel points. In the garden these features can be anything from spare and simple (think a log bridge) to gorgeously ornate (think curvy arched bridges of Japanese gardens)  and everything in between.   Designing a garden bridge is an opportunity to define the sensations of a garden and if you get it right, I guarantee that bridge will be one of the most memorable things in your landscape.

So, do you want to cross the water with a bit of excitement and suspense? Consider loosing the railings, leaving gaps between a stepping stone bridge or even a suspended bridge. Do you want to ponder the water’s reflection?  Or do you want the bridge to be an object d’ art?  Perhaps it is floating or maybe it covered. The often forgotten underside of a bridge seems have as much garden opportunity at the topside.

I hope this round-up of bridges will inspire you to think about how you cross water.

1. Flagstones, 2. Going for a walk , 3. Red and black bridge, 4. Magic Garden, 5. swinging bridge, 6. red bridge, 7. Qibao, 8. Bridge in the Gardens of Louisiana, 9. Millennium Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral, 10. Relocated Pratt Truss Bridge, Battleground at Deer Park Golf Course, Deer Park, Texas 0206101414BW, 11. Army Photography Contest – 2007 – FMWRC – Arts and Crafts – Bridge Into Fog, 12. log-bridge, 13. Covered bridge, 14. the separation, 15. Monet’s Garden – Bridge, 16. Oxygrains Old Bridge 1, 17. Katie, on the stone bridge, 18. Public Garden Bridge, 19. Bridge in the Woods AD, 20. Bendy Bridge
There is more talk about Water in the garden today with my Garden Designer’s Round Table Colleagues — Make sure to check out the rest of the posts:

Debra Lee Baldwin : Gardening Gone Wild : Escondido, CA

Tara Dillard : Vanishing Threshold : Atlanta, GA

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Jenny Peterson : J Peterson Garden Design : Austin TX

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

I am feeling quite accomplished, it is only four days since I have returned home, and the luggage is back in the attic (laundry still awaits) the garden is about half reclaimed from the weeds, mowed and the mid summer resurrection process has begun, and I have organized my pictures.  As I got them all together yesterday, I realized that there were some pretty inspiring shots for all kinds — glamping, construction, natural beauty, desert style, wildflowers, and even a little garden design.   I picked some of my favorites for you…..enjoy. (make sure you click through to the gallery because each image has a description to tell you more about it)

Here was our route –

Day 1 – Denver (actually Castle Rock)  – Great Sand Dunes N.P. – Mesa Verde  N.P. (fourth of July in Mancos. CO)

Day 2 – Mesa Verde

Day 3 Mesa Verde – Four Corners, Canyon de Chelly National Park, Hubble Trading Post National Monument,  Holbrook, AZ.

Day 4 Holbrook, AZ – Petrified Forest, Flagstaff, AZ,  Grand Canyon.

Day 5 – Grand Canyon N.P.

Day 6- Grand Canyon

Day 7 – Grand Canyon, Vermillion Cliffs, Glen Canyon Dam, Kanab UT (Hollywood for Westerns), Zion N.P.

Day 8 – Zion N.P. – Bryce Canyon N.P.

Day 9 – Zion N.P.

Day 10- Zion N.P. – Capital Reef National Park – Arches National Park (Moab, UT)

Day 11 – Arches N.P.  and Canyonlands N.P.

Day 12 – Arches N.P. – Taylor Canyon (Near Crested Butte, CO)

Day 13 Taylor Canyon

Day 14 – Taylor Canyon – Castle Rock, CO (via tow truck)

If you are headed out to any of these places — drop a note — I feel like I am now a minor expert and may be able to make some recommendations or pass along some been there advice.

Do you have any summer adventures planned?  What will be inspiring you this summer holiday season.

I had to take the day off yesterday.  I came home from vacation to a horrific garden mess and I spent the entirety of yesterday in the garden fixing things up.  At least, when I drive up my driveway I need to gain of sense of peace rather than agitation.   I also spent much of that time pondering ideas for making all of it more simple so I can be more settled.   Here is what I came up with for my garden but I am hoping you can share some of your simplifying tips too.

1) I HATE hosta flowers.  And, I have a garden full of hostas….mind you I have never purchased a hosta, they are all the sad cast offs of clients, so I have shoved them every where I can think of.  Many of the places are just right, but the row of them in front of the front wall is just wrong.  They are getting too much sun, and the hideous hosta flowers greet me daily.   They are going.  I think I am going to replace them with a short lavender hedge to match the one on the other side of the driveway. Much easier and much more appropriate.

2) Irrigation.  I have the luxury of living in New England, where if a garden is planted smartly, one can largely avoid having an irrigation system.  But this isn’t true for my vegetable patch and I simply can’t trust that the plants will get what they need from manual watering (the time!!) .  The housesitter didn’t give them enough water and I find it hard to find the time for watering myself.  The irrigation is going in.

3) I’m going back to “Preen” – at least the organic version.   The weeds in the rows between my garden beds and in the cracks between my brand new cobblestone path are enough to make me cry.  And crab grass just sucks.   If I don’t do it, I may have to give up gardening all together it is just too overwhelming.

4) New wish list item - Game Camera.  My parents have game cameras set all around their house.  They get a lot of entertainment from seeing all the garden visitors (coyotes, deer, even a bobcat once).  I have decided that I can’t waste my time and just continue to blame whomever (woodchuck, bunny, chipmunk, deer) for my critter problems, I need to know, with hard facts who I am up against (know your enemy!)….primarily because all my previously successful deterrents are suddenly not working.   Plus I have a sneaky suspicion that a bear might have come through a time or too and it would just be cool to know that for sure.

What have you done in your garden to reduce maintenance….any brilliant ideas?

It’s late and I am not packed but I wanted to drop in an let you know I am probably off line til Thursday .  I am traveling home tomorrow.  My Glamping trip is coming to a close and it is back to real life.  I am looking forward to sharing all the inspiration I am taking with me — Next week — when I have re-acclimatized, mowed the lawn and settled back in.    Until then I wanted to share with you this great article over on Slate.com about Weeds. It’s called In Defense of Weeds and it caught my attention because so many of these plants are not really where I currently reside, but where I have been for these few weeks, and it is all about seeing things in a different light….and I think that often the greatest inspiration comes from changing perspectives.   See you on thursday.

Do you agree Wabi Sabi is trendy?   These recycled tin cans decoupaged with pretty wall paper are perfect for creating of Wabi Sabi Style.  Wabi-Sabi Wanderings created them where you can find a full set of directions for making your own.

Click here to see.

found via Poppytalk.