Category: This and that


2000 years old floral motifs from Emona

Filed under: Design, Historic landscapes, This and that — 11 Comments
28/01/2014

Tamara Jare's avatarMy Botanical Garden

Location of Emona within present day central Ljubljana, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emona

Ljubljana is celebrating 2000 years since Emona, a Roman settlement, was founded. Emona belonged to the province of Italy and had around 5000 inhabitants. Modern Ljubljana overlaps with site of old Emona. Roman remnants are to be seen in archaeological parks, galleries, architecture and museums across Ljubljana. I’ve found a ’73 year booklet about Emona frescoes  yesterday.  It is fascinating to discover Emona homes were as neatly decorated as they are today. I am particularly fond of floral motifs used on Emona  frescoes  , they tell us the story of nearby flora of the time , of the artists of the time, of the pigments used and of the social importance of the beauty that is telling its story even after 2000 years! Here are some illustrations from the booklet:

Ljudmila Plesničar Gec,  Emonske freske, Ljubljana 1973

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The Old Oak Estate, Hammersmith: ‘that line of beauty which Hogarth said was in a curve’

Filed under: Design, Historic landscapes, This and that — 3 Comments

Municipal Dreams's avatarMunicipal Dreams

Imagine a Hampstead Garden Suburb built for working people.  Better still, if you’re in London take the Tube and get off at Acton East and visit the Old Oak Estate where you’ll find just such an estate.

We’ve looked at the work of the LCC’s Architects’ Department Housing of the Working Classes branch before – at the Millbank Estate, at Totterdown Fields, and at the White Hart Lane Estate. These are all fine arts and crafts-inspired estates but to Susan Beattie, Old Oak stands as ‘the culminating achievement of the Council’s venture into garden suburb planning before the first world war’ – a work of ‘splendid maturity’. (1)

Rising costs of land and labour were forcing the LCC to look to what were then the London fringes.  In 1905, the Council purchased 54 acres in Hammersmith from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at a cost of £29,858.  Eight acres…

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Filed under: Community Gardening, School and childrens' Gardening, This and that, Wildlife and Nature — 4 Comments
27/01/2014

Tree Grants for Schools and Community Groupsschool trees

‘Grant applications for the 2014 planting season are now open.

The Tree Council’s Tree Futures offers help for tree planting through two grants programmes, the ‘Trees for Schools‘ and ‘Community Trees‘ funds.  Any school or community group within the UK that is planning a project that actively involves children under 16 is encouraged to draw on the fund to plant trees and make a greener future.

The Tree Council’s National Tree Week (from 29 November to 7 December in 2014) is the focus for these projects and successful applicants organise their planting events in conjunction with our annual celebration of the new tree planting season.

In addition, we are offering funds for fruit tree planting by schools and community groups through our Orchard Windfalls fund, first launched for the 2013 planting season. We are able to fund projects between £100 and £700 and successful applicants will receive up to 75% towards their planting costs. For example, if your project totals £700, The Tree Council would offer up to £525. The remaining 25% will need to be secured by your school or organisation.

With the generous support of an anonymous donor we have been able to produce a Key Stage 1 & 2 teaching and learning resource which will be sent out free of charge to all successful grant applicants. To see taster pages and information about how to purchase the CD ROM please click on this Tree Ties link.’

Old School Gardener

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What we’ve been reading this week

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24/01/2014

canwefeedtheworld's avatarOne Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?

This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

African farming: Cassava now the centre of attention, Financial Times

Why GMOs matter — especially for the developing world, Grist

Abundance Doesn’t Mean Health, New York Times

Monsanto Is Going Organic in a Quest for the Perfect Veggie, Wired

Global Food Businesses Support Climate Smart Agriculture through New Web App, Cool Farm Tool

Lant Pritchett on why we struggle to think in systems (and look for heroes and villains instead), Duncan Green

African Orphan Crops Consortium announces 100 crops for sequencing, UC Davis

Plant Genetic Resources and Climate Change, CABI

India needs to export excess foodgrains, Money Life

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Furtive Gooseberries

Filed under: Grow your own food, This and that — Leave a comment

gooseberry

‘Now I am in the garden at the back…- a very preserve of butterflies, as I remember it, with a high fence and a gate and padlock; where the fruit clusters on the trees, riper and richer than fruit has ever been since, in any other garden, and where my mother gathers some in a basket, while I stand by, bolting furtive gooseberries, and trying to look unmoved.’

Charles Dickens – David Copperfield 1850

Old School Gardener

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Masquerade and Plants

Filed under: PicPosts- great photographs, This and that, Wildlife and Nature — 3 Comments
23/01/2014

Tamara Jare's avatarMy Botanical Garden

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There were many beautiful illustrations in the old zoological textbook I wrote about in my last post. Today I’ve picked some illustrious examples of what is known as masquerade or mimesis. Basically, prey animals during evolution developed mechanisms, to camouflage and have higher surveillance rates. Mimetic animals look like something else, not interesting to the predator, like bark, twig, leaf or even lichen. You have the examples on the pictures above, they are actuary  full of  mother nature’s wit. But could it be presumed, that mimesis is a form of  aggressive influential behaviour? Meaning ,that flora in general, is in a way pushing other species to try to survive by being more flora like. Which in turn ends in better surveillance rates of real flora, as the, so to say, fake mimetic subjects de facto are ”incompetent plants”? Would like to hear your opinion about this science-fiction idea!

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Aspen House Open Air School, Lambeth: doing ‘the world of good’

Filed under: Open Spaces, Play, This and that — Leave a comment
22/01/2014

Municipal Dreams's avatarMunicipal Dreams

There’s something counter-intuitive about exposing ‘delicate’ children to the elements, come rain, come shine: (1)

Sometimes, when we got there in the morning the snow would have blown in on to the tables and chairs and we would have to clear it off before we could start.

But by all accounts, it did Norman Collier, a pupil at the Aspen House Open Air School in Streatham in the 1930s, ‘the world of good’.

The school was opened by the London County Council in 1925 for pupils described at the time as ‘pre-tuberculous’ – children who were anaemic, asthmatic or malnourished.   It was the fifth of the LCC’s open-air schools.  The first had been opened in Bostall Wood in Woolwich on land donated by the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society in 1907.  But it was the first built to the council’s ‘improved design’ which would go on to be used in fourteen…

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Please share to show my pupils how far a photo can go (even if you don’t want it to!)

Filed under: This and that — 1 Comment
21/01/2014

takaita's avatarNot about everything

Sharing this, because it seems an interesting lesson.

I am teaching E-safety to my pupils at the moment and wanted to try a little experiment. Please share this photo and see how far it gets, I want to show my students how easily photos etc can go viral, even when you may not want them to. Share it and see how far it goes!

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Green Monday

Filed under: This and that — 2 Comments
20/01/2014

From the RHS:

‘Blue Monday? Not for gardeners! A new survey has shown that Brits truly are a nation of gardeners with 77% saying they garden and 82% saying it makes them feel happier! A whopping 70% also said that given the choice, they would prefer to spend their working day in a garden. Inspired? See our films of horticulturists explaining their jobs make them happy, and join us on Twitter all day tweeting with ‪#‎GreenMonday‬: http://bit.ly/1b1PJcu’

I’ve just come in from some garden foliage clearing – crisp, sunny afternoon, wonderful sunset….happy.

Old School Gardener

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Help build the policy case for play

Filed under: Play, This and that — Leave a comment

Tim Gill's avatarRethinking Childhood

This post asks for your help in building the case for play. I am writing a report – aimed at Government – that gathers together evidence for the difference that play facilities and initiatives can make to children, families and communities. And I need your help in pulling together this evidence. I hope you agree this is an important and urgent task, given the scale of recent cuts to play facilities.

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