http://philipsgardenblog.com Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:58:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This last Valentines Day we exchanged cards, savored specialty chocolates and planted trees in our city. "Share The Love" was the name of the Valentines Day tree planting event held by The Friends of The Urban Forest. We joined up at 9:00 in the morning with other volunteers and neighborhood residents to plant ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2009/02/23/share-the-love-friends-of-the-urban-forest/ Wa (Harmony) After leaves have fallen from branches and late flowers have gone to seed, the garden in winter exists in a time apart; a time of pine, moss, stone, twig and branch. Thin light from a low sun reveals immutable forms; the winter garden is ascetic, chaste and austere. Wistful recollections of summer's past and yearnings ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2009/01/23/the-way-of-tea-on-the-dewy-path-in-winter/ In the Moment, Rick Carpenter 2002 This is a garden about garbage. This is a garden about art made from garbage. This is a garden about recycling garbage that may save our planet.  When I first heard that there was not only a garden at the dump, but that the city of San Francisco also sponsored ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2009/01/17/what-is-a-nice-garden-doing-in-a-dump-like-this/ Every year there are a few gardens that I have to visit. These are "destination" gardens: gardens worthy of a dedicated outing. The Green Gulch farm and garden in the Marin headlands is of that category. Usually we visit this garden in the summer, when parts of the garden are filled with the ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2009/01/07/green-gulch-farm-and-garden-a-winter-visit/  an old pond  a frog jumps in  the sound of water                         Basho  In a narrow coastal valley nestled in the Marin headlands is the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, also known as Green Dragon Temple (Soryu-ji). This Buddhist practice center in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition seeks to "awaken the bodhisattva spirit, the spirit of kindness and ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/12/31/watershed/ The week before Christmas we woke up to the sound of soft rain. Now, most people would pull up the bedcovers and linger over a cup of coffee. That does sound wonderfully cozy, but I could not pull on my hiking boots fast enough. Armed with my coat and camera I set out into ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/12/25/meadowfoam/ As the days of the year grow shorter, the Pacific coast near San Francisco clears of fog. This is my favorite time of year to be out and about, to be in the sun; an expedition to a world away minutes from home. Recently, on a warm and hazy December afternoon, we ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/12/12/the-marin-headlands-a-winter-exploration/ Movement, change, light growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. I want to get under the surface. When I work with ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/11/22/art-of-the-forest-andy-goldsworthy-and-peter-erlich-at-the-presidio/     Oh, heck! I thought we would have this beach to ourselves"   This has become a favorite family expression since my aunt Joan first said this on Ten Mile Beach many years ago. We were dragging long canvas sacks, formally U.S. postal bags, now filled with the driftwood we had collected. Far ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/11/14/grasses-on-the-strand/     I have been a new garden blogger on Blotanical twice!   A few months ago I had some problems with the feed on my blog and I was no longer showing on Blotanical. A directory of garden blogs from all over the world, Blotanical  was created by Stuart Robinson. Indeed, Stuart's own blog, Gardening Tips "N" Ideas, originates ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/11/08/blotanical-a-garden-of-friends/ Eleven years ago the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened its doors to visitors from all over the world, and thus ushered in "The Bilbao Effect". Cities wishing to be considered "world class" and attract those tourist dollars have since constructed remarkable structures to house cultural institutions, from the Getty Center in ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/11/03/the-living-roof-the-gardens-of-the-california-academy-of-sciences/ Honeybees and bumblebees, hummingbirds and cedar waxwings, books in the teahouse and friends on the lawn, wildflowers and poppies dancing in the sun: this was the year in my garden. A few years ago I decided to remove a number of perennial shrubs in my San francisco garden to recreate the feeling ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/10/02/my-garden-year-from-seed-to-flower-back-to-seed-again/ Wayne Thiebaud, Street and Shadow, 1982-83, 1996 http://www.crockerartmuseum.org, Oil on linen 35 3/4 in. x 23 3/4 in. Crocker Art Museum, gift of the artist's family "Vertiginous." This is the way Wayne Thiebaud (the painter, not artist, he insists) describes the landscape of San Francisco. Various dictionaries define this word as having an aspect ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/09/18/art-and-the-city-artists-depictions-of-san-francisco/ Planted smack dab in the middle of San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza is a demonstration garden of edible and ornamental plants that has the potential to not only create a radical shift in our food production, but a re-imagining of the garden itself. "Utopian ideas with real world applications" is the way that ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/09/05/a-victory-for-the-city-victory-gardens-08/ This morning I asked a few friends this question:  " What do you think of when I say the words wild strawberries?"  "Pat and Pam both thought of the Ingmar Bergman film of the same name.  "It sounds like the name for a girl band", said John. Josip and Ulla  said it reminded ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/08/26/wild-strawberries/ I just de-activated the "math question" which was needed to post a comment on my site. Others had mentioned this, but I could not imagine what they meant. My twin brother Patrick took me to task and told me how annoying this was. I logged out and discovered that a person ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/08/26/comments-made-easier/ Last Sunday, on a foggy morning in August, I took a walk through Crissy Field in the Presidio National Park. This year is the tenth anniversary of this parks restoration from abandoned airfield to the ecological treasure it is today. I knew before I went that the spectacular burst of spring wildflowers ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/08/19/crissy-field-urban-restoration-ten-years-later/ The panorama of Rome includes a melange of roof terraces enlivened by rustic pergolas with trailing vines, potted shrubbery and modern antennae; the roofscape is as though the traditional orti (market gardens) of the region has been raised on high above the city. Interspersed in this landscape of tiled roofs and terraces are ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/08/08/roof-gardens-ii-the-roof-terraces-of-rome/ Growing up on the Monterey Bay, we and most people we knew, referred to San Francisco simply as "The City". A visit here was an exciting prospect; a time to get dressed up, to go shopping, to visit a museum or see a show. And of course, a chance to ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/07/27/san-franciscos-stairways-to-havens-trails-of-the-city/ In comparing the portrait of Marisot by Manet and the artist's own self portrait, important differences can be discerned. Manet (not to be confused with Monet) depicts a woman of direct charm and beauty; a woman whose compelling qualities are set off by her costume all in black. There is an ... http://philipsgardenblog.com/2008/07/17/berthe-morisot-an-impressionist-in-the-garden/