Last week we went back to the Arb and had the chance to see the finished product. The completed work is expected to be left standing in place for at about two years. Should be fun to see it this winter covered in fresh snow.
Right now some of the Maple and Willow branches and saplings have starting leafing out again, despite the fact that they were just cut off and stuck into the ground.
Gives it an interesting added texture.
Front and center you see a baby Peregrine Falcon nesting in an artificial habitat thoughtfully provided by the Army Corp of Engineers along the Mississippi river. He looks extra fuzzy because the distance between us was pretty substantial. If anyone is interested in improving my digital telephoto camera performance, please feel free to send me the new Nikon D300 with 18mm to 200mm lens (retail $2,299.00)
Fun factoid: When diving, the Peregrine Falcon can reach speeds of up to 200 miles an hour, making it the fasted critter on the planet.
I like to think that there’s another plant on the other side of town that’s producing a fleet of all black trucks.
And one of these days…
Just too cute for words.
It seems like I’m on a bike kick lately. So be it. You are what you eat.
The police painted this little masterpiece on the street last week about a half mile West of the ghost bike I wrote about just a little while ago.
Skid marks 42 feet long on a road posted 25 miles per hour.
Looks like maybe just a stick figure got hit this time though…
We have a name for this.
We call it the fast food bandit.
Little piles of burger wrappers, ketchup packets, napkins and soda containers appearing curbside like magic in the night.
This is a super example of how things can go terribly wrong in the war on weeds.
Maybe it’s the wrath of the lawn gods for waging chemical warfare?
Only two days left until the Big Build project is finished.
One thing that really struck me over the last three weeks was just how good Patrick is with people. Being gregarious is always a big bonus in any collaborative process, but it seems that through making people feel welcome, comfortable and appreciated, he creates a direct and positive impact on the spirit and quality of work that the volunteers physically contribute to the sculpture.
Oh, and a little sunshine doesn’t hurt either…
With spring firmly in place and all those fresh crops popping up in the fields, we should start seeing more frequent postings about food around here.
Today we have rhubarb. Fun factoid: stage actors in the early 1900s often repeated the word rhubarb to give the impression of general background crowd noise.
This little dice ended up becoming a hot and spicy rhubarb chutney served on a slow braised pork shoulder roast with mashed potatoes.
Despite some pretty rotten weather, work is moving along nicely on Patrick Dougherty’s “Big Build” installation at the Arboretum. If you follow the link, there’s a web cam option to take a fresh look at the work in progress.