Changing our Cities.

There's an article in the NY Times today about how we should use our economic nosedive to reinvent our cities. Using the examples of FDR and the Works Projects Administration, and also Eisenhower's interstate highway program(Eisenhower's is somewhat ironic), creates an overview of what has, and what could be done to enrich our urban lives. You can find it here.

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Overgrown in Somerville

So the image that is the current header is the same plant as above. What it is, still don't know, and it's in a lot of my pictures. Any ideas?(Answer: Rhododendron) It's an effing hardy plant, and lasts all winter. It's nice to see green in the winter. What attracted me was not so much the the color, but how much there is of it. This plant looks pretty healthy, but I know that pruning keeps a plant healthy, and is the best way to go(for us and the plants), but sometimes I can't help but relish in something that's overgrown. During my critiques in art school people always made the comments about how nature will finally take over. And yeah, if we don't implode(or explode?) the world with a nuclear bomb, nature will take over. That's kind of obvious. And yes, it did annoy me, making that oh so hackneyed observation that nature will "regain" power. But at the same time I love when I see plants that have gone crazy and have almost extended their welcome into our walking spaces, and into our visual bank of what nature should look like in a city. So here are a few more pictures for you. And if you'll pardon, the layout's not very nice, but deal(I ain't in art school no more). Have a good weekend.

Duct taped tree in Somerville

Wasn't it becoming warmer?

I saw the trees budding two weeks ago. It really needs to be spring, can someone get on that?

Bad Geranium Juju.

I think the phrase, "third times the charm," is just a thing people say so they can see you screw up for yet another time. And it's not even the third, it's the fourth. The fourth time something bad has happened to a geranium I have owned. But this time, it just died.
My bad Geranium history:
1. A caterpillar's munched on it(which was pretty cool though)
2. It's gone crashing to the ground(thanks, cat)
3. It's been stolen!(damn Somerville hooligans),
4. and then evil cat tormented it to a bitter end(mostly by lying in it while I was at work or asleep, and maybe, possibly peeing in it occasionally).

I re-potted a piece that survived, but I should have know better! And now it's pathetically lingering on my kitchen table until I have enough gumption to get rid of it.




Bon Voyage sweet geranium! Until the next time one of your kind is unlucky enough to become my plant.