landscape

On May 19th, 2012, DEEP CREEK HOT SPRINGS…

the boulders and hot springs at the bend in Deep Creek

…was the destination for a last-minute impulsive day trip – having enviously heard stories from friends of leisurely days spent there over the years; so heading north on the 2, east on the 210 (through the endless Inland Empire), up the 15 (where the San Gabriel Mountains meet the San Bernadino Mountains at the Cajon Pass), off at Main Street in Hesperia (lined with endless anonymous chains and stoplights), on to Bowden Ranch Road (a long windy scenic rough dirt road), terminating at a place to park and hike for another 40 minutes of up and down and dramatic mountain and valley views and rattlesnake dangers, finally depositing you deep to the bottom of the rocky valley in a miragey assemblage of boulders at the bend in a stream with dammed up thermal springs.

From the USDA Forest Service: The landscape surrounding Deep Creek is unique in a southern California context, and its recreation opportunities are valued at the regional and national levels. Thermal hot springs located here are unique and regionally important.Deep Creek supports the greatest diversity of wildlife habitats of any drainage on the San Bernardino National Forest and has earned the State designation of a Wild Trout Stream. It also represents some of the greatest diversity of vegetation communities of any drainage on the national forest. The surrounding area represents a transiticonifer forest. The vegetation ranges from sparse creosote, chamise and California buckwheat at lower elevations to oak and pinyon woodland and scattered mixed conifer, healthy riparian habitats are also present. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) follows the creek from the Lake Arrowhead area to the Mojave River Forks Dam for 16 miles as part of the 2,650 mile national scenic trail crossing Deep Creek twice on elevated bridges. For more information on the Pacific Crest Trail, visit their website at www.pcta.org Also Deep Creek is home to the Southwestern Arroyo Toad, an endangered species who lives in the sandy shore of the creek. The toad is a small (2.2-2.9 inches), dark-spotted and light-olive green or gray to tan with dark spots and warty skin. The toad lives from confluence of the Mojave River up to an elevation of 4,300 feet usually spending the day burrowed in the sand and coming out at night to forage for food.

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By Fritz Haeg on May 19, 2012 | California, landscape
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On May 14th, 2012, RUNYON CANYON…

view over Runyon Canyon towards downtown Los Angeles

..the scenic Hollywood Hills / Santa Monica Mountains park popular with fit youngish Angelenos in the ‘industry’ is not a place I get to visit very often, but wanting to make a gradual informal tour of the wild regions of the city, it’s where I headed today for a hike up and sweaty jog down. (more on Wikipedia)

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By Fritz Haeg on May 14, 2012 | Los Angeles
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On May 12th, 2012, MATILIJA POPPIES…

Matilija Poppies at Theodore Payne

…or Romneya coulteri, or fried-egg flower, are the towering white petaled and yellow native Californians whose drama is greeting visitors to the Theodore Payne Foundation right now (the place I can’t get enough of, and where I have returned today for some native grape vines, currants, sages, and such) – which of course leads to excited inquiries about, and high demand for, a plant that really should to go in the ground before the rains in six months, and not now before the summer heat…patience.

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By Fritz Haeg on May 12, 2012 | flowers
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On May 3rd, 2012, TRIANGLE FRAMED PINE TREE…

geodesic triangle framed pine tree

…out the geodesic dome window from bed this morning is reminding me of Italian days.

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By Fritz Haeg on May 3, 2012 | landscape
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On April 26th, 2012, JUPITER’S BEARD…

Jupiter's Beard on the hill

…or Centranthus ruber, has been creeping around the gardens here for years, looking great and flowering and continually coming back with little encouragement or even a drop of rain through the summer months, and this season it is especially happy – covering the slope at the front steps with it’s happy pink flowers – and after having it around for 12 years, now I find out the leaves and roots are even edible…nice.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 26, 2012 | gardens
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On April 24th, 2012, GRIDED PLAINS…

Midwestern monoculture gridded plains

…of Midwestern monoculture are giving me something to look at and think about while anticipating a return to L.A. home at long last.

 

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By Fritz Haeg on April 24, 2012 | travel
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On April 17th, WALK THROUGH WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK…

Washington Square Park purple

…is usually the preferred route when I have a choice while navigating the city by foot through that part of lower NYC, which is more and more dominated by NYU lately, though walking through the park today on a warm spring afetrnoon, you still get a sense of of that lively youth culture meeting the old chess players, which has always made it such a cultural and social nexus – plus some early  purple color popping up among the renovated park planting beds.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 17, 2012 | parks
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On April 12th, 2012, GIANT CRAB APPLE…

giant crab apple

…looms over the house, only for a few days every spring it becomes a blossomy pink giant, reminding us of what it is.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 12, 2012 | landscape
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On April 8th, 2012, LANDING IN NEW JERSEY…

over New Jersey

…where I’m returning for a Monday meeting of the Princeton Student Colony – we pass over the always surprising lush wooded landscape, before the abrupt shift to the industrial coast, and the descent to Newark Airport.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 8, 2012 | travel
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On March 30th, 2012, A VISIT TO EVERTON PARK, LIVERPOOL…

community members meeting (left), and a first step towards food production near the park (right)

…gets the day going right off the plane – for meetings with community members about their concerns with, and hopes for, the place, with a visit to some nascent urban food garden plots, and then a tour by a local historian telling the amazing tale of this strange new green space which was cleared of residential communities twice (first in the 60′s with “slum-clearances” leading to modern mega residential Ville Radieuse-type developments – and then again in the 1980′s when that plan didn’t work and 15 of the 17 large high-rise housing blocks came down too), now leaving a peculiar mostly unused half-designed programmed substantial green space covered with vacant rolling lawns in the middle of an neighborhood where the population and prosperity has dropped.

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By Fritz Haeg on March 30, 2012 | landscape
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On March 4th, 2012, A CLEAR WARM WINTER NIGHT…

Northward L.A. view from deck of Glendale, Eagle Rock and the 2 Freeway

…after a hot sunny summer-like 80 degree day spent in shorts gardening is my prelude to a late night red-eye to NYC, and all of the early March weather it implies, making the day more special, and harder to leave home.

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By Fritz Haeg on March 4, 2012 | Los Angeles
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On March 2nd, 2012, ROOFTOP GARDEN PROGRESS REPORT…

from left to right, rows of various natives, wildflower meadow seedlings, succulent rocky slope, and cool-season vegetable garden beds

…is so much greener than just 6 weeks ago, when dry dirt ruled over a newly terraced landscape of meager seedlings – but today the wildflowers have taken recognizable form – like lupine, poppy, and clarkia – the succulents are taking root, and I’m starting to eye the strawberry blossoms and munch on the greens from the veg bed.

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By Fritz Haeg on March 2, 2012 | gardens
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On February 3rd, 2012, THAT SHOWY PEACH TREE…

the fragrant white peach blossoms in front of the house

…on the street in front of my house was probably resigned to remaining forever lost in the massive shadow of the looming carob tree to it’s south – but lo, that tree took a tumble with our hurricane-like wind storm – and now that peach tree, mostly invisible to the world since it was a sprout, is now the super-star of the street, showing off  its first season in the spotlight with a brilliant display of fragrant white blossoms.

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By Fritz Haeg on February 3, 2012 | Uncategorized
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On January 16th, 2012, THE GARDEN ON THE ROOF…

newly terraced and planted roof

…here was a crazy out of control mess that I first established when I moved into the house 11 years – featuring a lawn, of all things, plus some experiments that didn’t quite work out (like the thirsty kiwi vines which lasted only a couple of years) that slowly evolved into a messed up combination of wildflower meadow and veggie bed – but over the past few weeks I have ripped everything out (weedy growth and the passion flower vines strangling all of it) engaging in some serious but satisfying manual labor, moving dirt into proper terraces retained with all of the round rocks I could scavenge from the yard, with a small veggie bed above, succulents on the rocky slope, a level wildflower meadow below, and then a combination of natives and rosemary (Tuscan blue and prostratus) which will gradually and gracefully drape over the garage door below.

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By Fritz Haeg on January 16, 2012 | gardens
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On January 12th, 2012, THE THEODORE PAYNE FOUNDATION…

Theodore Payne Foundation plant nursery

…provides a literal and figurative breath of fresh air at the edge of the city as it pushes against the mountains to the north, in the wild foothills of Sunland/Shadow Hills just a 20 minute drive northwest from me – surprising proximity from the city to be teleported into a landscape that parts of the original city must have originally looked like – and today I come here hoping to return parts my yard to that landscape, with some native plants, trees, and wildflower seeds. (website)

Founded in 1960, the Theodore Payne Foundation operates a year-round California native plant nursery and education center with classes and field trips for all ages. Our mission is to preserve, propagate and promote California native plants and wild flowers because they provide beauty, habitat for wildlife and water savings. Our grounds are a great place to visit. Located in Sun Valley, we have a bookstore, art gallery, picnic area and hiking trail, plus a friendly staff to answer your questions about native plants. We also sell California native plant seeds and books online

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By Fritz Haeg on January 12, 2012 | gardens
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On December 8th, 2011, THE NEXT LIFE OF THE DOWNED CAROB TREE…

one massive trunk of the carob tree gently resting on the fence

…which is now lying in wait and shorn of it’s branches – will include: the chipping of it’s branches into mulch for the garden beds, paths, and slopes; the cutting of it’s medium sized trunks into 18 and 30 inch pieces for garden seating and table surfaces; and the really massive lower sections will remain where they have fallen to retain planting terraces and to create long tree seating landscapes, to be occupied like driftwood on the beach.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 8, 2011 | home, landscape
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On December 3rd, 2011, A MISSING TREE…

the missing tree

…is a hard thing to point out.

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By Fritz Haeg on December 3, 2011 | home, landscape
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On November 21st, 2011, A CLEAR MOUNTAIN SUNRISE PANORAMA…

LA sunrise panorama

…this morning is one of the reasons I’m back here in LA, yes.

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By Fritz Haeg on November 21, 2011 | Los Angeles
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On October 27th, 2011, A MINNESOTA URBAN WOODLAND TEEPEE…

kids in the woods moving into teepee

…is just what every little kid around here needs to escape to – out the back door during those cabin fever winter days – and today I helped assemble one for the little nieces and nephews – just in time for the cold and snow where this white tarp covered construction will disappear into the landscape of flaky drifts to come.

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By Fritz Haeg on October 27, 2011 | architecture
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On October 5th, 2011, BUDAPEST’S WEKERLE TELEP…

the colorful facades and leaf bins that line the streets of Wekerle Telep

…the delightful utopian Garden City-inspired suburban development with a rural village-like feel,  featuring a diversity of housing types in a lively mix of regional Hungarian styles and motifs with lots of soft greys and warm ochres, designed and built by a team of visionaries – initiated by architect József Fleischl, supported by then prime minister Sándor Wekerle, with prominent architectural contributions by Károly Kós during the first few decades of the 20th Century – was my very fortunate destination this afternoon on my first day in town, where we were lead by a local landscape architect…and this place seemed exactly like the Hungarian version of Garbatella, my favorite quarter of Rome.

Fifty thousand trees were planted during the construction, mainly along the spacious avenues. The estate had its own gardening service, who not only took care of the many plants, flowers and trees of the community spaces, but also helped renters to groom their own gardens as well. Four fruit trees were planted for each apartment (altogether 16.000), and thanks to the favorable sandy soil and to the care of the new dwellers, various kinds of drupes bloomed. It was noted that in 1917 redcurrant harvest was so rich that renters could earn almost four times the yearly rent just by selling their fruits. (wikipedia)

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By Fritz Haeg on October 5, 2011 | architecture, landscape
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On September 27th, 2011, A GREEN BUILDING…

ivy walls

…discovered around the corner here in Saint Paul is a five story apartment building with a west-facing ground-to-roof wall of ivy – cool.

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By Fritz Haeg on September 27, 2011 | architecture
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On September 26th, 2011, CHANGING COLORS…

changing colors on Summit Avenue

…are an occasional sign of looming autumn here on Summit Avenue in the Ramsey Hill neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

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By Fritz Haeg on September 26, 2011 | landscape
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On September 25th, 2011, PICKING APPLES…

picking apples on the bluffs above the Mississippi River

…is a tradition for the family this time of year on our Minnesota apple orchard up on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River just south of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and this is the first year I am able to join in the fun, with little kids alternating between putting apples in bags and eating as many apples as they can (or bites out of as many apples as they can).

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By Fritz Haeg on September 25, 2011 | landscape
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On September 24th, 2011, SECTION 2 OF THE HIGH LINE…

Sunday afternoon stroll on section 2 of the High Line

…extending north through New York’s east 20′s just opened in June and today was my first chance to take a stroll and check it out – continuing the brilliant experience of rising above the city streets, up in to another dimension where your idea of the city is permanently altered. (website)

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By Fritz Haeg on September 24, 2011 | landscape
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On September 1st, 2011, A MASSERIA (WITH FRANTOIO IPOGEO)…

Masseria courtyard over a massive ancient subterranean olive mill (frantoio ipogeo)

…is something I have had an intense architectural crush on since first reading about them last year (a fortified farmhouse unique to Puglia, often with a series of connecting vaulted spaces made of local stone on the ground level for animals and farm workers around a central protected courtyard overseen by more comfortable castle-like quarters on an upper level for the noble landowners, some featuring their own chapel and underground mill – frantoio ipogeo – for processing olive oil) – and today I went to visit a dreamy abandoned masseria from the 1600′s – with a massive 800 year old frantoio beneath the courtyard, a chapel at the front gate, and extensive local dry stone walls enclosing fruit orchards and gardens – for sale just north of Lecce where I was entertaining fantasies of retreating with friends who could come and go to a quiet life in the country, living and working and creating and gardening on ancient land – so I am now realizing that my unexplained deep interest is in part related to their village-like nature, originally created to protect it’s community of inhabitants from invading warriors, but maybe today offering protection from invasions of other sorts – like the toxic aspects of contemporary society which could use an oppositional model – the courtyard becoming the possible focus for a group of people turning in to create their own community, a place that is consciously quieter and slower, being connected to centuries of the past might change your perception of the future, and now I’m thinking about what my ideal life in one of these ancient ready-made villages might look like today?

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By Fritz Haeg on September 1, 2011 | Italy
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On August 20th, 2011, PLACE DES VOSGES…

people enjoying the lawns of Place des Vosges

…in the Marais is just around the corner from where I’m staying, so I like to bike (having subscribed to the Vélib’ bikeshare program I am spending all of my Parisian street time on two wheels) through the majestic/hidden portal off Rue de Rivoli no matter which way I’m headed to enjoy this grand outdoor room – and today seeing the sprawling mass of humanity making themselves at home on a Sunday afternoon is the best case for a bright green carpet of lawn in just right place.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 20, 2011 | Paris
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On August 19th, 2011, PLAGE ON THE SIENE IN PARIS…

Paris Plage picnic on the Seine

…is the ambitious summer civic project involving sandy beaches, colorful umbrellas, a swimming pool, striped cabanas, exotic palm trees, lounge chairs, and all of the August seaside pleasures of the Riviera delivered to the middle of the city for the beach-hungry Parisians stuck in town, and the fun part was seeing how seriously they received and participated in the illusion with elaborate picnics, suntan oil, tiny bikinis…

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By Fritz Haeg on August 19, 2011 | Paris
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On August 18th, 2011, A LITTLE HUT AND LITTLE DOCK…

what you can't see in this ideal picture is the constant swarm of wasps, and the one that just stung me

…on this little lake in the woods nearby, where we are spending our days in the sun and water, are each big enough for one – maybe two people – and I’m starting to think that this is all I could ever need – and what more could we want for a quiet August retreat?

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By Fritz Haeg on August 18, 2011 | France
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On August 17th, 2011, A SMALL PURPLE MUSHROOM…

little purple mushroom sitting in the French woods

…which we are later told might perhaps be edible, stops me on my afternoon hike from the lake, down the hill, through the woods, a shock of subtle but extravagant color in the relentless green around us here.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 17, 2011 | landscape
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On August 16th, 2011, A SNAIL ON MY PATH…

escargot

…this morning is slowly making it’s way from one side of the boardwalk to the other and catching my eye – as I am drawn to smaller and slower things here in the woods.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 16, 2011 | animals
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On August 15th, 2011, FAST AND SLOW TRAINS TO HAUTE SAONE….

Gare de L'Est and a view from my regional train car into the eastern French wilderness

…took me from Amsterdam to Paris Gare du Nord in a speedy comfy fancy wified Thalys ride, then to a quaint modest pokey regional car out of Gare de L’Est to this hilly wooded region of Eastern France where I’ll be quietly retreating, doing yoga, reading, and checking out.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 15, 2011 | travel
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On August 13th, 2011, PRETTY DUTCH GREEN STUFF…

Amsterdam green stuff - starring climbing grape vines and towering hollyhocks

…is allowed to go wild and have it’s way sprouting out of the corner between the sidewalk and the house facades all over town – the best part of the spring and summer urban landscape here.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 13, 2011 | landscape
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On August 9th, 2011, LAKE OF THE ISLES…

Lake of the Isles

…is but one of many gorgeous urban lakes circling the city of Minneapolis – it’s greatest gift and constituting part of it’s “green necklace” of parks and parkways – where robust Minneapolitans can be found jogging, and canoeing, and swimming, and strolling, and roller-blading, and dog-walking, and even fishing and skating in the winter – but this is probably the most picturesque, and how amazing to discover an up-north-like-lake in the middle of the city.

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By Fritz Haeg on August 9, 2011 | Minnesota
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On July 11th, 2011, FONDAZIONE CINI…

gardens of Fondazione Cini, Palladian courtyard (left), Cypress courtyard (center), Jorge Luis Borges labyrinth (right)

…on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore is where I have come to visit an Italian designer friend (working with Michele de Lucchi on one of his many design projects for the foundation, whom we had the pleasure of sharing a dinner with tonight at a neighborhood trattoria in San Marco), exploring the ex-monastery now home to the foundation’s cultural center – featuring an impressive sequence of outdoor green spaces, including the original monastic formal garden courtyard with facades designed by Palladio, a spare cypress courtyard which today is carpeted with pretty purple flowers, a just-opened labyrinth garden to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Jorge Luis Borges, and finally the comparatively hidden and overlooked modest kitchen garden tended by the monks who have moved next door into smaller quarters, but still seem to be growing some of their own food.

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By Fritz Haeg on July 11, 2011 | gardens
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On July 2nd, 2011, A WILD BOUQUET…

wild morning bouquet on the table

…of lavender, yarrow, and other colorful back garden finds was assembled this morning in anticipation of old friends arriving from the other side of the planet for their first visit to Italy.

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By Fritz Haeg on July 2, 2011 | flowers
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On May 27th, 2011, ROSE ARBOR…

rose arbor at Villa Doria Pamfilj

…is full of red at the big neighboring park of Villa Doria Pamfilj where the turning weather of hot summer days is sending me for daily bike rides and to lounge on blankets with books under trees.

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By Fritz Haeg on May 27, 2011 | landscape, Rome
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On May 18th, ‘ROMA MANGIA ROMA’ INTERVIEW #10…

visit to Roman farm off Via Cassia with photographer Gilda Aloisi and Nero editor Lorenzo Gigotti

…this afternoon was with the amazing urban farmer Matteo Amati who presides over an enormous tract of city land where unemployed youth are put to work on the cultivation of the fruit tree orchard, the groves of olive trees, and the rotating fields of strawberries, fava beans, potatoes, tomatoes, etc….and this is giving me some sense of what much of the land just outside the Aurelian Walls must have looked like not so long ago. (Roma Mangia Roma)

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By Fritz Haeg on May 18, 2011 | agriculture
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On May 12th, 2011, OREGON MOSS…

yellowy mossy green Willamette River valley moss

…that I am admiring on a hike this afternoon just west of Portland in the valley of the Willamette River is cool and moist and all colors mossy green and something I will be thinking about enviously when back in hot sunny Rome in few days where my rooftop moss garden is surely dried to a brown crisp and likely to be abandoned for the rest of the summer.

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By Fritz Haeg on May 12, 2011 | landscape
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On May 1st, 2011, MAY DAY CAMPING OUT IN THE FAERIE WOODS…

mossy stone labyrinth and faerie tent village

…of southern Oregon – a relaxed, rough, rustic, hippie, wild, primitive, queer, and anything-goes kind of circumstance which is feeling like the most welcome and opposite sort of environment from Rome these days – is a brief 24 hour first stop on my speedy US tour.

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By Fritz Haeg on May 1, 2011 | queer, travel
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On April 28th, 2011, HANGING GREEN STUFF…

a green curtain hanging over a street in Monti

…and plants growing out of and in to unexpected places is always a welcome surprise when turning any corner in Rome – as I did this afternoon in Monti to find my self biking under this hanging green veil.

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By Fritz Haeg on April 28, 2011 | Rome
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On April 24th, 2011, GARDENS OF NINFA…

the guided tour of Ninfa

…is what now occupies the small Roman village which was sacked and abandoned to malaria in the Middle Ages just off Via Appia Antica south of Rome – and here we are today for an Easter picnic surrounded by many extended Italian families with the same idea, shaded by the rustic rambling rickety timber picnic shelter where 1 Euro a head will buy you a seat at the provisional picnic table and a paper tablecloth from the hostess – and then finally descending into the gardens themselves, after waiting out the two hour midday Italian siesta/pausa/lunch closure, an elaborate series of colorful faerie pixie-dust English picturesque garden scenes piled on top of the stoic remains of a once robust and wealthy Roman village – and even though the lawns, the bananas, the maples, the roses, and much else in the precious manicured water-hungry landscape looks like it was plopped down from another planet we are told that a rare spring-fed micro-climate created between the coastal plain and abrupt adjacent hills allows those otherwise oddities in the Italian landscape to be quite happy here, plus inspiring other crazy horticulture events to occur, such as things growing to three times their normal size, which seemed true enough – and in the end everything does feel magically charged here, thanks to a series of willful 20th century Caetani family ladies having their Anglo way with place – now always to be preserved as Lelia Caetani, the last one left it. (link to 2009 book about Ninfa)

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By Fritz Haeg on April 24, 2011 | gardens
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On April 13th, 2011, TUSCAN PLASTIC CROP COVERS…

shiny plastic on the Tuscan horizon

…(for strawberries?) are the cool shocking shiny surfaces wrapping parts of the rolling spring green surfaces of southern Tuscan landscapes as viewed from my very slow one car train gradually heading from Grosseto to Siena – making every little stop on the way – with each quiet sun-bathed stuccoed station seeming to feature a single bench with a solitary seated figure waiting for the next train – or just watching them go by?

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By Fritz Haeg on April 13, 2011 | travel
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On March 29th, 2011, DEN HAAG’S PALEISTUIN NOORDEINDE…

early spring afternoon in the public gardens at Palace Noordeinde

…the public gardens of the royal palace, is where I find the happiest people in town today, sitting in a circle on the ground among their bikes playing guitars and singing about things I don’t understand – but the low point of the day was a visit to the nearby bustling soul-sucking supermarket of truly mega American proportions – where it seemed that all of the food shopping in town was happening – which I was directed to after finally inquiring about the location of any store or market to buy any sort of real food upon realizing that I had not even seen one all afternoon – just a steady stream of costly restaurants – after hours of leisurely walking around town.

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By Fritz Haeg on March 29, 2011 | food, landscape
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On March 19th, 2011, CASTEL SAN PIETRO…

the secret garden at a friend's place in Castel San Pietro

…is the tiny hill town an hour north of Rome near Poggio Mirteto  where I am lucky enough to be at a friend’s place for the weekend – from which you can see Saint Peter’s as a distant tiny dot on the horizon – taking long walks through the farm land where I am luxuriating in all the plants and animals that I don’t get to hang out with on top of our hill in Rome.

 

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By Fritz Haeg on March 19, 2011 | agriculture, Italy, landscape
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On March 6th, 2011, FRUIT TREE BLOSSOMS…

early spring blossoms

…in shades from white to pink are popping and promising spring in the back garden.

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By Fritz Haeg on March 6, 2011 | gardens
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On February 20th, 2011, PIAZZA DI SIENA…

a lone Sunday morning runner on Piazza di Siena

…where the equestrian events of the 1960 Roman Olympiad were held and where occasional equestrian events are still staged today within the public park and gardens of Villa Borghese – where I find myself this morning on my way to see a conversation / presentation /poetry reading on 86 year old Italian artist Carla Accardi at Museo Carlo Bilotti (upon the suggestion of Academy friend and neighbor Paola Pivi – Italian artist living in Anchorage who is spending her time in Rome connecting with previous generations of Italian artists) – and there is something about this space that has always felt charged to me, maybe it is the huge white ovoid vacancy inside the dense green park, perhaps it is the composition of over-the-top exaggerated Dr. Seuss-like cliché Roman stone pines that surround it, maybe it is the suggestion and sensation of those big animals moving in circles, maybe it is the vestige of mysterious mossy amphitheater seating that partially surrounds it – but I recall it making an impression on me during visits years ago, and now it feels like a warm homey familiar scene to me, where I am drawn to hang out when in the area.

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By Fritz Haeg on February 20, 2011 | Rome
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On February 12th, ALMOND TREE BLOSSOMS…

winter pinky white almond blossoms

…are popping up in back – a late-mid-winter color boost – but I’m hearing from the gardeners that the mice usually get to the almonds well before they are ready for the humans.

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By Fritz Haeg on February 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
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On February 10th, 2011, DUCK RAMP…

territorial duck guarding the Doria Panphili pond island

…is what I found in the pond at Villa Doria Pamphili this afternoon, installed by some thoughtful human, allowing the many duck residents to access the extensively wooded refuge of the island (sort of Animal Estatey) – but after spending some time duck-watching it seemed that one dominant territorial duck in particular was guarding the ramp, and the likely nesting female behind him, chasing away any ducks hoping to hang out on the island.

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By Fritz Haeg on February 10, 2011 | animals
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On February 7th, 2011, STEFANO BOERI…

Stefano Boeri for mayor of Milan

…the Milanese architect, teacher, and magazine editor spoke tonight (being much more gracious than I would have been when the projector didn’t work and he wasn’t able to show his images) at the opening of the British School at Rome show BioMilano featuring six of his unbuilt projects, “Six ideas for a bio-diverse metropolis; six transitional states between the city, nature and agriculture; six energy sources for a new model of urban economics,” and though it is promising to see evidence of Italian architecture headed in more evolved directions, the most fascinating aspect is his 2010 run for mayor of Milan.

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By Fritz Haeg on February 7, 2011 | architecture
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On January 6th, 2011, ACACIA DEALBATA…

the Acacia Dealbata, or yellow Mimosa, in bloom next to the Aurelian Wall

…the fragrant yellow Mimosa tree native to Australia whose clouds of clustered of bright yellow pom-pom flowers are the first sign of spring in the Italian landscape, is already in full bloom out in the back garden – probably since it is protected in a warm little micro-climate by the massive Aurelian Wall that surrounds the American Academy – well in advance of the March 8th Festa della Donna (the holiday of women for which they receive Mimosa flowers from the men).

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By Fritz Haeg on January 6, 2011 | landscape
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On December 2nd, 2010, VISIT TO ORTO BOTANICO DI ROMA…

Orsini greenhouse full of cacti and succulents at Orto Botanico di Roma

…in Trastevere made me especially LA homesick when I entered their hothouse of succulents and cacti this morning. (wiki page)

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By Fritz Haeg on December 2, 2010 | gardens
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On November 28th, 2010, A VISIT TO PARCO DEI MOSTRI WITH DANISH…

Danes getting swallowed by Parco dei Mostri monster

…friends who are fellows at the Accademia Danimarca di Roma (housed in Danish design splendor in a 1967 structure designed by Kay Fisker near Villa Borghese) made me feel like I was also taking a little trip to Denmark today as eight of us packed into a VW van, donated by the former Queen of Denmark, traveling to Bomarzo to see the 16th century park of follies commissioned by arts patron Pier Francesco Orsini (1528–1588) for his deceased wife, and then to the Etruscan hill town of Tuscania (which I was told was a village of hippies, but I didn’t see any) where I heard some scholarly tours in Danish, later translated into a little English, followed by a delicious meal at a trattoria whose local crowds of diners looked up with silence as we entered, and where I was served beans with a mysterious additon after having explained that I was vegan – but no worries she said, it’s pigskin – and ‘we washed and cleaned it first!’

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By Fritz Haeg on November 28, 2010 | gardens
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