Ethos of Making
The road from Valley Ford to Two Rock is flanked by furrowed fields of freshly mowed hay, ready for baling. Pretty soon the barns will be stocked to the rafters with sweet hay, elucidating their proportional relationship to the fields they occupy. Craftwork begins with the localization of supply and demand; contentment begins with their balance.
naturalist/essayist John Burroughs
In preparation for my residency and lecture at Mildred’s Lane late next month, I’ve been studying the upper Delaware River, reading about its history and looking at maps. I was struck by a passage by the nineteenth century American naturalist/essayist John Burroughs, describing a boyhood trip down the Delaware in his book Afoot and Afloat, originally published in 1871. He had just built his own boat for the journey:
“The boat-building warmed the blood; it made the germ take; it whetted my appetite for the voyage. There is nothing like serving an apprenticeship to fortune, like earning the right to your tools. In most enterprises the temptation is always to begin too far along; we want to start where somebody else leaves off. Go back to the stump, and see what an impetus you get. Those fishermen who wind their own flies before they go a-fishing, -how they bring in the trout; and those hunters who run their own bullets or make their own cartridges, -the game is already mortgaged to them.”
the upper Delaware River, at Narrowsburg, PA
Mildred’s Lane is a few miles to the Southwest of Narrowsburg, PA, on a stream that connects to the Delaware River. Burroughs began his journey further upstream and to the East, on the Pepacton branch of the river, now the Pepacton Reservoir. If time allowed, I would love to build a boat and recreate Burroughs’ boyhood voyage during my residency. As it is, my project will focus on the watershed ecology surrounding Mildred’s Lane, encouraging students to “Go back to the stump”.
Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria) brightens roadside culverts
Clusters of California poppy, red hot poker and wild pea brightened roadside culverts and hay barns as we cycled the Bodega Highway to the coast through a light morning fog. The lupin grow yellow around the contours of Bodega Head, a rocky bluff that juts out into the Pacific to the West of Bodega Bay.
The lupin grow purple further up the coast
Further up the coast, the lupin grow purple, where they thrive along deer trails by the mouth of the Russian River, where we hiked through a steep cypress grove to a high coastal meadow overlooking the River to the East and the fogged-in Pacific to the West.
looking East towards the lower Russian River
Of the dozens of wildflowers in bloom here this time of year, here are several that caught my eye, most of which I have not yet identified: Continue reading “The Week in Bloom”
mowing the high meadow grasses
One of my favorite tools is our hand-pushed, mulching mower. As with all of my favorite tools, I like the physical activity and related mental state associated with using it as much if not more than the end result. Mowing the Meadow is a great excuse for taking a long walk and getting to know the contours of the land while performing routine maintenance- what’s growing where, gopher and insect activity, the condition of the soil.
Upon my return from installing our lenticular mural project in Oakland I was pleased to find the meadows about three feet high with a mix of fescue grasses and wild flowers, all still green but beginning to go to seed. I have a Briggs and Stratton mulching mower that chops the cuttings, returning them to the soil as added shade and nutrient-rich cover for the long dry summer to come. Eventually, we plan to have a goat or two do the mowing, and to cultivate at least one meadow with flowers and vegetables. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy the chore as a welcome tonic to the headier tasks of proposal making, design and shopwork currently at our threshold.
Mowing also helps me to process recent events, which are all on the upswing this spring. Our lenticular mural project has been very well received upon completion earlier this week, making the local NBC News and the front page of the Oakland Tribune. I send deep thanks out to Dan Cohen and Jordan Pierce of Full Court Press, who facilitated public relations for the project, and to our friend Shawn Connally, managing editor of MAKE magazine, who recently posted a glowing profile of Wowhaus on the Craftzine blog.
Lake Merritt, looking towards the Northeast
James and I completed the lenticular murals yesterday by clear-coating them with a protective, anti-graffiti glaze. Touching every square inch of the surface of the images reminded me how much the tiles have been handled over the past eight months, how much care has gone into realizing a hand made structure at this scale. It seemed an appropriate finale to wash them over with a final clear wash, kind of like a baptism.
At the end of the day I took a final reconnaissance tour of Lake Merritt as Ene and I think about designing a system of watershed markers for the City of Oakland. Lake Merritt has been my quiet obsession during the past month’s installation, and I continue to be fascinated with its impact on the culture of the city and its environment.
mapping the old oaks
This time around I took note of as many old oak trees as I could see from the pathways, and began to make a map of their positions relative to the lake and closest intersecting roads. I also took notice of a surprising number of churches surrounding the lake, and thought how we could potentially activate their congregations to help learn about the watershed and its natural/cultural ecology. Maybe a church could ‘adopt’ a stream or an old tree..
The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, CA
Rhododendron are at their peak
We beat the heat with a day at the beach on Sunday, very much in need of a rest after a grueling final push to complete our murals in Oakland. My limbs were soothed by a long walk in the surf, a quick dip in the chilly brine and a nap in the dunes, where I happened upon these new blooms:
Lupin of the dunes
I don’t recognize either of these- anyone know? Colby?
It felt wonderful to be back on our land after my urban adventures, just in time to catch the Rododendron at their absolute peak. I feel lucky to have such natural beauty at the ready as our projects heat up in the City.
Ene, James and I worked long days in the heat and completed the Oakland Fusion murals by the end of Saturday, exhausted and relieved. Our biggest reward was when word spread among the train conductors to check out our project, and they would make a point of leaving the train to walk by the murals for the full effect, and invariably hail us with enthusiastic cheers. James and I will return to the site today and tomorrow to tie up a few loose ends, and the project will officially open in a few weeks. Here are some highlights from the past week:
Ene and James install the Chinese mandala
Straight on view of the Serape/Lace panel
Serape pattern on the left
Gluing Instruments