Irrigating newly planted willows along creekbed

Gravity flow irrigation for riparian vegetation along a creek, © 2007 NativeDesign

At a creekside cabin out in the mountains, we want more privacy from the road. A creek flows between the cabin and the road (see photo and description below) We have planted willow whips on the road-side of the creek by cutting wands (or whips) from the existing willows, dipping the ends in rooting hormone (which, ironically, comes from willow) and sticking these in the embankment. To encourage the willows to fill in as fast as possible, we will need to irrigate them during the dry season. Short of installing an automatic irrigation system, we are hoping to install a pipe flume or sluice to bring the water to the willows passively.

Looking upstream in early spring. The road is above the creek, just off the upper left of the photo. It's pretty easy to see the creek and cabin (off the photo on the right) from the road.

Flumes have been used historically to carry water from a natural watercourse to some distance away, without the use of a pump. Flumes were often used in combination with a race or pipe to convey water to mills, mines and agricultural fields.

A flume carries the water at an elevated level above ground. Historically flumes were built of wood, sometimes lined with metal, and mounted on a scaffold to carry the water crosswise along a slope, or mounted on a trestle to convey the water across a depression such as a stream bed or river bed. Pipes could also be used in the same manner, to carry water above ground to where it was needed.

A race is an open channel for conveying water. It can be a simple earth ditch, or it can be lined with timber, metal, concrete or stone. A race or flume system would always start on a watercourse at a location upstream from where the water was needed, either for a gristmill, sawmill, farm fields, waterwheel/water turbine, or a mining operation.

Both a race and a flume would run almost level with just a slight downhill pitch, to carry water to somewhere the stream didn't naturally go. The more gradual the pitch of the race or flume, the farther the water could be carried without using a pump. Historically, a race and/or flume system would range from a short ditch to a water supply channel many miles long, linked to supply water courses and storage dams. If there was a gulch, canyon or other declivity along the course of the race, a flume would be built on a trestle, to maintain a constant fall.

We will need to work out some kinks in the plans, but I like the idea of using old-fashioned methods to create a low-tech solution to challenges like this one. Depending on when we put this idea to use, I'll post updates here at Raven's Nest.

Design by Nature: generate color schemes from your photos

Web designer, John (fd on flickr) at Big Huge Labs, recently introduced a fun, fast and easy way to generate a harmonious color scheme from a photograph. Imagine using this tool to quickly generate color combinations for graphics, painting, design, interior design ... whatever you can come up with. They new tool is called Palette Generator -- it works with any photograph on your computer, on the web, or in your Flickr account.

I used this series of stormy weather photos:
to generate this palette, complete with color specific numbers:
#595f56; #9ca99f; #333126 #484f49; #3f483b; #4d4a3d; #5f6653 #423926; #8a8a79; #827e78; #304150; #6a655b; #716f67; #344451; #716c61



Of course, this color combo includes lots of grays and browns because there are some sepias and black&white photos in the group. It's a slightly brighter palette if I analyze just one of the storm photos:





Below is a another color scheme generated from this photo of Dune Juniper I shot at Coral Pink Sand Dunes.










In the past, when I've had the urge to create a palette based on a photo (for instance, when I'm laying out a print ad and want some harmonious solid color areas surrounding a photo) I have used Photoshop's color sampling (eyedropper) tool to do that. It takes time to generate more than just a few colors this way.

Have fun with this new tool/toy from fd. I hope you find it as useful as I do.

Hummingbird with Exquisite Decorating Taste

A hummingbird with a taste for festive home decor, this little bird built her nest right on a string of Christmas lights. You can see the scale of the nest and eggs by comparing their size to the size of the wire. They're tiny!

These two photos were taken by my sister, Kathy Allen, who lives with her family on Vancouver Island. The photos are copyrighted by her. Please do not reproduce these photos in any way. Thank you.

Interior Design: Idea Slices

Hover your mouse over the thumbnails to see each photo's title. To the right of the title is a "Photo Link" which takes you to my flickr page so you can see the larger sizes.

I am working here with the concept of interior design, both literally and metaphorically.

Slices of what I see everyday and any day.

Slices of the natural world: Nature's product samples.

Paint Chips/ Nature Chips

Let's have fun with this - you don't have to be a professional! You only have to let your mind and heart play.

• Where does Design come from anyway?
• Where does Inspiration come from?
• What makes something a work of art as opposed to just a lifelike copy or a fatihful reproduction of an existing object, color combination or texture?
• How do our own personal filters operate to create inside us, something unique out of the deluge of sensations we swim through every day?

Do you remember an art teacher telling you as a child, "Try to make your horse look like a horse." or "Tree's have brown trunks and green leaves -- not green trunks and blue leaves!" I do. Fortunately I also had art teachers and other mentors who encouraged me to see things my way.

Metaphorical Interior Design: design a place where you feel at home. A place where you can be yourself. A place that reflects who you are, in your choice of furniture, floor and window coverings, accents, colors, upholstery and art-on-the-walls ... what is your interior like? How much does it really fit you?

Biomimicry: Wasp Nest Paper/Home/Garment

I stumbled upon the coolest blanket yesterday and wanted to tell my blog readers about this group of artists: Los Osos. Check out their product development slideshows and this awesome wasp nest blanket. I want one of those!

For inspiration, here are a couple of wasp nest images from my flickr pics ... the birdhouse engulfed (swallowed) by a hive of paper wasps is in my sister's garden on Vancouver Island. I've never seen anything like it -- have you?

Margie's wasp nest on birdhouse


Guardian -- look closely, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.


I am using the term, Biomimicry, loosely, in an artistic sense rather than scientifically. My examples of a blanket inspired by a paper wasp nest may not technically fit the definition of "biomimicry" put forth by Janine Benyus of Stevensville, Montana in her book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. To me, it's a start in thinking about way to innovate by gaining inspiration from nature.

An example of true biomimicry/innovation inspired by nature might be an innovative fabric that changes according to the ambient temperatures -- deer have evolved a fur structure that changes it's properties in response to seasonal temperature fluctuations. Deer fur properties might inspire textiles for human clothing or building envelope structure and materials.

If you'd like to learn more about biomimicry, check out the Biomimicry Institute.
The Biomimicry Institute also has a newsletter available here as downloadable PDF files.

Here are a few other resources about Biomimicry:
Article in Bay Soundings (Tampa Bay)

Book by Janine Benyus






Biomimicry Guild website
World Changing (article)
What people are saying on technorati about Biomimicry
A conversation with Janine Benyus

A doorway, a mirror, a meditation

Raspberry Leaf Autumn Nierika
copyright 2005 by Maureen Shaughnessy


Amur Maple Nierika
copyright 2005 by Maureen Shaughnessy


Cleome Flower Nierika
copyright 2005 by Maureen Shaughnessy

Pond

Small Craft on Pond, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

My sister, Marybeth, gave me a wonderful book for my recent birthday -- a book I intend to read cover-to-cover the way I read the Webster's Dictionary I received 30+ years ago as a highschool graduation gift. The book is Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney. Thank you, Marybeth! Here's the first of (hopefully) many photo/word pairings inspired by this book.

Pond:
Pond is one of the most flexible words for describing a small body of freshwater. Uplift, landslides, volcanoes, and glaciers can create ponds, as can human beings and animals. Beavers are great ponders, and so are farmers and ranchers who dig them for irrigation and livestock. Glacial kettle-hole ponds such as Thoreau's Walden and Cape Cod's freshwater ponds are important features of the New England landscape.

George Stewart tells us in Names on the Land that native peoples of the Northeast called ponds paugs, and that this has resulted in felicitous redundancies such as Mashapaug Pond in Massachusetts. At least since 1641, the English have referred jocularly to the Atlantic Ocean as the great pond.

And there is no end to the compound forms of the word: sagpond, millpond, fishpond, duckpond, pond life, pond lily, and pond yard to name a few. Regardless of size, location, or purpose, any pond can become the radiant and beguiling point of a landscape, even a muddy or algae-covered farm pond that's nothing more than an isolated earthen water tank. Thoreau thought of Walden and nearby North Ponds as Lakes of Light in which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.
-- Michael Collier from Home Ground

This is my sister, Marybeth

So, thanks again, Marybeth.

Look what you started!

This photo of the small leaf-boat is also part of a series of leaf photos I made for our weekend Utata tagging project, Utata Leaf. You can see everyone's thumbnails in this Utata Leaf project here.

Doodle Analysis

"If you really want to get anal about your doodles" (or don't flush those doodles! Analyze them first!")

Repeated triangles, squares and other shapes drawn in patterns is supposed to mean an organized brain and meticulous planning and thinking, along with efficiency and purposefulness. Hmmm.... I'm not so sure about that. I do alot of pattern-type doodles and I am most definitely not methodical and efficient. I guess there is always at least one exception to any "rule ..."

Here's another doodle type -- repetitive shapes:

According to the Anna Koren Graphology Center, repeated shapes means someone with patience, perseverance, who is also methodical and has the ability to concentrate. Hmmm, though I also doodle as above, and I think I am patient and can concentrate - I am again not methodical. Oh well. :-)

Recycled art as metaphor

This artist/designer buys old stuffed animals at thrift stores, turns them inside out, and calls them "Vintage Characters." They reflect "unhappy people searching inwardly for happiness" (nothing intrinsically wrong with exploring one's inner life -- therapy is good) When they are inside-out, Wilson (the artist) goes on to say, "their smiles disappear, the true colours disappear, and the ability to listen to others seems gone -- most vintage characters lose their ears in the transformation process." He believes people would be happier if they reached out to others.

hmmm... there is some truth to it, though I don't buy his philosophy entirely. But personally, I think they look really cool, and sorta sad. Check it out: Recycled Vintage Characters