Victorville, CA: Tumbling like a tumbling tumbleweed

High winds are prevailing in southern California and the Central Coast, reports my mother in her first, eyewitness contribution to Urban Plant Research. In Santa Barbara County, she can hardly venture outside because of winds over 25 miles per hour. She also read that over in Victorville, which lies between Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert, the wind has residents trapped inside for another reason: it has swept mountains of tumbleweeds against their houses, blocking doors and windows! Check out these Google Image search results she sent over:

We here at Urban Plant Research have long been interested in tumbleweeds and urban tumbleweeds (tumbling, windblown plastic bags). Are their tumbleweeds where you live?

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Never Let Me Go

Every so often, while walking through the city, I come across a chain link fence like this one. It tells the story of a relationship past. Surely we all recognize the feeling, we have all been indelibly marked by someone who was once close but has since gone away?

Though the friend may be gone, he always leaves something of himself behind.

Or maybe this fence could just use a good flossing!

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Giveaway: vintage pocket guides on edible/poisonous plants

  
Came upon these handy guides for campers and outdoorspeople on Edible Plants and Poisonous Plants in the Wilderness. I’m about to move across two oceans so I would like to give them away to any loyal reader or contributor to this blog. They are pocket-sized and come with handy protective sleeves for your outdoor adventures. Please post a comment if you’re interested, and email your shopping address to urbanplantresearch at gmail dot com. 

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Nice to Meet You

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — We are pleased to provide urban plant reporting from San Francisco. As residents of this city for more than eight years, we have witnessed urban plants – large and small. We look forward to sharing more plant sightings from our foggy city.

The manicured bushes of Noe Valley.

Megan likes plants a lot, especially ones she can eat. She keeps a modest balcony garden in her Mission apartment. Its current resident is curly parsley.

Pasta soon?

Phoebe likes plants in surprising or comical situations. As a woodworker, she also keeps an eye out for fallen city trees.

Looks like a lot of cutting boards.

Stay tuned for more!

– Megan & Phoebe

 

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Tagebuch unserer Residenz (Diary of our Reisdency), Lichtenberg Studios

(For the English version, click “read more” and scroll down)

Forschungs-Spaziergänge am See, um den Bahnhof Lichtenberg, in Parks und in einem Friedhof. Unsere Woche als Künstlerinnen in Residenz in Lichtenberg Studios war unglaublich voll und ging zu schnell zu Ende. Am Freitag, ein paar Tage vor der Abreise, haben wir zu einer Kunstveranstaltung und Prämiere eines Kurzfilms, der in diesem kürzen aber intensiven Zeitraum in Lichtenberg entstanden ist, die Öffentlichkeit eingeladen.

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First walk in Lichtenberg, with nettles and a rainbow

We made our first urban plant expedition in Lichtenberg today. Yesterday, Sara and I moved into the Lichtenberg Studios in Berlin where we are in residence this week. Our first order of business today was to explore the neighborhood on foot and see what kind of plants, parks, flower shops, green spaces and other urban nature we might find. Here are some of the things we saw, smelled, observed, tasted…

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Belgium: wall vs. trees

This winter, two trees in Hasselt, Belgium managed to deliver a blow to a brick wall in a café parking lot, reports local designer Pablo Hannon, who sent these pictures from the scene of the battle.

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Taxco, Mexico: Aloe with baby bows

Happy New Year, plant friends! Thanks for your patience with our silence during the holiday season. Let’s kick off the new year with a reader photo. Responding to the bound agave photo we posted recently, Phyllis Fong sent in this photo of a plant that’s been tied up much more gently. Why? Well, that has her perplexed… and us too.

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San Francisco sidewalks: steep, lush, vivid, wacky

When the fog lifts from gray San Francisco and Indian summer sun floods the up-and-down streets, the plants and buildings suddenly show their true colors in all their vividness. Some plants are painted on, others are trimmed into submission, while others grow into their own forms, whether creating sidewalk tunnels or two-dimensional trees. Here’s a little photo walk around San Francisco’s Mission and Noe Valley neighborhood back when the sun was shining.

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Berlin: Fox seen in Britzer Garten, again!

Is the clever, bespectacled fox on this Britzer Garten sign a depiction of the same fox we saw taking a stroll? And why are foxes considered to be so clever?

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