This month’s installment. It’s getting to be a little much for a single platenful.
Update [5/15/2008]: See new and improved version above.
May Bloom Day scan
Blog
Turfwork!: Earth art from the air
Last month, I posted about a group of Cornell students putting together an art installation so large that it’s best viewed from the air. Thursday, one of the students, Peter Cadieux, with the help of a local pilot flew over and provided me with these aerial images. I had high expectations for their efforts. But the results came out even better than I expected, even better than the simulation they created.
The materials include different colored mulches, overturned sod, straw bales, and grass bleached yellow by covering with plastic mulch. Students from a local Montessori assembled the ribbon pinwheel in the center of the blossom.
This shot provides some perspective, with the golf fairway to the left. If you click on the image above to see the larger view, you can make out the Canada geese foraging between the straw bales.
Here’s a ground level view. If you are in the neighborhood on Mothers Day, the students will be on site to answer questions from noon to 2 p.m. More details and directions here.
Music from Mali: Tinariwen
Update [5/10/2008]: Good timing. Good ink for Mali music in the NY Times, an article on Festival au Desert, held each January in the remote African city of Essakane, Mali.
Hat tip to my friend Scott for pointing me to this group. They played at our local Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival up the road in Trumansburg. From Wikipedia:
… a musical band formed in 1982 in Muammar al-Gaddafi’s camps of Tuareg rebels. They play in the Tishoumaren (“music of the unemployed”) style, and sing mostly in the French and Tamashek languages. Their songs mostly cover the subject of independence for their people from the government of Mali. They are said to be the first Tuareg band to use electric guitars.
Chet Boghassa with lots of footage from Mali. Live version.
Interesting pairing with Carlos Santana:
Angelic daffs, bowl ‘o tulips, more Mertensia
Some more pix from this weekend …
No, I didn’t write down the variety. But I like these daffodils a lot.
A friend brought us a bucket of cut daffodils. I floated some in this old cow waterer. I played with a longer shot of those here.
The bluer side of bluebells (Mertensia).
Slightly different shot of the daffs.
Canna quilt by Lisa Ellis
Last winter, I wrote a post about quilter Lisa Ellis. Her quilts blow me away, and I was flattered that she wanted to use one of my images as for a quilt. I really didn’t think my image was all that inspirational. But what Lisa did with it is just spectacular.
She saw things in that image that escaped me entirely. What’s even more heartwarming is the way that Lisa uses her talents to raise money for various healing causes. She is donating this quilt to University of Michigan Hospital cancer wing.
Lisa posts about this quilt here. Would love it if you’d stop by and thank her for her generosity.
