Walls With No Roof

 

There is an empty lot near my house that has walls and supports, but no roof. These are my favorite kinds of spaces.

Of course the weeds have taken over, springing up through the concrete.

 

I once read about Tuareg nomads in Mali who had been encouraged to settle down. They could not stand sleeping without the stars overhead, so they took the roofs off their houses.

The Latest on the Empty Lot

The empty lot has received a little decoration.


It does not look like the usual graffiti tag.

And apparently someone is marking out flower beds. Perhaps this lot will be a garden after all.


Meanwhile, the cherry blossoms have shed their petals, dusting the streets with pink.

It has been raining, turning the petals into soft mush. It still looks pretty.



I am so close to finishing my hanging sculpture, but I have been distracted by a science project (the young son's, not mine). The project also involves bending copper wire and is making me wonder if I shouldn't be working magnets and batteries into my sculptures. Something to ponder.

More Green

The last time that I blogged about this empty lot, its weeds had been torn out leaving bare dirt. I worried that one of those soulless new buildings would replace the weedy mayhem. I guess I needn't have worried since the weeds are back in full force. The tree is doing fine (a mulberry, also considered to be a weed).

There are even weeds that were not in the lot before, brazenly moving in on the open space.

The weeds were prospering, I wish I could say the same for my moss. I tried making the moss medium for painting. The moss did not grow, it just looked dark and clumpy.


I think my concentration of moss was too weak and maybe I had too much of the dirt the moss was growing in. I will keep trying as long as the cool autumn weather holds up. I saw moss growing last winter but it was milder than usual. This year is supposed to be colder.

Over the summer I took pictures of these weeds growing under a grate.

I felt that I didn't really capture the sense of the weed forest that was under the bars

I hoped that the weeds would push through and search the sunlight.

But they never climbed very high. I think people from the Parks Department were cutting them back. One evening, a few days ago I saw that the weeds had flowered.

They are hardly showy blossoms, but they were like a little gift at the end of the season.

Empty Lot

Last August I posted some pictures of a weedy lot with a beautiful tree. At the time I had worried that it would be cleared out for some new construction. I fear that it has begun.

I just get the feeling this lot hasn't been cleared to put in a garden.


I suppose it is silly to regret a lot filled with weeds, but as I have mentioned before, I like weeds. On evenings when the moon was bright, it would shine down on this spot brushing those weeds with silver. I wouldn't mind losing another green pocket except that I am so sure it will become this:



I had also posted a picture of this building last summer while it was under construction. It is finished now and by no means the most offensive in terms of soul crushing architecture. But I hate the way it hulks between its neighbors, and I can't quite remember what was there before. There is another new building across the street which I can't photograph because it is really too ugly. I can't remember what it replaced either, they both went up so fast.

Hopefully they will keep the tree.

Weeds

I can't believe August is here and the weeds are huge.



This mass of weeds seemed to spring suddenly from an empty tree pit. I am rather fond of weeds, I admire their determination to grow almost anywhere.

There is an empty lot that has been on my mind recently.



It's the tree that draws me. That beautiful dancing tree, spreading its branches over the fence, I hope it doesn't grow into the spikes. I love the square of green in the middle of the block.

I am so afraid it will become this,


like so many weedy lots before it.