Bosque Journal: May Flanerie

I've started a new routine of strolling along the river in the Bosque near my Downtown Albuquerque home in the mornings. While I would like to say my motivation is a deep appreciation of nature, I have to confess what got me to lace up my shoes was reading the advice I would burn off more calories if walked before eating breakfast. This appealed to my inner sloth.

I've never been into competitive sports, other than racing a sail boat, the ingenuity being I could skipper while staying comfortably seated in the back.

With the need to get more movement in my life, I've discovered the lost art of being a flaneur. Described in the 1800s as equal parts curiosity and laziness, it was a leisurely way to become an urban spectator of boulevards, parks, arcades, and cafes. Perfected in Paris, it was a philosophical cousin to the development of the dandy, minus the fancy clothes.

On my first couple of outings, I spent most of my stroll scrolling through my phone to check messages. When I returned home I didn't feel particularly refreshed. I've since learned to pay attention. The walk is an hour long meditation of footsteps.

We don't have an English translation for the French word flanerie. It remains a foreign concept. I recently read an advice column which posed the question-- What would you do if you came across a windfall? What if you were gifted with a large amount of unexpected money? How would you spend it?

The article went on to lecture the reader that wealth should be invested, not wasted on frivolous pursuits. As an example, the author stated using a home equity loan was better utilized for a kitchen remodel than blowing the money on a month-long vacation. Upgrading a home's kitchen and bathrooms was an investment in real estate.

How very American! We are taught from a young age to be small-minded about the rest of the world. We value the shiny new toilet. Never mind that unless the house is about to be sold, the kitchen and bath upgrades will soon be outdated. How does anyone calculate the value of a month of sabbatical? What if it saves the marriage of a decades married couple? Getting divorced is more costly in the long run than a great vacation.

We've lost any concept of leisure. Of how wasting time can broaden horizons. We are so busy doing we stop seeing the world around us.

During my jaunts in early May along the Bosque I am watching spring unfold. The geese are tending new babies, wild roses are blooming along the water, beavers are busy gnawing down trees, ducks strike off in pairs, the occasional rabbit crosses my dirt path, while song birds gather at the south end of the ponds.

The world changes a bit each day.

ABQ Bosque: Fall Drawings at Tingley Ponds

ABQ Bosque: Shades of Red

Fall in the Bosque

Illustration of the river Bosque and Tingley Ponds in Downtown Albuquerque in early November.

View the drawings.

Journal of Drawings, Fall Bosque Trail

 

Bosque Trail in the South Valley

Albuquerque, New Mexico

November 2013

Photo Illustrations

 

 

 

Sandhill Cranes have arrived for the winter.

 

 

 

Farms along the valley.

 

 

Fall Colors.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABQ: Winter Garden

ALBUQUERQUE

Sasebo Japanese Garden at the BioPark


City of ABQ:

Built in honor of Sasebo, one of Albuquerque's Sister Cities, the four-acre Sasebo Japanese Garden hosts a majestic waterfall, an elegant koi pond and a mixture of Japanese and local plants. Stone lanterns and pagoda sculptures dot the grounds and stone and wooden bridges straddle small streams.
Upon entering the garden, you'll walk past the large bell tower, through huge wooden gates, and along immaculately manicured paths. You'll be surrounded by traditional Japanese plants, along with native New Mexican trees pruned and sculpted in the Japanese aesthetic.

Noted landscape architect Toru Tanaka, founder of Portland Landscape Design and Japanese Garden Speciality, designed Albuquerque's garden which opened in September, 2007.
Just inside the gates and to the right, visitors will find the Japanese Garden's newest feature, a 'garden-within-a-garden' designed by five members of the Ogata Kai organization of Japanese landscape architects. The five architects, trained under the late Kenzo Ogata, created this beautiful garden in just four days (September 14-17, 2009).

Sasebo Garden is included with general admission to the Botanic Garden.
Docent-led Garden Tours are offered on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

ABQ: Solstice

ALBUQUERQUE

Winter Solstice


“I stood transfixed, the silence ringing in my ears. From the field of wild grasses; cocksfoot, tufted hair, wild oat, tall fescue, reed canary and perennial rye, their subtle shades of green, ochre and pink softly patching and blending in rustling movement, suddenly rose a small flock of starlings that had been feeding quietly unseen among the tall waving stems, the swish of their glossy wings startlingly loud in the stillness of midday. Heat held me captive.”
― Nell Grey

ABQ: Bridge in Garden

ALBUQUERQUE

Bridge in the Japanese Garden at the ABQ BioPark


“Between death and hell a bridge shining silver wings offers his soul hope.”
― Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams

ABQ: Late Autumn

ALBUQUERQUE

Late Autumn


Leaves

"How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.

 

Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow." - Elsie N. Brady, Leaves

ABQ: Heritage Farm

ALBUQUERQUE

Rio Grande Heritage Farm at the BioPark

View the photo journal.



Just a few decades ago, almost everyone in America had a connection to a farm.

Revive that connection at the award-winning Rio Grande Heritage Farm, a re-creation of a 1930s era farmstead.

Located just northeast of the conservatories, you'll find a large kitchen garden, crops in the field, an orchard, vineyard and berry bushes surrounding an adobe farmhouse. Canning, quilting and other demonstrations take place in the farmhouse and a cider press in the wooden barn turns much of the fall apple harvest into vinegar and cider. The adobe animal barn houses a Percheron draft horse, Paint horse, Alpine goats, a Jersey cow, Churro sheep and Dominique chickens. During the winter months, early morning visitors might catch a glimpse of sandhill cranes feeding in the fields.

Programs for this year-round working farm include interpretive presentations, hands-on demonstrations and farm activities.

Entry to the Rio Grande Heritage Farm is included with regular Botanic Garden / Aquarium admission.

ABQ: Bird Blinds

ALBUQUERQUE

Bird Blinds

This photo shows one of two bird blinds under construction at the Wetlands Restoration Project at the Tingley Ponds, between Tingley Beach and the Rio Grande.


From Wikipedia:

A bird hide (or hide, also known as a blind or bird blind in North America) is a shelter, often camouflaged, that is used to observe wildlife, especially birds, at close quarters. Although hides were once built chiefly as hunting aids, they are now commonly found in parks and wetlands for the use of bird watchers, ornithologists and other observers who do not want to disturb wildlife as it is being observed.

A typical bird hide resembles a garden shed, with small openings, shutters, or windows built into at least one side to enable observation.
Variant types of bird hide include:

• the tower hide, which has multiple storeys and allows observations over large areas
• the bird blind, which is a screen similar to one wall of a typical hide, with or without a roof for shelter
• the machan, a covered platform erected to observe birds and wildlife in high trees or on cliffs, particularly in India where it was originally used by tiger-hunters.

ABQ: Bosque Dusk

ALBUQUERQUE

Bosque Dusk

“Dusk is just an illusion because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are there cannot be one without the other yet they cannot exist at the same time. How would it feel I remember wondering to be always together yet forever apart?”

― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

ABQ: Barelas Garden

ALBUQUERQUE

Barelas Community Garden on Fourth Street


Community Gardens are found in neighborhoods around Downtown ABQ.

New Urban Agriculture

From Fast Company's Co.Exist:

There are few upsides to the U.S. recession that left people across the country without jobs, and in some cases, homes. But if we had to pick one good thing that emerged from the economic mess, it would be the vacant land that is now being used to create a new urban agriculture revolution. In a new report, PolicyLink highlights the projects and policies around the country that are bringing urban agriculture to lower-income communities of color--and some of the big challenges that they’re dealing with.

When done well, urban agriculture initiatives can offer access to healthy food in areas that formerly had little, provide jobs and skills development, and provide a sense of community. Getting to the point where that’s possible isn’t easy, however. Among the hurdles that nascent urban agriculture projects have to overcome: water access, land use issues, inadequate business training, and insufficient income generation.

Community Gardening

From Wikipedia:

Community gardens provide fresh produce and plants as well as satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement, sense of community and connection to the environment. They are publicly functioning in terms of ownership, access, and management, as well as typically owned in trust by local governments or not for profit associations.

Community gardens vary widely throughout the world. In North America, community gardens range from familiar "victory garden" areas where people grow small plots of vegetables, to large "greening" projects to preserve natural areas, to tiny street beautification planters on urban street corners. Some grow only flowers, others are nurtured communally and their bounty shared. There are even non-profits in many major cities that offer assistance to low-income families, children groups, and community organizations by helping them develop and grow their own gardens.

In the UK and the rest of Europe, closely related "allotment gardens" can have dozens of plots, each measuring hundreds of square meters and rented by the same family for generations. In the developing world, commonly held land for small gardens is a familiar part of the landscape, even in urban areas, where they may function as mini-truck farms.

Community gardens may help alleviate one effect of climate change, which is expected to cause a global decline in agricultural output, making fresh produce increasingly unaffordable. Community gardens encourage an urban community's food security, allowing citizens to grow their own food or for others to donate what they have grown. Advocates say locally grown food decreases a community's reliance on fossil fuels for transport of food from large agricultural areas and reduces a society's overall use of fossil fuels to drive in agricultural machinery.

Community gardens improve users’ health through increased fresh vegetable consumption and providing a venue for exercise. The gardens also combat two forms of alienation that plague modern urban life, by bringing urban gardeners closer in touch with the source of their food, and by breaking down isolation by creating a social community. Community gardens provide other social benefits, such as the sharing of food production knowledge with the wider community and safer living spaces.

Active communities experience less crime and vandalism.

 

Resources

American Community Gardening Association

Albuquerque Community Gardens

Another World is Plantable

ABQ: Autumn Song

ALBUQUERQUE


Autumn Song

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf

How the heart feels a languid grief

Laid on it for a covering,

And how sleep seems a goodly thing

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain

Falters because it is in vain,

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf

Knowest thou not? and how the chief

Of joys seems—not to suffer pain?

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf

How the soul feels like a dried sheaf

Bound up at length for harvesting,

And how death seems a comely thing

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

 

 

By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1828–1882 Dante Gabriel Rossetti

ABQ: Picnic at Tingley Beach

ALBUQUERQUE

Picnic at Tingley Beach


Fall is the perfect time to head to Downtown ABQ's Tingley Beach. While I don't care to fish in the ponds, I'm a huge fan of packing a picnic lunch. Just beware feeding the ducks and geese from the table. They'll surround you and beg worse than a dog.

The train connecting the zoo with the BioPark stops at Tingley Beach. The stores sells some snacks and paddle boats are available for rent in the summer. One pond is available for model boat racing.

The bike path and hiking trails connect to the beach.

Info about Tingley Beach.

ABQ: Autumn

ALBUQUERQUE

Autumn in the Bosque, Downtown Albuquerque


Changing Seasons:

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” 

― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld, #32)

ABQ: Autumn

ALBUQUERQUE

Autumn in the Bosque


“October is a fine and dangerous season in America . . . a wonderful time to begin anything at all.”        
Thomas Merton   Source: recalled on his death, Dec. 10, 1968

ABQ: Bosque Wetlands, Fall

ALBUQUERQUE

Bosque Wetlands Restoration Project

Fall 2006

View the photo journal.


The photo was taken in 2006 of the Bosque wetlands in Downtown Albuquerque. This is early in the restoration project, as not much vegetation has grown up yet around the ponds. It was still easy to walk around the perimeter of the ponds on paths.

Now the south end of the ponds has returned to marsh. I suspect it's an excellent spot for watching birds. The cranes will likely come in November. Black boxes are attached on the telephone poles in the pictures at the photo journal. They are "bat houses," like bird houses, but with slats instead of round holes.

ABQ: Fall in Bosque

ALBUQUERQUE

Fall in the Bosque

View the photo journal.


Photo of the Bosque Wetlands Restoration Project.


October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again. 
Hal Borland 

ABQ: Conservatories

ALBUQUERQUE

Conservatories

View the photo journal of conservatories in Albuquerque, the Bonsai Museum at the Steinhardt Conservatory in Brooklyn, and the orchids at the Lincoln Park Conservatory in Chicago.


The ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden, located in Greater Downtown on Central Ave. (Route 66) and the Rio Grande, features one and half miles of paths through a variety of gardens on 36 acres and two conservatories.


Mediterranean Conservatory

The Mediterranean Conservatory shows off a variety of plants native to coastal areas with hot dry summers and mild rainy winters, such as the Mediterranean Sea coast, the California coast, southwestern Australia, South Africa and coastal Chile.

This conservatory is also the locale for several flower shows, including Bulbs in Bloom and the Orchid Show.

Desert Conservatory

Its hot, dry climate supports a collection of plant life from deserts of the American Southwest.

Saguaro cactus and palo verde trees from the Sonoran Desert, creosote and yucca from the Chihuahuan Desert and elephant trees from Baja are just some of the incredible xeric-adapted plants on display.

ABQ: SnapSpace

ALBUQUERQUE

SnapSpace

Photo journal of the SnapSpace landscape.

On the edge of the Raynolds Addition and Barelas neighborhoods near the zoo in Downtown, local developers Sean Gilligan and Marilyn Keller are trying a new concept in Albuquerque home building--"stick-built" modular homes that can be moved to other locations throughout the state.

The concept embraces both green building and simplified compact living. They have a model home on Iron that is less than 900 SF. Which means that more time and attention is spent on outdoor living. The photo journal at the top of the page shows their attention to the details of creating an urban sanctuary landscape, which includes 3 separate outdoor decks, fire pits and BBQ, a pond and a garden.

The enclosed yard is reminiscent of the Medieval concept of a Hortus Conclusus, literally a walled garden that served as a contemplative outdoor room within the larger garden.


Explains Landscape Design + More--Hortus Conclusus is the archetype of an enclosed garden.  A walled garden, one with a fenced enclosure, became synonymous with the term “garden” in medieval times.  Its nomenclature, “hortus conclusus,” is believed to originate from King Solomon’s “Song of Songs” 4:12 "Hortus conclusus soror mea, sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus" ("A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.")

The enclosed garden was a common setting for images of the Virgin Mary in medieval artwork.

In secular terms the garden became a symbol of earthly love, typified by Guillaume de Llorris 13^th century poem the Roman de la Rose, an allegory of man and an enclosed garden. In this walled garden, the interior represents romance, while the exterior is emblematic of everyday life.

Artificial nature is the basis for the hortus conclusus - shutting the space off from the outside world, creating an image of an inner paradise. One could begin to suggest that this archetype has been translated into present day public pocket parks in urban centers. A more private example would be the jewel box size gardens behind brownstone buildings - is an oasis, a refuge of peace and tranquility among the chaos within the urban infrastructure.




Information about SnapSpace:


SG Properties is the sales representatives for SnapSpace NM, LLC.  We build movable, modular, green homes for delivery throughout the state.  These homes are "stick built" at our factory yard in Albuquerque and moved to your lot.  

Models:  We currently have one model for sale.  We have schematic designs for a number of other models and are in the process of completing the working drawings and pricing them.  The current model can be seen at 1104 Iron SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102.

 

Process:  Our homes are built in our factory yard and then shipped to your lot.   Customers either pay for their unit with cash or with financing.  Once the home is finished it is shipped to your lot for installation on your foundation.

 

Find Out More About SnapSpace:  Please call or email us if you have questions, want additional information, or would like to schedule a tour of our model.  Be prepared to be impressed.  
 

Sean Gilligan

SG Properties. Qualifying Broker

Phone  505.440.5814

Fax  866.630.6946

Email  sean@sgproperties.biz