Mila Ballerina

Mila: meaning "pleasant one" or "my beloved." A name well suited. My daughter, Mila, is now 3-1/2 years old, and she has graced me with a perfect, beautiful true love. Passion and love of life just oozes out of her. And one of her passions is dance. Most visitors to our home are gifted one of Mila's dances (usually accompanied by a special "dress-up" change of clothes; and the dance is usually a ballet interpretation performed with plenty of twists and hops and often with eyes closed as if she is rendering her gift of dance from somewhere deep within.

Mila is my shadow, and as such, she is rarely far away from me. We have our three musketeers a few hours a day during the week, but she has never gone to day care, and her circle of best friends is small. It is time, I thought, for her to ease into a more structured school format; and what better way for her than through dance?







For her very first class, she was attentive, and eager to learn. I was so proud of her!

Living Tiny

While searching for a playhouse for my daughter on Craig's List recently, I came across this posting:

Tiny House On Wheels - $34000 (rohnert pk / cotati)



Intrigued, I clicked to learn more. The husband and wife owners have lived in the home for over a year, and will now move into a larger home to start a family. The home's outside footprint is 7x18, and the owners describe it as follows:
"Custom, hand built, tiny house featuring true craftsmanship and recycled materials. Traditional cottage styling with contemporary accents. The compact but smartly designed space boasts seating area with two upholstered chairs and Dickinson Marine fireplace, kitchen with stainless steel refrigerator and cabinets from IKEA and a large sink, fold down eating table for two, walk-in closet/bathroom with toilet, sink and shower and an intimate sleeping loft accessible by a rope ladder. The seating area has a vaulted ceiling and feels spacious." This is what I saw.






A home has a soul which is lovingly revealed when the inhabitants no longer see it as a mere "house." Years ago, I fell in love with a book by Scott Russell Sanders called "Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World." Sanders' words come to me now as I try my hardest to dream up a way to make this tiny house a part of my family's story. "Real estate ads offer houses for sale, not homes. A house is a garment, easily put off or on, casually bought or sold: a home is skin. Merely change houses and you will be disoriented; change homes and you bleed. When the shell you live in has taken on the savor of your love, when your dwelling has become a taproot, then your house is a home." I am fortunate, my first house has surely become a home over the past ten years. I suspect that this tiny home did, too.



Wanting to learn yet more about the tiny house on wheels, I followed the photo links and http://thistinyhouse.com/. This is what I found.


The Avesund’s “Hermitage’s Cabin”-- just big enough for one person and equipped for all seasons


Williams Cabin based in Durango, Colorado and featured in the latest Dwell magazine is one of Stephen Atkinsons minimalist projects.


The fuselage of a Horsa glider - the type used by airborne troops in World War II - is being converted into a home for a London businessman by Mr. Arthur Bedford, a building contractor at Southbourn, Bournemouth, Hampshire. The glider-home will have three rooms - a bedroom measuring 10 ft by 7 ft, a living room 15 ft by 7 ft, and a kitchenette 8 ft by 7 ft.


The tiny hand-hewn log cabin was once a children's playhouse and was relocated not far from Deep Creek Lake. It looks like it’s always been perched on its windswept ridge above rolling fields and forests.


Simon and Jasmine Saville built this unusual eco-house in Wales. This is not your transportable home but one built right into the land.


This little cob cabin was built by members of cobworks.com and cob cottage. Located in Mayne Island British Columbia, Canada.

I have long been offended by the incessant race to build bigger often at the expense of creating smarter through good design. So many beautiful old neighborhoods have been scarred by individual owners wanting to enlarge. And we end up with 3-5' setbacks, windows hovering over neighbors' gardens, and a skewed architectural vernacular which almost always subtracts from the neighborhood's sense of place and consequent level of comfort. I am equally saddened by the increasing reality shows, which demean the concept of home, rendering it but a commodity to "turn," a sexy envelope, or a prize in a competition. For these reasons and more, I am heartened by this tiny voice urging us to live tiny: build with quality, respect the land and your materials, design smart, and lighten your footprint.

On 29 March, 2009, the Tiny Village blog was conceived at http://tinyhousevillage.com/.

The first post speaks of the mission:

"Americans from all over the country are joining us and
clammering for the same thing:

1. the ability to live in a small, affordable home without
breaking any laws in the process;
2. the opportunity to "park" that home on a small piece
of land;
3. to live with other like-minded people and maybe grow
some food together.

To paraphrase, we just want to live a little more simply.

These requests should not be complicated, but because of
the bloated housing industry, distorted municipal codes
and unnecessary zoning laws, they are incredibly difficult
for the average person to navigate.

It's hard for me to express how important I think this
project is. The numbers should speak for themselves: home
vacancy rates soar, tent cities are on the rise, more and
more people are living in and around the edge of poverty.

The Tiny House Village Network is 100 people strong today.
Let's make something of it! Please join us and help us on our
journey for a new era of affordable small housing."

Perhaps one day we may form a tiny village...

Container Gardening

We love container gardening. A few well-placed pots always add so much to a space. Yet when they're not well-placed, they end up looking like so much clutter. When placing pots for clients (or in our own gardens), we consider the following:

• We plan out pot purchases as much as possible, noting how many pots to purchase and the locations where to site them.
• In gardens which have views that open up all at once, we color coordinate the pots, and we don’t use too many types of pots. We stay with one to three types that coordinate well and match in styling.
• We encourage clients: "Don’t be afraid to buy large!" And if we convince them, they’re always pleased with the effect. Even in small gardens, large pots are striking. Too many small pots of differing types of material and color just end up looking like clutter.
• In gardens with many “rooms” and concealed views, we use pots to tell a story. They can be a centerpiece of a vignette. They can be used as fountains, or they can be placed in a planting bed to add height and interest. Some pots are so beautiful, they don’t even need to be planted!
• When we plant pots, we typically like to use the "Thrillers, fillers and spillers" prototype. The thrillers are tall, often architectural plants usually placed in the center of the pot. Fillers are mid-sized and lower-sized often full or frilly plants. And spillers are placed at the pot's edge and are encouraged to drape down over the sides of the pot.
• Pots can punctuate a garden style when planted in a similar style as the surrounding garden, or they can add flavors of a complimentary garden style such as large colorful pots placed around a pool and planted with tropicals when the surrounding garden is cottage style plantings.
• Pots are fantastic for framing views. Striking pots with vertical elements always direct the eye.
• In areas where planting is not practical, adding pots can create a lush beautiful space.For other tips on pot shopping, placement, and planting, contact us at www.botanyofdesign.com to inquire about our pot shopping and planting service. You’ll be amazed at how much a few well placed pots can transform a garden!

Our current top 10 favorite plants

You all know that we are plant lovers at Botany, and you’ve all probably heard us say that we’ve included our favorite plant in your design. But, truth be known, we love plants too much to be faithful to just one. So here is our current top 10 list:

1.Chondropetalum tectorum/ Cape Rush: Both drought tolerant and can live in water. When it fills out and has many upward, tall, weeping stems it's the most graceful of all plants.




2.Euphorbia characias wulfenii/ NCN: Starts to wake up in early Spring and it’s so frilly and cheery when it does.



3.Leonotis leonurus/ Lion’s Tail: Gives height and structure in the garden, and lovely orange color when everything else is getting sleepy.


4.Echeveria secunda glauca/ Hen and Chicks: Refreshing cool blue color, adorable rosettes, and spreads easily with minimal care. Gorgeous en masse.



5.Cestrum nocturnum/ Night Jessamine: We love fragrance in the garden, and this shrub with inconspicuous flowers powerfully fills the night air with fragrance. Plant it near a window for summer evenings scented with sweet, sultry air.



6.Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea': Creeping Jenny, with it's bright yellow color and cute rounded leaves, it is the best plant for spilling out of pots or contrasting with larger-leafed, colorful plants.


7.Heuchera: Cooperative and offers a wide color range with its foliage to complement so many types of plantings.



8.Woodwardia fimbriata: A California native, this delicate but tough 3' fern can take a good bit of direct sun and reduced water after it's established.



9.Cordyline x 'Jurred': This plant is duly named 'Festival Grass' as it appears to be having a party all by itself. You might be fooled into thinking that it's a Phormium, but if you look more closely you'll notice the way the leaves arch more gracefully than a Phormium and that the color is a deep, rich red. While we love Phormiums, no Phormium can pull this off!



10.Myers Lemon: The form of a Myers Lemon can be so beautifully round and perfect without any snipping whatsoever, and the fruit it bears is so wonderfully tasty. There is nothing like having a fruit orchard in your back garden!

Aman...Peace

I have two children, Mila and Aman. Mila is 3-1/2 years old and Aman is 5 months old. I haven't had an unhappy day since their births, and in them, I have created my masterpieces. My husband Yonas is from Ethiopia and I am an American of mixed ethnicities, primarily French and Mexican. This past Sunday we christened Aman in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Mila was also christened at a young age in the same faith. Neither Yonas nor I are regular attendees at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and I would say that my faith leans more toward Buddhism, but we wanted the children to go through this significant Ethiopian ritual to connect with their Ethiopian heritage, as well as to leave future options open for following the faith of their choice.

I have continued to say since his unexpected birth at home, Aman was aptly named "Peace." He was a peaceful angel throughout this lengthy ceremony. It proceeded as follows:

• At 6am we arrived at the church.
• At approximately 6:30am the ceremony begins. Four priests enter the room, dressed in their Holy robes. They bring incense and intricate crosses and they begin to pray in a mesmerizing chant as the room fills with the fragrant smoke of the incense. The prayers are primarily delivered in Ge'ez, an ancient Ethiopian Holy language, so I am not the only one who does not understand.
• After the initial prayers conclude, all of the mothers who are offering their children up for the Holy ceremony, unwrap their children and deliver them into the hands of the priest who circles the children around the tub of Holy water, dips them into the tub, and anoints them with the Holy water. Aman is a beautiful little cherub, dancing through the air, patiently receiving our offering for him.
  

• His new godfather, Soloman, then receives him with his pure while Christening blanket and dresses him in his white Christening clothes.
• We then take him down to the main church for services and to receive his first Holy Communion at 8:30am.
  
• The prayers are, again, sung in this beautiful chant in Ge'ez, and Aman is lulled to sleep in my arms as we await his first communion.
  
• Soloman brings him to receive his first communion, the priests lay hands upon him in prayer, and by about 10:30 the ceremony has finished.

We later celebrated this occasion with a customarily small group of friends and family, and my little Mani remained peaceful, spending most of his time in the arms of his new godfather and godmother, Soloman and Eyeru.

Thank you to all who were a part of this special, amazing day in our family.

A sense of Place

We’ve all had the experience of arriving at a special place and becoming overwhelmed with a sense of awe and wonder. What is it about this place that affects us so powerfully? Natural places such as a “cathedral” in the woods or a sheltered cove have been designed by natural forces, and most created or developed places have been designed. These special, designed places have been thoroughly thought out. What story do we want to tell? How many outdoor “rooms” do we want to create? Which views do we want to open up, conceal, or reveal gradually? How shall we guide circulation? How do we incorporate resting places or spots for triangulation? How do we want to use color to create moods? How do we make users feel safe? What is the existing language of the space and the surrounding spaces that must be respected to create this sense of place?

A great designed space matters. So many of our clients tell us that before we designed their gardens they never spent time in the space, and afterward they derive great pleasure spending much of their time in the space. They now want to show it off to friends, and they now start planning activities around the space.

A fellow designer compares good design with smoke. “You know what they are when you see them. But when you try to grasp it, sometimes you can't reel it in.” Again, we have the feeling of the ethereal.

Clients are often thrilled when we hand them their final drawings after so much time spent thinking about the design. It is a tangible representation of this ongoing conversation about the creation of this new place. We take great pride in our drawings, but the cost of our design services is not paying for the drawing alone. It represents the many hours of training, specific research, developing and storytelling that is behind each pen-stroke of our drawings. Only through these less visible steps do we achieve a good design; and a good design creates a great place. Good design is intentional, purposeful, and defensible. When a client asks us why we placed that patio or tree as we did, our answer will always be much more than “because we thought it would look pretty there”.

Landscape designer Harry Schuster once commented, “All other things being equal, a well-designed landscape costs just as much to install as an ugly one. Why not make them all nice?” We agree! We commend all of our lovely clients and friends who have had this foresight, and we encourage you all to spread the word. We are on a mission to spread this sense of place, and we'd like to enlist your help.

The following photos show both natural and designed places that I visited in my travels which filled me with this sense of awe upon arrival. I woud love to learn of places that bring this sense of awe to others.

Stockholm, Sweden. Taken while exploring this amazing city by boat.

Barcelona, Spain. A crazy, invigorating place with so many hidden jewels.

My daughter had great fun running through this Cape Cod beach.

Exploring a very bohemian mountain town in Mexico. An amazing town filled with so many special places.

Ethiopia. After hours of bouncing through dirt roads, we arrived at this amazing lake carved out by natural design.

The Getty in Southern California. The sky felt amazingly large juxtaposed against this grand architecture.

Honfleur, France. I could have lingered here for years. Everywhere I looked I was in awe; a storybook village.