Thursday, June 15, 2023

Beauty and Design

 







Athens Botanical Garden (Athens, Georgia!)



Ah, beautiful design... I do hope that all of you appreciate it no matter where you see it!

Charles Stanley Peach (1858-1934) was a British architect that I admire.  We will soon see the tennis championship games from Wimbledon, England and when you watch them on TV, pay attention to the Centre Court. That was designed by Mr. Peach in 1934, using "board finished concrete" for the first time. Thirty years earlier, he was asked to design the electric transformer stations in London. (Now, pay attention...that would have been in 1904 and therefore would have been in the very early days of electricity.) The most famous of these would be Brown Hart Gardens in Mayfair, London. It is a raised garden OVER the electricity transformer station! Isn't that something? These are his thoughts about the designing of power stations....

"The amenities of the locality should not be disregarded, and every care should be taken to reduce to the minimum all causes of nuisance or annoyance. The appearance of the building counts for much in these cases."

Sigh, am I the only one who reads that and wishes that we had someone around like that today? "The appearance counts for much"...I do know that everything costs money but how much more would it cost for a building to have some sort of beauty to it? 

After a full day of designing power stations, Mr. Peach would go home and would work late into the night on huge drawings of King Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem.  He was an amazing artist, you can see some of his works online. 




This bench at the Athens Botanical Garden was not only beautiful but also comfortable.





Main Street- Conyers, Georgia.





"World, I cannot hold thee close enough".

I do wonder how many others bend down and hug this globe like I did?  Would you? It's the very first thing I thought to do!


Hope all of you are doing well these days! Time is just flying by, don't you think? June is abuzz with bees and flowers! 

The Stoke's Aster! I had to find out the name of this flower and I did! We saw it in a lovely garden on Main Street here in Conyers and then, we also saw lots of them at the Botanical Garden.  We really liked it and so did the bees! 

What else did I learn this week? The perforations on toilet paper were patented in 1871 but not available until 1890. Gee, what took them so long? LOL! (I learned this from watching a very interesting piece about the founder of Universal Studios, Mr. Carl Laemmle. What did toilet paper have to do with him? Hmm....something about one of his many lawsuits that was brought against him by Thomas Edison regarding film. You will have to look it up!)



Here is a funny song for you! When we are walking sometimes and we hear very loud voices, we think of this song!






18 comments:

  1. Yes, we need more architects like Peach! There's enough ugliness in the world already, without adding to it.

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  2. Was the world floating? I love walking among the gardens
    Cathy

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    1. Hey Cathy! You can tell how happy it made me to be at that garden, I hope! My son gave me a t shirt for Mother's Day that says, "Find Me Among The Flowers". He knows me! x

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  3. Ah, yes, it would be good for any architect to follow that seemingly simple statement Mr. Peach made all those years ago. Of course, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder...
    I love that photo of you hugging the world! It says a lot about you that this was your first thought when you saw that globe. Mine would have been to gently run my fingers across the smooth, shiny surface.

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    1. Oh yes, like so many love the look of graffiti and I cannot stand it! And that goes along with what I am about to tell you: that lovely smooth surface had been heavily scratched in several places. Why do people have to ruin lovely things?

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  4. A thing of beauty for sure! I love the asters too! You shared some wonderful pictures today and a bit of humor too on the toilet paper. Glad it has perforations in it. It makes it so much easier on us. June has been cool here so far with a lot of rain. May was warmer. But we needed the rain, so I shouldn't complain. Enjoy your summer! Love, ma

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    1. We have had a lot of rain here in Georgia too, my tomatoes are so confused! HA ha on that toilet paper, although my hubby calls it "bog roll", Brits have a different word for everything! LOL! Take care, MA! x

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  5. I totally agree that we should strive to make our world beautiful. I have been pleased to see that new utility lines for instance are being placed underground. Although in a way I miss watching for the hawks perched on top of the poles looking for dinner.

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    1. I am really upset that for years the grass would be cut underneath power lines but now, they just spray poison there and that kills so many wildflowers!

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  6. Architecture which fits the landscape and makes the area look better not worse would be a huge improvement, here and elsewhere!

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    1. Keep looking for beauty, whether it is natural or produced by men/women!

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  7. Beautifully designed, and the staircase is no bad either...

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    1. Ha ha! By the way, we saw a TV show set in Loch Ness. It was pretty ridiculous, but we loved seeing the Loch. REALLY made me want to see Scotland!

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  8. Some things I did not know there. Andy Murray has been playing well on grass so far this year for a guy with a metal hip..
    Bob at .BSS.

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    1. Oh yes, Bob! Did you see where he was hoping to see his children on Father's Day (when he was playing a tournament) and one of them piped up and said, "We're right here!". Don't you love that? Big fan of Andy Murray here, I am sure you are too!

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  9. Wouldn't the world be so pleasant if everyone would just clean up after themselves, plant more trees and flowers and upkeep their property. Our town has recently up the anti with tearing down old abandoned buildings and refacing the ones on main street. Just adding lovely hanging baskets and lights on trees has brightened it all up! Doesn't take a lot to make a difference. That song brought back the memory of my Mom saying to me when I was little: "Don't you ever stop talking?" Ha! Nope! So now I have a blog to keep it up! Have a good weekend!

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    1. Haha, you know I talk a lot too but I try to keep words to a minimum while out walking. I don't want to miss the sounds in nature! Off the subject here but are you a Reds fan? The Braves are playing them just now. Reds won yesterday and Braves today. Both are good teams but you know which one I'm rooting for! That game yesterday the Reds were in all black and it was confusing, sometimes I couldn't tell them apart from the umps!!

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