BENCH MARK

 

I think this cluster of five mature trees next to the peace garden is a variety of lime. My British Trees app lists three types. I'm guessing there are more.

Now I have a preliminary ID, I can keep them under observation for further clues. I do know that lime wood is highly prized by wood carvers. Wikipedia tells me that the Lime tree is different from the citrus fruit tree with the same name. In Europe it goes by the name Linden and in the US it's called Bass wood. Why didn't I know all this long ago?

Wiki also says there are 30 species of Tilia, which is the botanical name for the Genus. I think this cluster of five mature trees next to the peace garden is a variety of lime. My British Trees app lists three types. I'm guessing there are more.

Now I have a preliminary ID, I can keep them under observation for further clues. I do know that lime wood is highly prized by wood carvers. Wikipedia tells me that the Lime tree is different from the citrus fruit tree with the same name. In Europe it goes by the name Linden and in the US it's called Bass wood. Why didn't I know all this long ago?

Wiki also says there are 30 species of Tilia, which is the botanical name for the Genus.

 

 

We have new recycled plastic benches (with some metal parts) in the park. I'm not going to share a picture because they are quite ugly. The old 'timber slats with cast iron ends' have all gone.

But there are still a few all-timber benches. Most of these seem to be donations, with little metal plaques. The age varies. The older ones have wonderful textures which are hard to capture in a photograph.

I tried using the AI watercolour option and this matches reality in terms of drama and emotional impact, but in a very different way. It's just an experiment, but it reinforces my belief that conveying what we "see" is very different from taking a photograph. That's the job of an artist. To convey something intangible.

 

There are several of these poem fragments in my local park. Pie-shaped slabs of stone inset into the tarmac path with carved letters and small pictorial elements.

I don't know if they were purpose made, or moved from somewhere else. The poems were written at least a century ago and tend to be celebrations of the English countryside.

This one is a lament for a village displaced by gentrification and creation of large landscaped estates in the eighteenth century. Ironically it now sits in the Goldings Estate, now repurposed as War Memorial Park and operated by Basingstoke local government.

So there is a sadness for the lost ways of life but also a joy to live in a place where these traces of deep history are still accessible, an honour to belong to a continuous culture stretching back several centuries.

 

I'm getting quite good at going down rabbit holes. This morning I was working on an excel sheet giving my personal take on plant taxonomy (with a bias towards the UK)

Meanwhile I have a set of folders to organise information on trees I have spotted during my daily walks. To help with identification I have found two programs (an android app and a website) The app is the Woodland Trust guide to British Trees. The website, something called Pl@ntnet. org

The app is great for browsing through and getting an overview of local trees, whether indigenous, or common exotics. Compare overall form, leaf shape, flowers /fruit, and bark. The website allows uploading up to 4 images to a recognition feature. It gives percentage likelihood of the first few possibilities.

By the way, we finally had some rain, not enough but let's not complain.

View from my "office"

 

 

 

FREE PARK-ING

 

I think this cluster of five mature trees next to the peace garden is a variety of lime. My British Trees app lists three types. I'm guessing there are more.

Now I have a preliminary ID, I can keep them under observation for further clues. I do know that lime wood is highly prized by wood carvers. Wikipedia tells me that the Lime tree is different from the citrus fruit tree with the same name. In Europe it goes by the name Linden and in the US it's called Bass wood. Why didn't I know all this long ago?

Wiki also says there are 30 species of Tilia, which is the botanical name for the Genus. I think this cluster of five mature trees next to the peace garden is a variety of lime. My British Trees app lists three types. I'm guessing there are more.

Now I have a preliminary ID, I can keep them under observation for further clues. I do know that lime wood is highly prized by wood carvers. Wikipedia tells me that the Lime tree is different from the citrus fruit tree with the same name. In Europe it goes by the name Linden and in the US it's called Bass wood. Why didn't I know all this long ago?

Wiki also says there are 30 species of Tilia, which is the botanical name for the Genus.

 

We have new recycled plastic benches (with some metal parts) in the park. I'm not going to share a picture because they are quite ugly. The old 'timber slats with cast iron ends' have all gone.

But there are still a few all-timber benches. Most of these seem to be donations, with little metal plaques. The age varies. The older ones have wonderful textures which are hard to capture in a photograph.

I tried using the AI watercolour option and this matches reality in terms of drama and emotional impact, but in a very different way. It's just an experiment, but it reinforces my belief that conveying what we "see" is very different from taking a photograph. That's the job of an artist. To convey something intangible.

 

 

There are several of these poem fragments in my local park. Pie-shaped slabs of stone inset into the tarmac path with carved letters and small pictorial elements.

I don't know if they were purpose made, or moved from somewhere else. The poems were written at least a century ago and tend to be celebrations of the English countryside.

This one is a lament for a village displaced by gentrification and creation of large landscaped estates in the eighteenth century. Ironically it now sits in the Goldings Estate, now repurposed as War Memorial Park and operated by Basingstoke local government.

So there is a sadness for the lost ways of life but also a joy to live in a place where these traces of deep history are still accessible, an honour to belong to a continuous culture stretching back several centuries.

 

I'm getting quite good at going down rabbit holes. This morning I was working on an excel sheet giving my personal take on plant taxonomy (with a bias towards the UK)

Meanwhile I have a set of folders to organise information on trees I have spotted during my daily walks. To help with identification I have found two programs (an android app and a website) The app is the Woodland Trust guide to British Trees. The website, something called Pl@ntnet. org

The app is great for browsing through and getting an overview of local trees, whether indigenous, or common exotics. Compare overall form, leaf shape, flowers /fruit, and bark. The website allows uploading up to 4 images to a recognition feature. It gives percentage likelihood of the first few possibilities.

By the way, we finally had some rain, not enough but let's not complain.

View from my "office"

 

 

 

BIRD, MAN, TREE (AI)

 Looking at four different modes of AI image generation using Samsung Gallery. I haven't hit any charge or limit for this tool as yet. It's also good at creating collages. Replacing for me PIXLR, a long time favourite which is trying to bully me into paying a subscription by limiting collages to three per day, on top of intrusive advertising.

Crayon, Anime, Watercolour and Oil are the four choices illustrated here. It takes a few seconds as the image is rebuilt, rather than just applying an algorithm across the whole surface as image processing software has done for a couple of decades now. Crayon worked well for a street scene I shared a couple of weeks ago, not so much here. Anime has yet to find a use for me. Watercolour is very effective at simplifying and focusing attention on what matters.

Could this be because it draws on thousands of images by real watercolour artists who have honed that skill? Oil is good at capturing rough textures such as tree bark. Is there a way to control this with a prompt that says use watercolour for the background, oil for trees and rocks,crayon for grass, etc?

Far beyond my pay grade right now.

 

Four interpretations of Temple Moore, the architect of my local church. This is the AI built in to Samsung Gallery which I have been exploring for a couple of weeks now.

My first instinct was watercolour and that is vindicated by the results. The oil paint version gave a horrific background but this was easily erased with more AI magic.

More serious is the facial expression. This just goes to show how sensitive we are to tiny visual cues in human faces. The attentive eyes and strong features of the watercolour become a vacuous gase and/or puffy face in the other treatments. And I can't even say why. It's just an immediate subconscious reaction.

Maybe you have a different take?

Could it be the reversed parting? Surely not. But I know who I would trust. The watercolour man every time.

 

Four curches by Temple Moore, the architect of All Saints, Basingstoke. There are commonalities in the detailing, but each project is approached with a fresh eye. All are Gothic but with a streak of inventiveness that is late Victorian. He leans towards simplicity but not in a severe way.

These are photographs downloaded from Wikipedia and given the AI watercolour treatment that I am finding very helpful. It brightens dark images, simplifies and focuses attention on essentials.

Here is a man who worked in GG Scott's office and went on to build new churches across Britain, honing his craft and developing his vision as he went along. Eventually taking on Scott's grandson as a pupil and help him to become a major force in his own right.

 

 

This is not sand and palm trees. Dubai was great in so many ways, and I'm grateful to have lived in a place like International City. But it's such a relief to have this kind of nature close at hand.

I'm varying my walks, getting beyond the exploring phase, starting to look more closely, to frame views and think about why they speak to me. I'm even trying to learn species names. I've always struggled with names.

I hope to start painting again. What's stopping me? Well I don't want to splash paint on the carpet. Probably I will change the floor finish in my lounge... more of a work space really. If I want to "lounge" I use the bedroom. In any case, framing views seems like an important preparation for deciding what I want to paint in my next phase/iteration... period?

Snapshots taken in War Memorial Park, and processed in various ways.