Which is a great reminder that no matter how hard the wind blows and the rain comes down, the sun always, always comes out eventually.

Yesterday was a tough day for me. I’m not sure why exactly but I just couldn’t get my head out from under a rock. I’m so glad I have this blog to keep me going and focused on something other than myself.

I want to send out a special thanks to everyone who likes my blog and are finding my posts interesting to read.

Today’s focus is on nature, specifically trees. I mentioned in an earlier post how some trees are pruned to look like  balloons or other shapes and today, I want to make a case for leaving well enough alone.

This is an example of two trees, exactly the same species, next door to each other, one has been pruned to look like a gum drop and the other left to its own, natural devices.

Is it just me or does the gum drop tree look rather silly? Do we really need to make trees look like candy? Or like inverted bowls? I certainly don’t want to put any gardeners out of business but is this practice really necessary? Wouldn’t it be better to leave the tree alone and give the money to a charity that helps feed, clothe and educate people?

What is this need to control nature that is so pervasive in our society? Trees have been growing on this planet a lot longer than humans, and unless they are presenting or causing a danger, leave them alone. Observe and enjoy the organic way they spread their branches, its a language we don’t speak but we can try to understand or at least become inspired by the turn of a limb and the shadows they cast on sunny days, like today.

Okay, I made my point and if I see more examples of silly trees, I’ll post them but for now, I’d like to share with you pictures of trees that have been left alone.

Lovely, aren’t they? You may however, be asking yourself, but what has this got to do with design? A question that is constantly on my mind as I stretch my design detective’s net and find in it, nature. What does nature have to do with design? The best answer I can come up with is, nature is the seed from which good design sprouts. So the take-away from these pictures hopefully will inspire design creators to look more at nature to create homes that are in harmony with their environment. And when I say harmony, I don’t necessarily mean without contrast.

Contrast is a wonderful tool for bringing out the best, and perhaps at times, least noticed, elements in the environment. Like the bare tree above left. It’s random, wildly searching branches, are a nice contrast to the structured, angular building rising up behind it. Had either element been photographed without the other, not only with the result have been be dull but the starkness of each would go unnoticed. I also like the curving road that echoes the curving hilltop and the path that curves off to the right of the photo. All of these elements, organic, structured, angular, curves can be incorporated harmoniously into good design.

Well, I’ve run out of things to say, possibly because I have to pay bills and that task has a way of numbing my senses.

Until tomorrow, I remain your design detective,

Karen