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lavender, come and buy my fresh lavender

“Carshalton, Surrey was once the home of the worlds Lavender production, producing arguably the finest Lavender in the world.

“The Lavender is commonly known as "Mitcham Lavender", as the distillation plant used to be located on the Mitcham / Carshalton border at Figs Marsh. Indeed the Lavender fields stretched all the way from Wallington in the South to Mitcham in the North.

“A combination of competition from abroad, combined with demands for war time metal and then the post war London housing boom (the first large scale council estate was built at St Helier, Carshalton largely on the site of the Lavender fields), led to their demise. Towards the end of the 1990's local sustainable charity organisation, Bioregional started the revival project, claiming unused (often fly tipped) pieces of land and planting them with direct descendants of the original Lavender plants. These plants have been nurtured by community projects and harvested on an annual harvest event involving the whole community (for details of the next harvest click here), where everybody can get involved.” [Quoted from naturallythinking.]

Naturallythinking sells, on the internet, perfumed products made using Carshalton lavender.

“A whole community has come together to take control of their surroundings through the regeneration of this public space, improving the quality of life of many people beyond just the active participants. The partnership includes a range of community groups from HM Prison Downview to the London Borough of Sutton, from Sutton Allotment Society to Yardley of London, from Friends of Oaks Park to Alexander Gardens Day Nursery, from Hallmead Day Centre to BioRegional Development Group, not to mention the thousands of ad hoc volunteers and visitors.

“Lavender has been enthusiastically adopted as a neighbourhood theme helping to create a sense of local identity at work, school and play. In nearby Wallington, lavender Christmas lights sparkle, schools have created themed hedges and mazes, a lavender sculpture was commissioned at the local supermarket and a local pub changed its name to reflect this communal legacy.

“Thus a once abandoned, unkempt plot and a piece of native history has inspired a group of people with diverse interests to come together and create a valuable healthy space for learning, working, playing and dreaming.” [Quoted from pictureofchange.org.uk]

“Conservation Project of the Year
Carshalton Lavender
The project has seen the re-introduction of three acres of lavender fields to an area of south London. Carshalton lavender mixes conservation ideals with nostalgia, recreating, on a much smaller scale, what was once a very important local industry. It also educates younger residents on the benefits of preserving the local eco system.” [Quoted from Observer Ethical Awards 2007]

In France’s Haute-Provence , north of the Côte d’Azur beaches, the perfume region based around Grasse is having problems to find enough customers for their annual lavender production. One grower, however, has had a clever idea and now the region’s lavender growers turn their lavender into a sweet-smelling ‘rice’ to throw at weddings.

the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0705.php#lavender_290607

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the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0705.php#fly_trap_240607

chris jordan - artist of profligate consumerism

Closeup of La Grande Jatte by Seurat, interpreted with aluminium cans by Chris Jordan.

La Grande Jatte by Seurat, interpreted with aluminium cans by Chris Jordan.

La Grande Jatte by Seurat, interpreted with aluminium cans by Chris Jordan.
Made using 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.

By this re-creation of Georges Seurat’s 1884 pointillist painting, La Grande Jatte, using aluminium cans and with his other artworks, Chris Jordan is drawing attention to the vast quantities of various products used/consumed in the USA.

Visit his interesting web-site (linked above) to see more. Other objects used include cigarettes, plastic bottles, cell phones, hand guns....

And here is a reproduction of the Seurat original:

La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat, 1884.

Second Impressionism - Saturday in the Park with Friends. Image credit: OldOnliner

glossary

pointillism: In painting, the practice of applying small strokes or dots of contrasting colour to a surface so that from a distance they blend together into a picture. The term (and its synonym, divisionism) was first used to describe the paintings of Georges Seurat [1859-1891]. [Britannica Concise Encyclopedia]

the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0705.php#canned_art_090607

Diamond and platinum, $30 million bikini. Image source: euroluxury.com diamonds are a girl’s best friend