Tag: Wabi-sabi

  • A Barnophile of Bygone Barns

    A Barnophile of Bygone Barns

    Yesterday I meditated a minute on bygone barns. Ancient farm buildings. Tempered by time, tempted by gravity, and sowbacked beneath the burdens of generations, these rugged utility structures retain (and sometimes gain) a minimalist elegance long after design and construction and use fade into history. My meditation was meandering and inconclusive. In part this was…

  • Bygone Barns

    Bygone Barns

    Swapping December for January signals that we’re four months into Rosslyn’s icehouse rehabilitation which, in turn, means that I’m four months overdue for a look at (or perhaps the first of several looks at) my love of barns. Truth be told, I’m a bit of a barnophile. And, given my weakness for wabi-sabi, I’m especially…

  • Leaky Spigot

    Leaky Spigot

    I’m fond of the French word, “robinetterie“. In English the translation is “fixtures”. Not quite as intriguing a word, in my opinion. Nor are “plumbing fixtures”, “faucets”, etc. But “spigot“, now that’s a fine word! It conjures the drip, drip, drip… of a leaky spigot. I know, pretty subjective, and perhaps a little esoteric. But…

  • Preservation by Neglect

    Preservation by Neglect

    I’ve flitted around the topic of preservation by neglect on this blog for too long. I suppose that I’ve felt less comfortable putting my thoughts into writing than gabbing with friends similarly drawn to old buildings and artifacts. There’s a question of humility toward a topic better left to more scholarly authorities on historic preservation.…

  • Preservation by Neglect: Icehouse On Ice

    Preservation by Neglect: Icehouse On Ice

    Icehouse on ice. Yes, this tidy clutch of words and ideas appeals immensely to my poetic perspective on living, but there’s more to it than that. Like so many of the posts I’m revisiting lately, the earliest iteration of this originally somewhat melancholic reflection is nearly a decade old. Like many blog drafts it became an…

  • Horse Stall Haiku

    Horse Stall Haiku

    Horse Stall Haiku Carriage house stall door,pockmarked, patinated, but hale,relates tenants past. — Geo Davis Wabi-sabi Horse Stall Patina. Rust. Wear-and-tear. The horse stall door in the photograph above abounds in visible reminders of imperfection and impermanence. And yet beauty brims. The image, indeed the horse stall and the horse stall door themselves, exude warmth and…