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A WALK IN THE PARK

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A walk in the park is easy.
And a walk in nature is good for your health, in a myriad of ways.
Good for problem solving apparently.

Movement helps generate thoughts and ideas.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking,” advised Nietzsche.

If you take it a few steps further, literally and metaphorically, and add curiosity to the experience, then a whole world of inspirations opens up too.

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than trees.”- Henry David Thoreau

Inspirations are all around us, it’s just that we often aren’t curious enough to notice.
And nature has inspiration in abundance.

Have you seen the underside of a fern leaf ?
Or looked in to the intimate structure of a dandelion ?
I’d never heard of an Allium until a week ago.

Looking at the leaves on a branch from a different perspective and seeing how they glow in the sunshine with an unexpected vibrancy… fascinating.

INSPIRATION INSPIRES EDUCATION

Designing provides an opportunity to satisfy a need, or a desire, or both – sometimes the desire is the need.

It can also be an opportunity to educate and inspire.
It’s all there if we choose to see.

Being curious, about nature, people or life in general, provokes a sense of understanding, possibly a feeling of appreciation, maybe even a sense of respect.

I recently learned of Terrariums and found the work of Paula Hayes pretty fascinating.
Plants growing in the eco-system of a closed glass container seem to look after themselves?
What? Really?
You might have guessed by now that my fingers aren’t green!

This revelation caused me to wonder …

A terrarium for a heel ?

Cherish the Haworthia Fasciata.

WHO SPILLED THE BEANS ?

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There they were, lying in the middle of the pavement.
With a curious translucence, a glistening surface and a somewhat luminous underbelly; stark against their own shadows.
The angle of the suns rays enhanced this scene of sweet abandon.
A display of discarded jelly beans.
One that I probably wouldn’t have noticed had it not been for my train of thought beforehand. 

A few hours earlier, I’d been admiring the colour palette of the collection of wrappers inside the box of Green & Blacks Tasting Collection that I’d been given for Christmas. The butterscotch and the ginger in particular. 

When it came to my daily dose of fresh air, I walked around the park. And as I wandered, my mind wondered, back to the chocolates and the colours of their wrappers.

I wondered if the chocolates could be made in the same colour as the wrapper ? 
I wondered if then, they might end up looking like jelly sweets ?

This thought reminded me of one of my clients who gifts a pack of jelly sweets with every pair of shoes.
Could they be in the shape of one their shoes ?

Bottega Veneta’s Puddle boot came to mind.
They certainly look the part and would be a great shape for a sweet.
A Jelly Boot !  Or a Jelly Welly ?

Either way, they’d be beautifully packaged.

SWEET ABANDON

I walked two laps of the park, leaving via the gate on the opposite side of the park and up the hill. As I reached the top and turned left on to Sydenham Hill, there they were.
The Jelly Beans.
The scene of sweet abandon.
Like a synchronous acknowledgement of my wandering wonderings.

Nietzsche said that  “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

I’m not sure my train of thought was quite the level Nietzsche was referring to, but I do recommend  finding a sense of joy in the ordinary.

I guess it didn’t really matter who spilled the beans, but being present enough to notice the scene.
And being present enough to be inspired by what’s around you.

“Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.”
: Thich Nhat Hanh.