With exacting detail 12,000 miniatures bedded in sand make up one immense sculpture that as the title would suggest appears all black, but as one views the sculpture from another angle it reveals another exquisitely colourful side.

Images sourced from Colossal

You may also like from the same artist ‘Leftovers‘ and ‘Sunny Moon‘

Enjoy, A.

Before

After

Here are a few that I like the look of:

I just love this Mini House by Jonas Wagell, I’m not even sure why. I think it is the simplicity: it’s both clean and raw.

I’ve put this ‘Micro-Pod‘ in because space is such an issue these days and these guys have created a great contemporary little office in a space about the size of a small garden shed

This Office-Pod again isn’t going to rob you of too much space and I like the very modern feel.

This is my tree - I'm getting in there early with the decorations this year !

Here are some fun alternatives:

The retro-vintage American aluminum Christmas tree

Chicken feather tree !!

Book Tree

Cute little shaddow tree

Environmentally-sound (and avant-garde) alternative to the living Christmas tree by Phoebe Washbone

This won’t fill the room but I love this little fella

Then of course you need the accessories!

It deals with the principals involved in a transaction and I’m posting it because I feel that it has uses in pretty much any industry or circumstance where an exchange is made.

The study came about when I was in a previous incarnation as a bar manager in London for ‘All Bar One’. I was possibly the least formally educated of my team that was made up of full and part-time workers a lot of which were students. I had working with me people studying PhD’s in molecular biology, anthropologists, people attending LAMDA and studying film to name but a few. Not to mention all the different nationalities and cultural/ethnic backgrounds.

I would be chatting to one of these people and they would leave in a good mood to attend to someone at the bar and often return in a bad one.

For example: You can work in a bar and someone can come in and not address you with a greeting but immediately say ‘pint of Grolsh’ or some such request. This lack of visibility can leave an uncomfortable feeling and it is the extension of this I would like to explore. Of course there were lots of very pleasant exchanges but there must have been enough ‘negative’ ones to inspire me to have a closer look at what I thought that it was about.

Also this was written as a training presentation within the company so it is filled with corporate language which I’m sure is easily deciphered but:

Team Member = staff

Guest = customer

So, here goes:

I believe there are certain rifts and tensions on a daily basis between the Team Member and the Guest that may seem small and inconsequential but that can build into dissatisfaction on both parts.

This presentation will try to define, explain and remedy these tensions and outline some of the wider issues involved.

By the nature of the industry you can join as a person who is unskilled in that line of work, it may be temporary for some but that’s also the beauty of it. I’ve never met with as much diversity as working in this industry, in its challenging work and its people.

I know highly educated people that work in the industry, in fact I would go as far as to say they make up the vast majority of the work force.

Although by education we could be talking about academia or life experience and subsequently a lot of these people go on to or are in Assistant Management, General Management , Retail Business Manager and corporate roles within the company.

I believe we have a duty to give the industry the respect it deserves by looking to change the way we view ourselves and the consumers we supply.

I’ve seen a need for stress management in this job since I started three and a half years ago. I needed a job at the time and I liked the bar but, firstly I needed a job. Since then it has turned into a career. I wasn’t unskilled, having an education and much experience in the hospitality trade, but I may have been, and many people I employ are, inexperienced in this particular work. But there are many jobs you can get with minimal education or experience with on the job training as part of the package and a lot of companies prefer this because that they can train more easily without having to break habits trained by other employers. Yet there are few that hold common disregard as barman or waiter/waitress. This needs to stop and the way to do it, I believe, is to understand out own position now not from past perceptions.

By making changes in the process, attitude and nomenclature/language where they are needed and knowing exactly what we do.

In other words, what we offer and how we offer it; what the desire of our customers is and if we don’t know, ask why not and work it out.

We cannot reasonably encourage team members to feel confident in their role and respect themselves in their work with heads held high if they/we don’t know what is reasonably expected of them/us.

Can I start by highlighting a few words that I believe to be negative and that wherever possible I don’t use.

Serve

Service Industry

Catering/Catering industry

Let me tell you why I don’t like these words and suggest some other more positive words that can be used in their place.

‘Serve’

I believe to be a word that although in popular usage and that has a small dictionary definition as ‘waiter’ or ‘shop assistant’ is largely held in a more derogatory light. Its roots are held in slavery, coming from the Latin word servus slave and I believe to be tied up with wealth driven class structure. The verb ‘to serve’ doesn’t, I feel, relate accurately enough to our attitude to work.

I personally feel more comfortable using words such as:

Provide

Help

Attend

Assist

All of which can be used more than adequately in place of ‘serve’ and throw a more positive light over what we do.

‘Cater’

Is related to our work, the dictionary definition being: to supply food; to supply meals, amusements, etc’ but amongst other things to ‘pander’ to. I prefer to use the word:

Hospitality

Meaning: ‘friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests or strangers’.

The notion of serving is somewhat reactive in that it is to give what is asked for, as opposed to providing, being somewhat proactive, knowing what is desired.

If the ‘offer’ meets the ‘desire’ and there is trust or fair ‘exchange’ we are within the realms of the provider/consumer. This makes it easier to understand that we are skilled in the practice of providing rather than serving.

Now this begs the questions: What is the offer, the desire and the exchange?

So, what do we provide/offer?

a) Consumables – food and drink

b) Environment

I think we are pretty well versed in providing consumables but I would like to take a further look at environment.

What do we mean by environment?

a) Physical environment – warmth, light, cleanliness, air quality, smell comfort etc.

b) Non-physical environment – relaxation, ease, trust, well being, levels of stress, security, safety etc.

Again, I think we are familiar with the physical environment so we’ll move straight onto the non-physical environment.

How do we go about ensuring a healthy non-physical environment?

a) By getting the consumables and the physical environment right.

b) By understanding that a ‘guest’ may not already feel ‘relaxed’ and levels of stress, anger, frustration, or tension may be directed towards you even though you have not caused them, or are not aware that you have caused them.

What is the desire?

I suggest that it is having a place outside the home to go to by oneself or to meet friends or colleagues  in a sociable, safe, comfortable environment that is clean and free from tensions, where that which is paid for is delivered to the expectation (at least) without hassle.

What is the exchange?

For me, the exchange is a very important and vital element of what we do.

My first thoughts on the exchange came about by having to reconcile the ‘server’ that is perceived and that if people are parting with their money to get what they want, you are in some way part of that purchase and in that you are ‘serving upon’ the purchaser.

I say, that yes we are a part of that purchase, in so much as being educated to ‘provide’ a tangible ‘offer’ at a stated price and thereby creating a platform for exchange. If one knows what is on offer at what price, one’s choice to purchase is entirely one’s own.

It is extremely important to me that for this to work well the exchange must be ‘fair’. That is to say that the consumer is guided into a sale with their interests at heart, and are also made aware at that point of any delays changes or irregularities before the sale is made.

So, in knowing these things, how do they benefit us in our everyday business practices?

You create a mental ‘contract’.

The contract consists of:

The offer

The desire

The exchange

You run down this mental contract to see if you have caused any tensions.

If your offer is good, the desire reasonable and the exchange fair then you can assume that apparent tensions are not directly caused by you.

But it is still your responsibility! It is part of our offer to create a healthy non-physical environment.

A guest may be curt, aloof or even rude and so may you. But, I suggest it is better stress management to understand that stress is easily passed from person to person and that if we recognise this, we can break the chain, feel well in ourselves, try to recognise this in the other person and help them whilst completing the offer.

In educating ourselves we cannot help but educate our guests.

The scenarios involved in this are endless, that is why we are individuals and not machines; each nuance and idiosyncrasy must be dealt with individually.

Some are naturally better at this than others; some already know all that I’m trying to communicate, but some don’t, and rifts/tensions created often evolve into bigger rifts and tensions, maybe anger and frustration.

I would like to try to use this material to show and explain to people that if we are strong, educated and responsible, we can greatly reduce the amount of stress/tension in our profession and hopefully spread that wider so that it can be taken away into other spheres of our and our guests’ lives.Whilst looking for definitions and text to illustrate how we view and define ourselves within our business, the effects of that on the consumer and ourselves and how we can positively employ that to ease tensions and be more effective in our daily practices. A need arose to look at the wider picture of how we can view the brand as a whole to encapsulate these observations/theories.

One’s health in an organisation requires a healthy organisation.

a)      Individuals make up an organisation

b)      Products express an organisation

c)      Guests support an organisation

Expanding upon this, the components of each statement are as follows:

a)      Individuals make up an organisation

• Recruitment
• Training
• Respect                                     = Team
• Reward
• View to the future

b)      Products express an organisation:

• Value
• Quality
• Fair Exchange                           = Vision
• View to the Future

c)        Customers support an organisation:

• Trust
• Harmony                                   = Unity
• Vision

If we have strength of character and standing; if we invest in our teams, recruit wisely, train, respect reward and show a view to the future.

If we offer products that ourselves and the guests value, ensure quality, offer a fair exchange and show a clear view to where we are heading.

If we can gain the guests trust, allow them to share our ideas and view to the future.

We can truly call ourselves successful providers in a hospitality industry.

In order to work on and recognise the more subtle intricacies, we need to be in a position of calm ourselves.

This involves what is known as productivity and efficiency but it is really about the way we go about running our businesses to try as much as possible to exist in a position of stability.

I also believe this leads to longevity in business and profitability.

I would like to show just one last chart which will give you an indication of what I try to aim for in my business:

Efficiency and profitability are greatly involved in all that I have said in this presentation but they are also much wider subjects in themselves, but in essence I believe it has a lot to do with our attitude to our business as a whole and the way we view ourselves, our teams and our guests.

In order for this to work fully and healthily we must have the support of the whole company, the morning cleaner and corporate team alike.

Finally, this very small rift that I first started to study is as with most very small rifts extremely expansive. In order to see the whole picture, or at least a good deal of it, the research would have to take me into areas of history, sociology, psychology, finance and much more besides. My research has not gone to these lengths as yet, being mainly observational, but I do feel we have a bite size chunk to chew on. There is a danger in presenting an incomplete piece of study but I don’t feel this study will ever be complete, but continuously evolving, so, this is the journey so far of a work in progre

1.      Quote taken from, Deng Ming Doa’s: Three Hundred and Sixty Five Toa 1992

2.      All dictionary references are taken from the Hutchinson encyclopaedic dictionary 1994

3.      All other charts and text are from observations by the author.

‘A way of looking at what we do…’ is taken from a study by Andrew M. Dean. 2002.

Korban/Flaubert is a Sydney based studio & workshop founded in 1993 by metal specialist Janos Korban and architect Stefanie Flaubert.

K/B develop innovative forms by approaching their work as a process of discovery. They use the ‘interconnectedness of systems and patterns’ as a source of fascination and find this in mathematics, geometry and the natural world.

Their work displays the ‘tension between instability and equilibrium’ revealing itself in the contained energy and movement of the finished work.

Images sourced from Daily Icon

Ok, at the risk of painting myself in an inappropriate light for someone pushing their business into stratospheric proportions, suffice it to say that although I have exciting projects gestating they are not yet fledged and I have found myself ‘resting’ for a period – of course I’m not resting, I’m doing the things in the office that I am usually too busy to do, such as promote the business and write blogs.

I do not intend for this period to be sustained but I have to say it is interesting. I’ve gone from cautious anticipation thru mild panic and now calm optimism. (I’ll let you know about the next stage).

As the saying goes ‘the only constant is change’ (I can’t find the source of this by the way so if you happen to know I’d be interested to hear – I thought it was from the Toe Te Ching or from the I ching (book of changes) but cannot find any references)?

I am experiencing the ebb and awaiting the flow. It will come. I will not go out of business. I may have to adapt a little, but it will all be fine.

When I started my business I did not borrow any money. In that I did not get a business loan. I figured I already had some debt and saw no reason why I couldn’t do it gradually and without borrowing.

That was before I realised that I was paying for my own apprenticeship.

You see I never really intended to go into business.

I had lost my job in London as a bar manager for All Bar One (how I ended up doing that is a whole other story). As is how I stopped doing that, but I digress,)) as usual))) and ended up in Bristol.

I say back. I had been based in Bath before but close enough.

I was helping my friend out for a while who had opened a new jewellery store ‘Justice’.

While I was in London I took the opportunity to visit my grandparents once a week (as they weren’t getting any younger and I wanted to get to know them as an adult) they lived in a village near Beaconsfield)) on the pretence of ‘doing their garden’ for them, which usually consisted of an hour or two of my grandpa showing me how to pot-up broad beans or a bit of digging, followed by lunch and an afternoon of chat or walking in the woods.

I was already growing a garden on my boat and enjoyed it immensely and drew from it what has now become a deep seated belief that nature or the nurturing of plants and the witnessing of the interactions of beasts, birds & insects is life giving in terms of its capability of easing ‘dis-ease’.

With the stresses of London and of my job I sought great relief in it and believed that if only the people that I met that seemed stressed could experience some of that, it would have been a great relief to them too and that if they couldn’t go to nature then nature would have to come to them.

I was already a great convert to the organic method of horticulture and animal husbandry.

So, when I ended up in Bristol, I saw a course in organic horticulture and used a day off in the week to attend.

A year later in 2004 I was being asked to help people in their gardens and fell into business.

From the start I wanted to make garden spaces for people and taught myself to build and design.

I waited for about four years to call myself a designer and still suffer occasionally a ‘crisis of credentials’ – the curse of the non-formally educated. Even though I have designed and built in excess of 40 gardens of all shapes and sizes, am a pre-registered member of the Society of Garden Designers and am on very good and friendly terms with most of my clients. I’m even godfather to one of their children.

But the benefits and difficulties of the formally and non-formally educated is a subject for another day.

This was a very long way round of saying that in the early years of the business I used 0% interest credit cards to help with some purchases and to support the business. This went wrong in ways that can easily be surmised without me having to explain and things got messy for a while.

The business has been solvent for about four years now so I no longer borrow or want any means to borrow. I refuse to use credit cards, bank loans or overdrafts.

So if things slow up a little occasionally then I have to tighten my belt – I am lucky though I have to say that my overheads are fairly low.

If you read my last blog you will see that I spoke of a simplicity that can be gained from a narrowing of one’s choice through circumstance: It can also give you creativity.

If I were to attempt profundity I would probably say that there is ‘a lesson in everything’. But the fact that a friend of mine narrowly escaped getting clawed to death by the use of the words “every day is a learning day” to another friend on a bad day with her three kids under the age of five and husband with a recently broken leg, I think I’ll refrain.

Let’s just say that I had very little money for food so I went cupboard diving and that with the timely arrival of a cook book from my brother as a late birthday present, got stuck in to what I hope to launch as a National ‘cook from the cupboard’ campaign, held one week a year (by choice rather than necessity hopefully) when you don’t shop, or shop very little for supplementary items and see what you can rustle-up.

It can be an exercise in creativity and thrift.

I, last week and this have had stews from a roast chicken carcass and leftovers, soups from veggies (and a bit of chorizo), pancakes with maple syrup or Nutella (a purchase for my twelve year old godson) and courtesy of the new (to me) River Cottage – Everyday. Soda bread: OMG that is so amazing and so easy. Not to say satisfying.

I’ve been picking sloes and will add gin when I can (that is a luxury I grant you and I do it every year but I didn’t say that I wanted to suffer).

I intend to get the last of the haws and make a simple chutney.

I still have tomatoes in the cupboard (tinned); I have some garlic and I have some onions left from this year’s crop. But I ‘m not sure I can face that basic tomato sauce for pasta (of which I have a mountain, along with rice that the U.N would be proud of, (from the old ‘have I got any pasta at home’? Thing)) until I get much more desperate, as myself and a girlfriend of old would often resort to it in the far worse condition of ‘bare cupboard syndrome’ that we suffered often then.

I still can’t bring myself to eat pasta out as I think of it as what you eat when you have absolutely nothing else left or can’t be arsed to cook.

So if anyone can give me a better simple recipe for a great tomato sauce that could change my mind, I’d love to hear from you!

Out. A.

P.S. Getting to know my grandparents better worked out and has been one of the most fulfilling and worthwhile things I have ever done. Nor was it rushed as Ethel went on to live to 93 and Harold was in very good shape pretty much right up to the end – two months before his one hundred and fifth birthday.

In fact the date of his passing is pretty close, being the day before Armistice Day which is the 11th of November. So don’t forget to raise a glass in thanks to the olds.



You have probably seen or heard in the news last week that a 250lb, 19 point-antler stag was shot dead by a poacher or trophy hunter on Exmoor. The Red Deer (Cervus elaphus,) nicknamed the Goodleigh Giant, stood nearly 9ft tall and was thought to be destined to grow into one of the largest wild animals in Britain. It took 3 bullets to the back and belly, almost certainly dying slowly and in pain.

What is it that blinds some people to the natural power, beauty and wonder of such a beast? Or rather, what is it that must be possessed of that power by Killing?

It cannot be doubted that the magnificence of the animal was recognized or it simply wouldn’t have been worth the trophy.

There is some doubt surrounding the motive, but whether this was a bungled poaching incident or trophy killing. Either way there is little doubt that it would have been done for the money.

With thousands of pounds being attributed to the head of one of these animals for sport, it’s not so much about whether this is legal (as with the permission of the land owner and the correct calibre bullet it is, even in the rutting season). For me this is about whether, simply, it is right.

With no natural predator since the extinction of wolves from our island in the 18^th century (apart from foxes, wild cats and eagles that will occasionally take a young calf), the culling of deer is essential to keep down their numbers so as not to out-grow the food supply. Culling also removes the sick, the weak and old individuals so that the herd is made up of strong and healthy animals.

The animals need to rut to pass on their genes and in the words of Peter Green, a veterinary advisor to the British Deer Society, The Royal Parks of London, and the National Trust, “There is nothing wrong with the shooting of a mature stag that is older and in decline, since he will already have left his genes in the population and he will no longer be able to compete with the more vigorous stags that are a year or two younger than him – but the indiscriminate shooting simply for trophies is reprehensible.”

I’m glad that I don’t fully understand the kudos gained from slaying a beast such as this stag but if I am able to move aside my indignation, then I feel that I need to probe this a little.

Human beings are at once capable of extreme, seemingly irrational, acts of compassion, kindness, bravery, malice and cruelty. Destruction is, it would appear, a very human trait in the desire for war and harm.

I am fascinated, that we are fascinated by, murder.

The T.V is choc-a-bloc with it. I like Poirot and Miss Marple with the best of them, but it worries me that we are culturally obsessed by violence.

There is a statistic (though all statistics are so hopelessly open to interpretation and manipulation that it serves only to loosely illustrate my point ) that by the age of 12, most children will have seen something in the region of 8000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on T.V alone.

Why are we cramming ourselves and our children with this?

I don’t have a T.V. Not to be self-righteous, but because I’ve got used to it and now prefer it that way (for all sorts of reasons which I would be digressing even further should I go into now).

But I do watch DVDs, and prefer the pansier end of T.V and film.

I’ll give you a couple of examples: if I’m hung-over I watch Shrek, if I’m feeling really miserable I watch The Darling Buds Of May. Yes, I know! But it fills me with fabulous, fluffy, fantasy feelings that everything is going to be alright.

I also love foreign film – almost anything as long as it’s atmospheric.

I don’t watch horror because it’s scary.

I like pretty much anything from HBO, violent or not.

I live in the country on my boat and the only reason that I have time to write this is because I have run out of diesel – or rather, after carting diesel to the boat, my batteries had a stab at turning the engine over and then died. This leaves me with no power. So no electricity and no lights, though I have gas to cook on.

This all comes, by the way, after having to leave two bags of shopping in the supermarket because I have nothing in my account at that moment.

I found myself being weirdly philosophical about it and realised that I quite enjoy times of what one may call hardship: it offers me simplicity.

I do have a bottle of wine which is beside me now; I have wood, coal and candles and I can easily cobble up some food from what I have in the cupboards.

I have bought a lottery ticket recently, not to win £200 million or whatever it was that a couple won last week, but to win £70 or £80 quid. That would be nice I reckon. A lovely little surprise that would both help and feel, relative.

I was talking to my friends today and they were saying, probably quite naturally, well if you don’t want it give it to me.

But my anxiety is that I’d want it too much. If I have won £20 million on last Wednesday’s lottery, I feel sure that I wouldn’t be able to bare diminishing it to £18 million or I’d start to panic.

This is my irrationality.

I would prefer to be poor. I don’t like debt, (although I have some) but I would rather be forced into relative poverty and simplicity rather than be forced to deal with my own feelings of greed.

I don’t like it when I desire objects as when I do I always seem to be jinxed into running out of cash. The more I desire, the less well-off I seem to be: it has a peculiarly addictive quality to it. I do, though, love objects and design, however, I guess I dislike for myself the desire felt in the need to possess that object.

I say poverty. Of course it is not poverty. I have a home; I can eat and stay warm and dry.

I am not poor: I am rich. It takes situations like this to remind me.

All I need now is for it to be raining, because I am rarely more satisfied than when I am at home with food, fire and protection from the elements that I can hear tapping on my roof.

Am I saying that this fool poacher/trophy hunter watched too much T.V? Or was too greedy?

I’m not sure that I am. Of course T.V has much to offer in terms of entertainment and information, and by no means is it all aggressive.

I do worry though, that repeated negative reinforcements, along with a society with a culture based largely on an inclination to possess, and our development of manufactured and mass produced foods, may draw us away from the natural cycle of life and from an awareness that we should be part of the food chain of which we have removed ourselves.

Natural harmony for humans as an animal like any other is now, in most parts of the world, largely just a theoretical concept. In so many ways the ‘un-civilised’ are more civil than ‘civilised’.

I have to say, many people were reportedly trying to protect the location of this animal as they were worried by the inevitability of something like this happening should news of such a good specimen get carried into the less scrupulous hunting circles. I am, for the most part, not at all faithless in my fellow human-kind as there are a wealth of good and caring people in the world, however…

What is missing from a person’s life that they need to prove themselves by killing a majestic animal?

I have much sympathy for hunting wild food and foraging and for those that narrow the detachment that we have from the source of our food. But this animal was not shot for food. It was left.

So, to you who shot the stag: I have this to say…

If you want to prove yourself then don’t hide behind a telescopic sighted shot gun. Go and look at the animal in the eye and challenge it. Take it on hand to horn. Actually, I don’t want you to try to master the beast at all, but if you have to then please have the decency to do it on a level playing field.

You are not powerful.

This was not a trophy.

You are not brave.

You need to come to terms with your powerlessness in a less destructive way.

A.

P.S. I did not win the lottery but I did get paid.

The garden was divided into two by a wall across and had a path running up the left hand side. The brief was to consolidate the two parts of the garden in to more of a whole and make the path more flowing. The wall has been knocked down already here but it crossed the garden between the rubbish pile and the Yew tree.

The house is Georgian but has modern decor inside and a new modern oak and glass extension at the back. The garden was to be brought more into keeping with the house. It also had to be safe and fun for the client’ young son. With features such as a sandpit built into the timber stepped stages.

Peter Donders made ‘bench’ from a string of carbon fiber wrapped around a form later removed. It is has the ability in appearance to defy it’s own strength and has the fluidity of design found pieces with no or apparently no fixings. www.outdoorgallery.com

Before 1

Before 2

The brief was firstly to make it a usable space which would retain some lawn and a place to sit out near to the house.

The creative brief was based around a fairly minimal contemporary look that nodded towards the Florida gardens where they liked to holiday.

Here’s what they had to say :-)

Cheers, A.