Five new books and our Cloverfield

I got five new books that the postman delivered yesterday and today, they are great, and I thought I'd share. The first one is called 'My Green City' and i haven't had a proper read yet but it is a compilation of ideas from architects, designers, activists and all round green thumbers regarding the city and nature. Future inner city farm buildings, roof top vegie plots and art installations. The landscape architecture student that used to be inside me is found! A few latin plant names still pop out here and there. Inspiring book with great ideas and initiatives.



Friends of mine had this book, and after looking through I couldn't stop thinking about half the dishes in it! As a (for the most part) vegetarian and avoider of dairy and gluten it is hard to find a cookbook that ticks lots of boxes. This one is amazing! Yotam Ottolenghi has a string of restaurants across London, but hails from Isreal originally which definitely shows through in his recipes. I can't wait to make a few dishes from this book for my Middle Eastern birthday dinner party this weekend. Yum! His blog makes me hungry too.



At Uni I was always going to the Bauhaus book section for inspiration. This is embarrassing, but I think I even called one of my projects for an upholstery fabric 'Bauhouse Living'! There were a few cracking names made during uni.
So Gunta Stolzl was indeed a master. She created beautiful, vivid woven textiles from her expressive abstract paintings and I have a total girl crush on her.



We hope to go to the States next winter. Duncan lived in Tucson as a toddler and would love to see the desert again, and I have never been. I want to hike in Yosemite, see mammoth cacti in Arizona and get lost in art in New York. I thought I'd get a book to plan our trip, but I think my new friend Leah might be able to give me more fun travel tips and advice than this book, which is ace.

I missed the lecture given by Carolyn Steel at BMW edge whilst design made trade was on so I decided to buy her book. Before leaving the city in 2010 I thought about city population growth a LOT. Not just in terms of traffic and congestion but resources, space and food. It is so so easy to identify the problems, I find people who endeavor to find solutions in a creative way really inspiring. Can't wait to read this book.


Lastly, our attempt at farming for our future, our little vegie patch from which this little digger is fenced out of. We have kale, silverbeet, beetroots and lots and lots of clovers..... lazy gardners in the winter, and we'd be on some serious rations if we relied on our home grown fare.