At first sight I assumed these pictures must be somewhere in the American Southwest – what a surprise to find that these advertising shots are for Himla of Sweden, and were actually taken on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Anyway, I’m a sucker for a shiny Airstream in isolated surroundings, so they make a perfect escape fantasy for this weekend:
Outdoor dining in Gotland
I wonder how cold it is there? Now I know it’s the Baltic, it even looks cold, hot colors not withstanding …
Colorful Camping
White linen and fresh breezes in Gotland
And just because I like it, an Airstream lit-up by beautiful sunset at the Joshua Tree National Park in California, from the portfolio of Richard Powers. Happy Saturday!
Aah, touring caravans – those boxy behemoths, the bane of British bank holidays. But I do have such a soft spot for a daintily decorated one, (for example) – just as long as I’m not behind it on a B road on a Saturday morning. So behold, this bonanza of beauties brought to my attention by the bounteous Bedlam of Beefy blog. Lovelane Caravans in Cornwall have a carefully curated collection of caravans each adorned with appropriate accoutrements. And you don’t have to tangle with the tedious towing – your hip holiday hang-out will be set up for you on the site you select, all you need is your towel, your togs and your toothbrush, and your retreat will be ready and waiting.
Tea under the awning
Tea inside
A sophisticated vibe
Location, location. location
For traditionalists too
Just don’t do what those crazy Top Gear kids did on their caravan holiday – these beauties do not deserve this fate!
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Happy Friday (and please accept my abject apologies for all the asinine alliteration – I’ll try not to do it again)
Did you see the Air New Zealand economy class “Sky Couch” announcement this week? Clearly designed so that slim and consenting adults can stretch out even in cattle class – though what happens when they hit turbulence, I don’t know. How much better it is than a regular economy seat, I wouldn’t like to say. But however you get there, I have found some very good reasons to travel to New Zealand, straight from the portfolio of Parsonson Architects, a collection of clean, light-filled, ocean-view houses:
Pekapeka
Light and air in Pekapeka
Simple Kitchen in Raumati
Not as white as it looks - Raumati
Steps from the sand in Raumati
Sun streams in to Manly Street House
With this view, nothing else matters
I’m not sure if that’s an iconic mid-Century chair, or a dorm-room standard from Target – perhaps it depends on the context? And in that context, the chair is really irrelevant, I think.
When I was growing up in South Wales, my Dad often toyed with the idea of emigrating to some English speaking, up-and-coming, country: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, they all sounded so promising, especially during the dark times of three day weeks and power cuts as our heavy industries coughed their last gasps. Funny thing, he was an ocean-loving man, and his objection to New Zealand was that so much of the coast-line was privately owned, and not accessible to the general public. Not like in Britain, where it’s almost impossible to privately own a beach, because, below the high tide mark, they are almost all already owned by the royal family. And luckily, the royals are gracious enough to share. It’s clear from this that my Dad would not have been suited to America – an immigrant to the USA would have to come with the attitude that “yes, the beaches can be privately owned, and I’m gonna get me one” – very un-British indeed! If these beautiful houses demonstrate what you can do with your private piece of coast, maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all - just as long as you’re willing to share…
Call me a curmudgeon if you will, but often in this busy season I’d like nothing better than to pack up my nearest and dearest and escape to some remote location – as far as possible from shops, discounts, special offers, holiday sales, the lot. This Scottish croft is the kind of thing I have in mind (via)
A place to escape to
Just look at all that sky! In my escape fantasy, we’d spend the short winter days taking long, bracing hikes, and the long evenings in front of a roaring fire, enjoying comfort food prepared in the simple but beautifully equipped kitchen:
Kitchen Sink
Kitchen Door
Inviting and simple
We’d spend our TV and electronic-free evenings playing traditional board games, and no doubt we’d have to spend some time getting to know some rare single malt whiskies, too ….. Sounds good to me – what would be your escape fantasy?
Happy Thanksgiving everybody. I love this holiday – one of the very best American inventions. This year I’m extra thankful because instead of cooking (and cleaning up after) mountains of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, we’re in NYC to spend the time with the uber-cool art-school first-born child.
Planning the trip reminded me of these minimalist lego (mostly) architectural models, the work of Cristoph Niemann at Abstract City:
Some places to visit
The scale might be a bit off here
Look, Central Park
If you haven’t seen it already, check out Abstract City’s more recent post, Bio Diversity. Here’s a teaser:
I don’t care if it’s crazy, this Blob by architects dmvA makes me want to walk right up and stroke it
The Blob
the way it opens up is totally space-age
Blob Open
and inside, all those little compartments – can you see the shower up in the nose cone, and the kitchen tucked in on the right?
Inside the Blob
One reason I have a soft spot for this blob is that it is like something my Dad could have invented. I have many happy memories of summers in the ’70s when we traveled through Europe in the home-made camper van that he built by hand on a Ford Transit chassis. It was unpainted, and had a distinct organic feel to it. And inside? Lots of secret compartments, each specially sized and constructed to contain a particular item – one for his tool-kit, one for the tent, one for the outboard engine for the boat that was strapped to the van’s roof, others for the food, the pots and pans, the dishes. The best one of all was for the camping stove and its gas bottle, specially located so that we could light it up and boil the kettle for tea while driving along. (And unless you’ve brewed tea, never forgetting to warm the pot, while driving down the autobahns or negotiating the hairpin bends of the Yugoslavian coast road, you haven’t really brewed tea at all).
Which brings ne to one question with this Blob – it looks like a great weekend camper, but how do you get it to where you want it? Perhaps you parachute it in from above? I could imagine enormous trebuchets on the edge of the city, tossing blobs in every direction on Friday afternoons as people escape to the country …
Gray with everything
Degrees of Separation
Some black kitchens for black Friday