Lumiere

We don’t really need much of an excuse to go out and last week’s Lumiere event in Derry proved this. Of course living up here in Inishowen we have  a fantastic light show every clear evening with the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights, and the Camera Club make sure that even if we don’t venture out at night to see it there are lots of images for us to look at. 

Lumiere

The Lumiere transformed the familiar Derry city landmarks, buildings, hidden spaces, parks and waterways into a magical nocturnal landscape of artworks made from light that set out to amaze, delight, and stop people in their tracks.  The festival featured a mix of high profile artist commissions, international and local artists and designers, as well as community initiatives. As part of its lasting legacy, the wider ambition of the festival was to use the temporary transformation of the public space to enable people to see the city in new ways and I think it worked. The buildings took on another deeper dimension you wouldn’t normally see in the daytime and the light show on Austin’s department store was a work of art. Just to give you an idea of the turnout if you weren’t there it took 40 minutes to queue and cross the Peace Bridge to get into Ebrington Barracks. 

A success all around I think.

Lit up Leaves

I particularly liked the small installation in the craft village of leaves made from small neon light strips and titled The Grove of Oaks.  The leaves were made from thin plastic tubing stretching up to about eight or ten feet then looped around the top. Inside the loop thin green garden mesh was stretched tightly and then the thin neon light strips were woven into the mesh. The effect was very relaxing as it flashed slowly on and off and when it was dark you didn’t see the mesh making the neon float in the air.

I think it’d be a great addition to the garden at any time of year and would make a change from seeing the small solar lights popping up in everyone’s garden; you’d have to plug it into the mains though which puts a lot of people off as an outside plug socket is needed.  After saying that there must be a lot of people with electricity outside as Inishowen is lighting up, not because of the Northern Lights though... Its Christmas lights time.  I think we could do with setting up an annual competition like the Gardening Competition to brighten the darkest time of the year, if Supervalu  do put a bit of funding aside for someone to travel around the peninsula in the dark looking at peoples gardens lit up in a myriad of colours then put me down to be the first judge. 

Wildlife

For untidy gardeners, here’s an RSPB tip for the winter...Leave old dead and decaying wood where it is.

Standing and fallen decaying wood and old plants are very important for wildlife. Even just one or two bushes, if kept beyond their natural life, are of great value to insects, fungi, mosses and lichens.

Birds feed on insects that make their home in old wood. In large gardens, a decaying tree with a snagged bough or a small cavity might provide a nest site for a bird or bat.

Dead branches also make excellent perches for birds.

Keep decaying wood on trees and shrubs

Leave dead trees and shrubs standing (as long as they are not in a dangerous place) to decompose naturally.

Unwanted plants or trees can be killed by ring-barking and left to provide a source of decaying wood. Make two thick cuts, about 20 cm apart, around the trunk and deep enough to cut through the bark and into the wood. The bark between the two cuts should also be stripped from the tree.

Ring -barking individual shrub stems also produces standing decaying wood without killing the whole plant.

 Ring-barked plants will sprout from below any wounds and may need continual cutting of growth to completely kill the plant.

Leave old stumps to decay naturally and only remove them if necessary. Not only are they a great place for wildlife in the garden, they will make the perfect place to stick on the fairly lights ready for me for when I come to visit with my clipboard and give you marks out of ten.