Here’s a way to get close to your apple trees …

Can a Tree Have Too Many Leaves?

Can a child not speak with its hands? What else do we have but gestures between one body and the next?

This tree was on a little street in Sierre, in the Swiss Rhone Valley, called Chemin des Moulins, which has been renamed, in bright wool, as the Rue d’Art. And Art is everywhere here…

First, There’s the Apple Tree

Looking good, right?

And then, there’s, well, everything else. What a way to talk to your neighbours! You could hang art in the trees, of course, but that would miss the point. If you hang it in the tree, it is art. But it doesn’t work that way with houses. If you hang it on a house, the house becomes art. Now, how cool is that!

Landscaping With Wool

Interestingly, it binds the tree and the houses together into one gesture.

Moving down the street in the rain, and wiping off my camera lens between shots (not always successfully)…

Everywhere is Everywhere

Intriguingly, this technique does not offer disrespect to old ways of living. In fact, quite the opposite.

And here, ta da…

Why Should a Downspout Be Cold and Alone in the World?

No reason. They’re representations of the human body, too, right?

And that’s just the thing. By this simple act of devotion, the interconnectedness of the entire environment comes to life.

Even Eve’s Nemesis, That Old Snake, Gets Gentled This Way

And one smiles. And leans a bit sideways because one is wet and cold.

Think of it as a smile. I like smiling.

Downspout as… Christmas Tree? Baby’s Coat Hanger?

Hey, why not. It doesn’t matter which.

And that’s the way it is today in Sierre. Maybe we should think about getting out in the orchards and subdivisions of our own Canadian and American cities and doing a bit of landscaping without plants, too. After all, the plants have their own lives to life.