The thread that connects ...

First entry in the new blog! Woo hoo!

I was speaking with a good friend the other day about what makes a good blog. Both of us recognised that the blogs we consider to be most helpful are those which have a common thread running through them.

That idea in itself is a starting point for this blog. Celebrating Design is about common threads, about patterns, about design. It's about identifying ('naming') the pieces that can be known when life situations often (deceptively) pose as chaotic.

We can be people who see each 'life situation' (Sitz im Leben as the Chimins call it) as a product of chance, of happenstance. We can be people who put every positive outcome down to serendipity. Or we can speak of design, of intent.

In the world I inhabit (horticulture), we see the results of good design daily. We meet urban planners and landscape architects with a long, broad and deep view of their work. We meet team leaders who want their planting work to endure and enrich.

I love good wine, and can think of nothing better than a day spent in the company of happy grapes. Vineyards are such fabulous images of design. Well-spaced to accommodate viticultural machinery. Well-engineered to produce accessible, aerated, sunblest fruit. Well-located for favourable growing conditions. And well-proportioned to be a delight to the eyes.

My wife is now preparing to lose me in the blogosphere - for a long time she thought the woodworking forums would claim my scalp! For my part, I hope this blogging exercise is not about 'lostness', but about 'foundness', about design.