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my photo, inverted
"Zen"
"Bamboo in Wind", Xia Chang, c. 1460, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
bamboo salad servers found here
bamboo chairs found here
bamboo scaffolding in India found here
(thanks, Lorenzo, I had forgotten how great bamboo is for scaffolding)
I got so excited when rauf commented, because I didn't know
the tribal village in my favorite post of his (his 2 photos above and below), is built from bamboo.
It's so obvious, now that I look again with bamboo eyes!
rauf's beautiful Priya post is here.
bamboo bar in Vietnam found here
(thanks, Lorenzo, I had forgotten how great bamboo is for scaffolding)
the tribal village in my favorite post of his (his 2 photos above and below), is built from bamboo.
It's so obvious, now that I look again with bamboo eyes!
rauf's beautiful Priya post is here.
bamboo house in China found here
"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked,
while the bamboo or willow
survives by bending with the wind." ~ Bruce Lee
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Bamboo forest fight scene:
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50 comments:
Most excellent post - Bamboo is a real favourite of mine it is a versatile plant both humble, regal, practical and decorative
Love those morning dew drops on the bamboo! A few years ago, while visiting my brother and his wife in Singapore, we took a side trip to Malaysia, where I was amazed to see the great heights to which bamboo ('vegetal steel') can be used for construction scaffolding. To see some impressive examples click here.
Love the bamboo. Espeically the China bamboo house. Enjoyed the movie clip. Haven't seen it. Bamboo is a beautiful and renewable resourse. Didn't know it grew in Michigan. I certainly should be able to grow it in Florida (you would think). As usual, you inspire me, Ruth.
I love bamboo. I have a bamboo cutting board. We did a job a couple of years ago, two walls, with a bamboo forest design. It can be invasive down here unless you get the clumping kind and timber bamboo is really my favorite. Great pictures but I especially liked the one of the bamboo house. so serene.
we are looking at replacing our carpeting with bamboo flooring...i love your photos of it...we thought about planting some as well..glad to see it works in our zone! i love your blog, ruth..
Wow. All photos beautiful. I love the house the best. As a sustainable wood that grows quickly, it's nice to see your illustrative examples of all it can do. I'm crazy about bamboo flooring with the little tiger stripes.
Lovely bamboo.
It's so easy to feel zen when there's no need and difficult when it could make life easier.
And I can't forget the bamboo cane we were beaten with at school.
Great photos of your bamboo!
Yesterday on our way to a picnic with the dogs, I pointed out some particularly beautiful bamboo that was dancing around in the wind. Such a graceful plant.
Ha! I have those salad servers. Love them.
Beautiful photos of how this sustainable wood can be used. That bike!! How neat is that?
Bella
Number fifty-four,
The house with the bamboo door,
Bamboo roof and bamboo walls,
They've even got a bamboo floor!
You must get to know - Soho Joe,
He runs an Expresso,
Called the House of Bamboo.
That was Andy Williams Ruth very old song
Puttu ( pronounced put - too ) a Kerala breakfast item used to be steam cooked in Bamboo or baked in bamboo, Now some metal is used, bamboo is gone. mom had bamboo steamer, very tasty Ruth. tribals bake fish in bamboo. Honey stored in bamboo is very tasty.
oh deeah ! lots of sites Ruth, i checked up
http://www.helium.com/items/82638-tips-for-cooking-with-bamboo-steamers
Please take a look at Priya's pictures Ruth. Almost everything there is made of bamboo.
She lives in a bamboo forests. Lots of snakes there and elephants, they love bamboo shoots.
Priya is standing against a bamboo screen in one picture. Mush finer screens are available
here You have to keep cleaning and remove fungus. i love the smell of wet bamboo Ruth.
i wanted to have a bamboo screen to cut the light and heat and allow air inside. It is very expensive here. Costs about 3,000 rupees for a small one. it used to be very cheap, suddenly it became fashionable, interior decorators started using them. you'll see very strong shopping baskets sold on the roadside, i must be having pictures. oh there are lots Ruth.
Suddenly i am awake.
Oh, Ruth, your photos are just stunning; I could feast my eyes on them alone. But then you add the wonderful paintings, and that scroll (which tells me that you have already discovered my favorite "secret" place at the Met). They are fascinating, those scrolls. Peaceful. Just like the plant they depict. Strong enough to bend; flexible enough to become anything. (Cool bike!) Good lesson & not just environmentally.
As for Crouching Tiger..., it is a big favorite. Do you think the background flute is bamboo?
Fast growing .... and we can even eat it, use it to make paper and clothes, water pipes... Obviously not natural in Europe but seen more and more.
Gwei Mui, oh I love that - humble and regal.
Lorenzo, I had completely forgotten about the bamboo scaffolding I saw online last year, and I was amazed then. Thank you for reminding me. I've posted a particularly pleasing one from the site you linked to.
Hi, Shari. Yes, my blog friend Carl has quite a stand of bamboo by his Florida house. It does grow quickly and takes over, so plant it where you don't mind that.
Ellen, bamboo as wall murals is very elegant, I imagine that was lovely. And yes, that house in the photo really calls to me too.
Wonderful morning bamboo photos!
My daughter has bamboo dish clothes and bath towels! Such a versatile plant!
Hi, Jean, thank you very much. Yes, do try growing some.
Here is a site with ten benefits of bamboo flooring, including strength and durability. It sounds as though you are already convinced, but maybe someone else would be interested too.
California Girl, at the site linked above in my response to Jean, it says that not only does bamboo grow quickly, making it sustainable, the leaves and shoots leftover are given to livestock to eat. Yay!
Bonjour, Daniel. It's true what you say. I don't like feeling the second part though.
Babs, thank you so much for that. :|
Oh, and I forgot the fishing pole my dad got me when I was a kid. But I was never beaten with a bamboo rod, yikes. The UK is so barbaric.
;-D
Pamela, it really is. Yesterday we watched ours in the wind too. It's right in my view from this chair, and it's a good gauge of weather.
Bella, you do? I bet guests make comments about how cool they are. The bike - I know! I bet it's lightweight and durable. I can see this taking off.
rauf, I'm listening to the youtube of Andy, mambaaaaa. From the album Songs to Watch Girls By, hehehe. I never knew that song.
I forgot all about steamers! I've never eaten food made with one, but I admire the aesthetics of them when served. Wow, it helps the flavor too?
I posted your pictures of Priya and her village, rauf. How did I not remember the bamboo? Like I said in the post after adding those pictures, I didn't have bamboo eyes then. I still want you to make a children's book of the story, as Don first suggested in his comment there. He would read it to his students, and they would repeat, 'she said po, and I poed." My heart melts every time I read that post. It's one of the great beauties of my life.
Dear DS, may I confess to you that I did not get to that part of the Met? I saw very little of it, mainly the American Woman exhibit, and the Temple of Dendur. I did adore the Asian textiles at the Natural History museum the trip before last. Now I have reason to go back to the Met with a focus on the Chinese scrolls.
And flutes! I didn't think of them either (there's no end to what I didn't think of apparently), or that the music in the video might be played by one. I'm listening now. I googled the soundtrack a bit and did find that the dizi is involved, made of bamboo, along with the rawap and erhu, both stringed instruments.
I meant that the dizi is bamboo, not the rawap and erhu, although maybe they could be too, why not?
Peter, bamboo shoots are delicious.
I wonder if bamboo can be seen in some of the innovative gardens of Paris.
Pauline, yes fabric, clothing! The beauty of bamboo keeps giving and giving.
This is an amazing post - you certainly did your research, Ruth. I love the Chinese house and want to have one just like it.
I wish bamboo would grow in either of my two places - but it's too dry in both cases. Such a wonderful plant.
Such an amazing, versatile plant...it is interesting to see it being used so widely in the US now as a sustainable, fast growing plant. It used to seem so exotic and now I notice it growing here and there in RI...and hear complaints about how invasive it is. I think it is beautiful and I don't know why I haven't planted any yet...I also wonder if we could eat the bamboo shoots grown here..Have you tried?.
...So many things to think and say about bamboo but my favorite part of your post are your photos...Each and every one is beautiful...
Just remembered...While vacationing in Antigua, Mr O and I were once serenaded with a VERY bawdy song titled "The Big Bamboo":)
Wonderful post, Ruth! Brings back memories for me. As I grew up in Hong Kong, bamboo was more for function than aeshetics. Most common were bamboo chopsticks. They could stand very high heat. And then there were bamboo mats which we slept on during many hot nights. There were of course bamboo fans. And I'd often seen skillful workers building those bamboo scaffoldings many storeys high. No Cirque de Soleil acrobats could match their courage and expertise. Their occupation was later banned due to danger. I love your Bruce Lee quote. He was right ... bamboo is an apt metaphor for flexibility and resilience... the fusion of gentleness and strength.
P.S. Are those bamboos right in your farm?
Oh! I commented yesterday, but it got lost in bloggerland ...
I love how you stared with the simplicity of the bamboo in your yard and then taking it all the way up the ladder to art forms in furniture and architecture. Wonderful post!
This post is heavenly! I absolutely love bamboo; I even like to eat their shoots.
The artwork you selected is splendid - especially your inverted shot.
I'm seeing bamboo floors replacing oak and maple floors here. It's attractive and bamboo forests are more easily replenished. Those zig-zaggy chairs would look great on a bamboo floor. I wonder if they are flexible and have a fun bounce to them?
The idea of a bamboo bike is genius - light and strong. I remember seeing bamboo scaffolding all over Hong Kong. I understand that the "technology" is being brought stateside because they are more economical and just as safe and useful as our traditional steel ones here.
rauf's portrait is arresting.
I would like to sip a lychee martini inside the bamboo bar in Viet Nam. A yummy ending to a delicious post.
Deborah, google was my research, and it was fun. But there are many bamboo items I didn't remember, which commenters have reminded me of. It seems to be the miracle plant!
Oliag, oh! Another bamboo song. :) I guess we're all singing its praises here, it's song-worthy, that's for sure.
No, we haven't tried eating the shoots. I should look up how to harvest them and try.
The spot where our bamboo is growing is a half moon we'd like to fill up with it, so we're ok with it being invasive. This year it is really going crazy. It took maybe 3 years to really establish itself.
Hi, Arti, yes, these are bamboo Don planted from starts a friend gave him. They seem to be fully established this year (after first planting maybe 3 years ago?), and are just exploding. I don't think we'll ever have a forest like in the movie, but seeing them start to fill out this space between us and our neighbor's pole barn makes me happy. :)
Sometimes I think we in the modern age are "learning" what others have known thousands of years. We're so arrogant!
Oh, CottageGirl, too bad about your comment.
Thank you, it is amazing to me too how the more we dig and remember, and learn, there is no end to the wonders of bamboo. I love it!
It's good to see you again.
What a beautiful and interesting post! I love the dew drops on the bamboo leaves, and that photo of the bamboo bar in Vietnam with the reflection in the water is just stunning. I thought bamboo was only grown in China till I saw a whole group of bamboo trees/bushes where we were camping in IL. I was very surprised!
OK -- try again -- I clicked out before the verification word! Anyway, love the spots of your world you showed -- that's beautiful! And, all the other photos, too. Love the sumie -- and a bamboo bike -- I never knew!
When we were at the Cherokee Indian Reservation last summer we walked into a path with tall bamboos on both sides – it felt like a bamboo forest. (I showed the pictures in my 4/4/10 post on Cherokee market.) I do like bamboo a lot. When we moved into our house we placed bamboo wall paper in the entrance hall. Now my daughters say we need to change it as it is dated. My youngest daughter’s mother in law is from the state of Kerala in India, she makes several dishes in her bamboo utensils. I don’t know how she cooks in them, but it is delicious. Last time we went there she had 4 different types of curries.
Your illustrations are very nice.
I love the Bruce Lee quote!
Pat, I know! I don't remember seeing bamboo growing up in Michigan. I wonder when it started getting brought to other places, like here in Michigan.
Jeanie, I had no idea what a sumie was, so I googled, and it's the art of painting with brush strokes, as in the bamboo paintings. Thank you, sensei. :)
Vagabonde, the way bamboo grows, maybe North America will soon be covered with it. That would be fine. We could cook with more bamboo vessels, make more flooring, ride lightweight bicycles made of it, and paint sumie.
Oh, Don just finished his last day of school for the summer, and one of his mom's gave him a cookbook called 50 GREAT CURRIES OF INDIA. Maybe I should get a bamboo steamer. We have several good Asian markets in East Lansing because we have so many international students at the university.
Hi, Willow ~ I know, it's simple and perfect.
I wonder if you ever saw The House of Flying Daggers, Ruth? I have seen it more often than Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I LOVE the bamboo trees...so pliable and versatile. I love how you have shown so many possibilities for uses here...but not the torture implements. Yesterday we were in one of The Netherland's greatest public gardens and loved the Asia section...because of all the bamboo. It grows so quickly, so in Atlanta it is often used as a hedge between properties. I see I'm jumping all around from one thing to another...kinda like flying on the wind through the trees. :)
Awesome collection of photos! I am so mad about bamboo and found your page on a random search. Beautiful! Thank you!!
Boots, I have not seen Flying Daggers, but it must be at least as good as Crouching Tiger, if you've seen it that many times.
Bamboo is so aesthetically gorgeous in its natural state, I'm glad it's welcome in its exuberance!
Thank you, and welcome, RichieNJ!
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