The abundance and variety of shapes and patterns in the natural world goes on forever. One interesting facet of the naturally patterned world are the patterns found in the skin, hide, scales and fur of animals. The way the patterns shift and stretch as they move over the curves of the differently proportioned bodies and fit into and around various shapes and crevices is fascinating.

Patterns change and blend from a fusion of one shape to another as it transitions over the animal like an M.C. Escher drawing. These patterns are excellent studies in design, especially for tansitioning and movement in landscape architecture which can work for laying a grid over a hilly site that requires stretching to conform to the land. An example of this from a project I visited in Europe coming up in a future post.

images via boston.com, daniel hurst photography, fimbulfamb, shaire productions, hannes.steyn, bingopresley, tricycledteenager, khayal, tomdauben, harrytaiwan, bob2506eos, philliprose

One of the things that amazed me about Europe was the friendliness towards and general acceptance of dogs. People take their dogs everywhere and rarely put them on a leash. Every morning walking to work in Germany, I walked along a lakeside path that was also the popular place for everyone to take their dogs for their morning romp. Not a single dog would be on a leash, but there were no problems with other dogs or people.

Only one time in my entire touring around Europe did I spot a sign urging people to put their dog on a leash, at that was in a vineyard. But after all, like the sign says, the vinyard is not a dog toilet. That was the one problem, people weren’t too keen on picking up after their dogs unless you were staring right at them when the business happened. An unfortunate occurrance that was worse in some cities than others.

There were also some fun things around Europe that catered specifically to dogs. One of my favorite sightings was at a gas station outside Berlin where they had a little area for people to feed and water their dogs, lovingly called the “Hunde-Bar”. Seriously, does it get any better than that?!

Then in Rome, outside of a little food market, I saw these “Cane Parking” clips where people could clip in their dogs while shopping. I saw these in other locations too. Sorry, I was having all kinds of trouble taking pictures at dusk, but you get the idea.