Maybe because I grew up with Richard Scarry books; maybe because we have a huge development proposal here for our small town; maybe it’s because of the discontent and lack of unity in the world, but I have been consuming a lot of content (mainly podcasts and YT videos) about permaculture, planning, and people. Sometimes our interests seem quite disparate, but suddenly a common thread appears and we realise they do, in fact, align with some deep rooted beliefs and desires for how we want to live in the world, and recently I have been watching Time Team and Andrew Millison, listening to Farm-gate and Latitude and also walking past the development nearby my home to see how it is settling in a few years down the line.
I’m also involved with the Wilder Futures initiative with People’s Park for Nature, and World Rewilding Day is running a campaign about showing what a rewarded furture looks like, so all this has gotten me thinking. Oh, and while Time Team might not seem terribly relevant, of course archaeology is the study of real people and how they utilised the resources they had, so actually, relevant. I’ve also become a little obsessed with wildlife corridors and bridges, and the myriad of ways these can be used to help animals cross roads and railways – all the more pertinent as I’m still on Toad Patrol (so far I’ve helped 171 toads, 1 frog, 3 newts – thanks for asking). Here are some coloured pencil sketches after I saw a metal overpass for the Christmas Island red crabs on YouTube.
With this in mind, I wanted to get some ideas out of my head and onto paper, and I’m enjoying having lots of space in my sketchbook. I love using up whatever gouache I have on my palette for this kind of thing, as although the paint is grainy and muddy, it feels very liberating as it doesn’t matter, and I get some random combinations as I focus on just mixing darks, lights, browns, greens etc without getting bogged down in whether or not they’re the correct tone.
Here is my page, split into four sections:
Clockwise from top left:
The park
- swings on mature trees
- stumps for seating and playing
- enclosed area for dog and cat walkers
- kiosk with seat pads, blankets, footballs, tennis balls etc to hire
The street
- pollarded trees for nesting White Storks and other birds
- rain gardens for water run off
- cycle lane
- front yards with shrubs and hedges
- wide pavement for walkers, buggies, wheelchairs
- road surface other than tarmac (sand or recycled glass/rubber?)
The outskirts
- wildlife crossings
- wide roads for all sorts of traffic
- green spaces for recreation with good public transport links
- market gardening and small farms to supply the town
The town
- cafes and seating areas prioritised over traffic
- residential above shops
- market using local produce (see above)
- fountains, seating areas, greenery
- trees for shade (forgot to draw them…)
- regular spots for musicians and street vendors
- drinking water fountains
- litter bins
I find this sort of doodle-musing quite comforting, and there are a lot of places where this sort of set-up is already in place and working, so it gives me hope for the future. While I fully support the need for genuine wild spaces, I feel that it would be easier to leave those places human-free if we all felt a bit more connected in our everyday. There’s a weird dichotomy of us all craving peace and quiet and solitude while simultaneously feeling isolated and anxious. Time Team has taught me that for millennia we have needed a community around us, and to feel protected. A lot of fighting and brutality too but yanno, one thing at a time eh.
What would be in your perfect town?
