In the Spring of 2022, I started to collect flowers and small plants from the streets, parking lots and other spaces by my house. A simple but radical act that forever altered the way I look at the streets of Chapel Hill. In this visual essay, I invite you to discover my surroundings with me.
Click on each bouquet below to discover the plants within the different arrangements, or browse the map for a birds-eye view of the places I have explored so far.
N506 Parking Lot, South Roberson Street, Chapel Hill
Libba Cotten Bikeway, Carrboro
I walk through the N506 parking lot nearly every morning, and it always fascinates me. A two giant trees in the middle of it preside the dozens of cars parked on the asphalt, while small weeds make their way through the gravel in the most intrincate and original ways, some even blooming with beautiful flowers. Here are six of them:
The Libba Cotten Bikeway is a short paved trail close to downtown Carrboro that I've been roaming since I moved to Chapel Hill in 2020. I mostly take pictures and film the area, and recently, I started meditating there and trying to become aware of the small plants and birds that make their lives between a rail road and a coal plant.
South Roberson Street is the street where I live and tend a small garden. Lately, the street has been blooming with dogwoods. The collard greens in my garden have also bloomed due to the surprisingly warm spring. There is a family of deer that visits every now and then, and a couple of house finches that come to the bird feeder by my window nearly every morning. See some of the flowers on my street and the adjacent street (South Graham Street) here: