Red Scharlach Points At Interesting Things

Today I visited Wakehurst botanical garden in Sussex, the wilder twin sister of my beloved Kew Gardens. They currently have some Henry Moore sculptures on show in the park, and the flowers and trees were gorgeous too.

A fancy 1920s capybara, drawn in the style of my Bluesky chum Doc Hackenbush who produced a delightful capybara-drawing tutorial, so you can easily join in and draw your own!

Last week I went to Vienna, and while I was there, I visited a waste incinerator. This may sound like a strange thing to do, but the Spittelau Incinerator is not your average trash-burning facility. It was originally built in the 1960s, but following a major fire in the mid-80s, it was rebuilt to a design by visionary artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. You can't go inside, but you can walk most of the way around it and get an ever-changing view of its patterns and decorative details. The chimney with its golden bauble (which holds an emissions monitoring station) makes a striking landmark for the local area.

The Casa Batlló (1904–1906) in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudí, is a swirly undersea kingdom covered in glorious tiles and stained glass. Photos by me, February 2026.