Digital tools, automating design, PRiSM app & MMC for housing, Built Environment Matters podcast with our Creative Technologies Director, Jami Cresser-Brown

Our home sits right next to a creek, too close by today’s building standards, and yet we never get a flooded basement, even when half of the town is underwater.

Last year we had a weird early hot spell and then a late frost and it pretty much killed the season for flowering trees.I was hopeful, but no flowers came all year..

This year more than made up for it though.Being a first-time lilac tree owner, I’ve discovered that I had every right to be excited about this tree and that lilacs are awesome.. Lilacs give so much and ask for so little in return.As long as they get established, they pretty much keep to themselves and don’t really need anything from you..

When lilacs are in bloom, your whole property smells like some remote corner of heaven and you almost have to say “Aaahhhhh!” every time you step out of your car.. It’s nearly impossible to get in a fight with anyone in your family when your house smells like lilacs.It’s just a fact.. Lilacs aren’t fancy or snooty.

You don’t need to clean up for them.

They’re comfortable in the middle of a formal dining room or just plunked down on your kitchen table with an overflowing laundry basket in the background.Does 4 vases plus a waving cat count as a collection?

Well, regardless, they bring me joy, so I made them mine!.So that was my haul.

I also saw a big old spool that would have made a great table for $9, a wicker picnic basket for $4 and about 17 lamps I wanted to bring home and subject to hours of spray painting.I restrained  myself until next time.. Oh yes, there will be a next time!