Every once in a while it’s good to ask ourselves some deep questions, and this one popped up as news recently. Why do old Dutch windmills turn left and newer ones turn right? It has nothing to do with the wind or with most millers being right-handed – let’s get that out of the way now.

The material that older blades are made from provide a more precise explanation. The two rods that form a cross to which the blades are attached are made from a tree trunk. As it was growing and needed sun to do so, the trunk would rotate to the right because the sun rises in the East, then moves to the South and sets in the West, and the tree would follow.

By turning the blades to the left, counter-clockwise, it would turn avoid splintering the wood. The wood needs to be super solid and ideally be of high quality, which could sometimes come from trees that grow very straight in forests, but not all the time.

Taking physics into account, there is no reason why modern-day windmills should have a preferred rotation direction. For example, wind turbines are manufactured in factories that use the same type and angle of blades, making them standardised and so they turn the same way – to the right. They could all be made to turn left if for some reason the world decided to do so.

Old Dutch windmills were not standardised and unique, which makes them nice to visit.

(Link: nu.nl)

It has gone quite wrong with planting gingko biloba trees in Valkenswaard, Noord-Brabant. The female trees are dioecious, with separate sexes, and the female trees produce seeds that contain a type of acid that ‘smells like rancid butter or vomit’, although the residents of the city say it smells like poo.

The goal was to plant male trees that look slightly different and don’t have an odour, but that got messed up, and some streets apparently smell really disgusting. Residents are cleaning up the seeds, but even after putting them in the bins, they continue to stink the place up. The trees will not be replaced, but the seeds will be cleaned up by the city more often.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl, Photo of Ginko biloba tree by BM Begovic Bego, some rights reserved)

In the Drents-Friese Wold National Park in the province of Drenthe, mycologists have discovered a type of mushroom never seen before in the Netherlands, the Pycnoporellus fulgens. It’s currently being referred to by its Latin name because there’s no Dutch name for it yet, but it won’t stay without a name for very long.

Normally, this type of mushroom is found only in old spruce wood forests, something more akin to Scandinavia than here. It is also odd that the Pycnoporellus fulgens has not appeared in the neighbouring countries of Germany and Belgium. The Dutch Mycology Association is not only trying to figure this mystery out, but also wants to give the mushroom a name, and are leaning towards ‘oranje sparrenhoutzwam’, or ‘orange spruce wood mushroom’.

(Links: nu.nl, Photo: naturetoday.com)

Earlier this year we posted about a tree that tweeted about the weather and life, but now vibrations can be measured on trees that can be turned into music.

Dutch artist Ben Barten has discovered that by placing sensors on trees and connecting an instrument to them, in this case a synthesizer, some sort of tree music can be made and it does sound quite melodic.

(Link: nos.nl, Photo of Elm tree by Sludge G, some rights reserved)

This charming little street library was spotted today by us in the Lindenholt neighbourhood of Nijmegen. It’s made of tree trunks with added plastic curtains shielding books from the elements. Patrons are supposed to swap books, which means take one out, put one of your their own back in. The tree was placed there in 2014. Two other book trees have been added to the neighbourhood since.

The idea of using real dead trees to house the proverbial ones is not new. A German project that aims to promote women in construction, Baufachfrau, has been adding similar kiosks to the streets of Berlin since 2006 as part of the international Bookcrossing project.

In our neck of the woods, Amsterdam, it’s actually a bit trendy for houses to feature ‘outdoor bookcases’ (‘buiten boekenkasten’), but then Google shows us it’s cool throughout the country.

Rotterdam-based artist Dré Wapenaar came up with these tear-shaped tents that can be hung from the stems of trees.

Four of these tents are currently forming a hotel in Borgloon, Belgium, where they are part of an open air art exhibit called PIT. A one-night stay will cost around 70 euro, according to The Pop-Up City. Trendbeheer adds that guests can have their breakfast seated on furniture by Ardie van Bommel, a recent Eindhoven Design Academy graduate.

The temporary hotel will be open for business until September 30.

Check out the Trendbeheer article for more photos of the exhibition.

(Photo by We Make Money Not Art / Régine Debatty, some rights reserved.)

The Pop-Up City writes:

As part of his ‘Aandeboom’ series, which means something like ‘attached to trees’, the Utrecht-based spatial designer Rogier Martens has come up with a remarkable design for a pop-up bench for urban parks and landscapes. Invited by the Dutch city of Amersfoort to design a temporary bench for a local park, Martens created this Tree Bench. The bench is specifically suited for festivals and other temporary situations with urgent sitting needs. The Tree Benches are made of waterproof laminated beechwood and can be easily attached to the trees using a suspension system.

(Photo: Aandeboom.nl)

This is what you get if you dangle a camera off a kite over something like a vineyard or a tree nursery. Says BLDG|BLOG:

Dutch photographer Gerco de Ruijter recently got in touch with an extraordinary series of aerial photographs called Baumschule—some of which, he explains, were taken using a camera mounted on a fishing rod.

The series features “32 photographs of tree nurseries and grid forests in the Netherlands.”

De Ruijter first tried to find geometric patterns in natural landscapes, but later switched to “the hyper-artificial landscapes of tree farms and nurseries in the Netherlands”.

De Ruijter’s work is currently exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.

Photo: BLDG|BLOG/Gerco de Ruijter.

A quirky little idea by DUS Architects: put a 3 x 3 metre box next to the Amsterdam public library, line its inside with mirrors, and put a tree in the middle.

The Urban Woods pavilion is part of the Liefde in de stad (Love in the city) art project about which we wrote earlier. You can visit the forest (a short walk from Central Station) until June 27.

(Link: Bright. Photo: DUS Architecten / Pieter Kers.)

A clone of the famous Anne Frank chestnut tree was planted in a park South of Amsterdam last Friday. Alderman Marijke Vos and the CEO of the Anne Frank Foundation, Hans Westra, planted the young tree in the Amsterdamse Bos in Amstelveen, Metro reports.

Anne Frank used to look out on the tree when she was hiding for the Nazis, and wrote about it in her famous diary. Lately, the tree has been developing a disease, which led to the foundation deciding to plant 150 cuttings before it was too late. The other 149 chestnuts will be planted over the upcoming years.

Link: BN/De Stem.