What did other people do in the past to make our world beautiful but which we do not notice now?

I am rural and I want to plant some trees and copses on my land, in particular places, with beauty in mind. It just occurred to me that others, who are long gone, may have done the same thing here in the past; planting a particular tree in its place only for its beauty. It may have outlived both themselves and their vision of what beauty is and I have not noticed it. Perhaps there are things around us which we thought were utilitarian, or even mistakes, but which were a choice made by someone with a subtler purpose than we give them credit for.

Have you ever noticed something in your surroundings and thought that it was done deliberately to be beautiful, and maybe you are the only person around now to have noticed it as such?

  • Drusas
    2•7 months ago

    You say since the '80s but I’m thinking back more like hundreds of years. Where are all of the lasting, beautiful buildings that are being made in recent decades? Not in the US, that’s for sure.

    • JustEnoughDucks
      3•7 months ago

      We bought a house last year that was the first on the street by a decade. Everything was asparagus farms and some forest.

      1. It needed to be fully stripped and redone, but damn is that house strong. 20cm thick brick wall going down like 5m underground or something. Load bearing walls also have like 2cm iron rods running vertically for support. This house will not budge.

      Trying to renovate it respectfully while repairing damage done by the previous owner and complying with the many, many strict Belgium housing regulations. So much potential and almost no problems with damp in an extremely wet region.