WaterShapes World Blog
It started as a trickle and then became a flood unlike anything I've witnessed in more than 30 years of focusing on watershapes. Almost every spring since 1986, I've encountered photo features in magazines (and now on web sites) purporting to cover either
As reported in my July 11 blog, I've recently spent the best part of four weeks flat in bed, nursing my way through epic lower-back spasms that at one point sent me to the emergency room. I am delighted to report that I am mostly recovered and am spending more time at
I spent most of the month of June 2018 flat on my back, laid low by spasms in my lower spine so intensely painful that, after several hours of agony, I ended up taking an ambulance to the emergency room. Needless to say, the forced recuperation put a
If you're like me and see life as a weird balance of the tragic and the comic, I have a couple stories tailor-made for you. First the comic - and forgive me for its reference to a component of male anatomy: "When the Dutch city of Leeuwarden
The summer swim season has arrived, which means I've spent the last week or two coping with the annual flood of stories about how awful and threatening water can be. No matter whether a given story focuses on pools, spas or some other body of water, these items warn people who like to dunk themselves to play, cool off, relax or
By Jim McCloskey The weather has taken a turn toward heat in the time since I wrote my last blog: It's been in the 90s several times recently, and it reminds me of an even hotter stretch early in May 1989, when we moved into our current house and settled in as a family with our first swimming pool. When we arrived with our
I've seen two articles recently that I must share - one inspiring, the other amazing. First the inspiration: It's tough for aquatic facilities to be recognized at all when it comes to the rigorous requirements of the
I've recently returned from four days of celebrating the 20th anniversary of Genesis with friends and colleagues in Paso Robles, Calif. - about 35 miles away from where it all started for them at Morro Bay on the state's Central Coast. The weather wasn't as brilliant as it might have been, but everything else about the event was top notch and
As this newsletter appears, I'll be heading north to Paso Robles, Calif., to participate in the 20th Anniversary Celebration for Genesis - very much aware of the fact that it's a two-decade landmark for WaterShapes, too: We started pre-launch activities related to the magazine at about the same time the founders of Genesis began organizing their
With this edition of the newsletter, we wrap up two important article sets at once, with the second and final part of Robert Mikula's and Simon Gardiner's coverage of fountains as resources for civic participation and the last in Graham Orme's four-part exploration of techniques for lighting pools, spas and other watershapes. In the first instance, I have always
