Let's Start at the Beginning...

2010-02-10T23:54:00.005-05:00

Okay, so it's really not "the" beginning, but if you've ever had a place that sticks out in your mind as somewhere you are or have been that really impacted who you are or the way you feel about the world - let's go there. Okay, again, maybe not all the places all of you could be thinking about, but let's go to that place for me - Athens, Georgia. You've seen them, right, all those T-shirts talking about going home to Athens - Again. Well, okay, maybe you have to be a UGA alum. I digress. Anway, back to Athens - a place that gets under you skin and stays forever. So cliche - but true. And well, for me it just happens to be a place where so much that has made me, me - began.

One - Let's talk Mondo, as that is the reason for this blog - right?! Mondo Land Planning + Design. A company born from a love of the profession of Landscape Architecture and created from a desire to make spaces that talk to people and enrich their lives. So much of the experience of Athens is just that - an enrichment of experience through spaces that call out to you. This is the place I began my journey into learning and practicing landscape architecture. Two - An angel of a husband. Yep, met him there and find myself thinking on some occassions how if I had left Athens just a little earlier after school, maybe we wouldn't be where we are. Thanks Athens. Three - A beautiful and lively daughter. Hard to pin point the exact date, but most likely the place she began her journey to this world. So, yes a place that holds much dear to my heart while inspiring how I experience the new places I've been and will go.

Take coffee for instance - I no longer want to experience coffee, or I guess I've moved on to tea (I digress again), anywhere that doesn't feel like the spaces in or better yet - outside of - the Athen's coffee houses. Blue Sky (my favorite, however a distant memory) and the ever favorite Jittery Joes. These places evoke the spirit of community by their simple arrangement of public space. I now frequent Woodstock Coffeehouse (kudos guys) as it is the only place on my block that takes me back to that place that feels so good and brings me together with my friends and colleagues the same. I try to sit here and figure how to explain to you what makes it feel so good - the one feeling I believe I can pass on is HOME - it feels like home. Not a chain store that feels so public, but a space that wraps around you in such a way that you get lost in thoughts and conversations and almost forget where you are. Yep - that is it on the head.

So, I ramble on to explain to you what I hope to share with the Mondo Experience. And that is a dialogue about the travels and daily experiences of the Mondo family as we explore places and spaces. Such that in so many ways provide the setting and details for our memories. Sometimes these are spaces we visit once and others speak to us so much that they become part of our traditions. And some are homes and gardens (ours and yours), which we continue to nurture and change so that they in themselves set the standard all others must match. I hope to inspire you to pull from the details to enhance your spaces and to teach you a little along the way about how to create them and care for them.

WELCOME to the MONDO Experience - Great to have you here. - Melissa Casteel