We’re all getting ready for the Explorer’s Awayday May 6 in the Necklace Park, during our big Mapping the Necklace weekend. A lot of work is going on in the background to be sure that this bit of the weekend goes without a hitch…particularly the Food Map Feast in Old Durham Gardens to which all working Mappers on that day are invited.

Now while most of us are Durham all-weather sorts – and the mapping is going to proceed folks, come wind, rain, or weapons of mass distraction – it is true even to us provincials that food maps are best eaten unsoggy. So our crack team of cover experts, Pier James Ypma, aged 2 1/2 and his architect pa Biense have been experimenting with material, scale, age-appropriate food-appeal and health-and-safety, all on the Explorers’ behalf. So… stripey wedding marquees? No way. ‘Dr Livingstone I presume’ serendipitous builders’ tarps? We’re talking.

Pier feels that seasonal food, scaled discreetly for the younger crowd, is fairly funky, while Biense's very initial professional advice is to keep tarps light, design spontaneous to the end, and to stick to Travis Perkins for a deal.

More design advice from the crack team in the days to come…