a maitake mushroom kit

this is what a maitake mushroom growing kit looks like: a wet bag of slimy white oak substrate. Over one month till crop:

moss bed

I just put moss down on the Hibiscus for the winter and Cedric immediately claimed it as his bed. He seems happy with his new territory:

Ibirapuera Park

I was first interested in visiting Ibirapuera Park because there are two buildings by Oscar Niemeyer and a little park area that Roberto Burle Marx designed. We saw them and we were impressed but the real show stopper was the gardening area in the back - there are dozens of green houses, nurseries, a botanical info center... Everything gets propagated and grown in the park and planted across the city. I think any public space could learn from this - there has been many times that I've seen the Central Park Conservancy truck out in long island purchasing plant material. I hate to sound like a hippy but a Rhododendron that is grown in Oregon, shipped to Dix Hills, NY and then planted in NYC doesn't make much sense to me. My new favorite city park:

Sink

This beauty is in an antique shop in a little old town called Embu, just outside of Sao Paulo. I think my life would be better if I could wash my hands in this sink everyday.