These photos are just a few of the mushrooms I encountered while walking through Villa Monte Reserve. Mushrooms are merely the fruit that is born from a much larger organism called mycelium. They are the oldest and largest organisms in the world and have survived multiple catastrophic and massive extinctions in Earth’s history. This is due in part by their intelligent and intricate ability to adapt, evolve and share information! From cleaning toxic spills to curing diseases, these complex organisms are critical for our survival. Mushrooms aren’t just for making champignons á la créme! There are only a fraction of mushrooms identified and scientists believe there are millions more unidentified species!  If you are also fascinated, check out Paul Stamets, the mushroom guru.

Plantain is a relative of the banana and member of the Musa genus. The flower is made up of layer upon layer of pedals. Within each layer lies smaller flowers that eventually turn into the fruit, plantain. What’s more, the flower alone is rich in flavonoids, vitamin E, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, to name a few, and is eaten by many all over the world.  Whether a banana flower stir fry or eaten raw in salad, it can surely add an exotic element to any dish as well as some color! Read more… For me it was an opportunity to do some ‘land art’!

From watercolor to stained glass window.

When I start a design for a stained glass, I typically make a watercolor rendition first. This is an example of a window I made in Salta, Argentina. For the finished stained glass I chose to use a brighter blue and changed a bit the composition, but you see the idea.

Nature’s gallery…

Like a snowflake, none the same. But they do have something in common besides all being stones. Like distant relatives, they lay with their distinct form, design and mineral makeup. To a geologist they hold clues about ancient civilizations and the earth.  To me it is art! All in all, fascinating…

For 6 years now, I have lived in this jungle paradise and continue to be astonished by its beauty and wonder.

The images above are stones and large ones! These designs were not painted or etched on by someone, they somehow arranged themselves so! A collection of minerals and sediment gradually forming and in some cases crystallizing to form a stone. Can you believe what intricate designs they boast? These examples of nature’s talent lay casually by the river near my house!

Some may be inspired by the likes of Dali, Van Gough, Bansky, or Basquiat.

Me, my five year old son.

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

-Picasso

Winter is approaching us, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the garden. We have over 30 different varieties of vegetables growing right now! Fennel, red beets, swiss chard, daikon radish, radicchio, to name a few…

Part of the beauty of living in a subtropical climate is the ability to grow food all year. It can still freeze here at night so we fill the greenhouse with things like tomatoes, cucumber, passion fruit and other more delicate plants that can’t withstand the frost.

The temperate conditions, along with having super fertile black soil, makes for tasty, homegrown, fresh organic meals all year! I just take a stroll outside in the garden and see what looks ready to eat and that determines the menu for the day!

It’s cozy here getting ready for winter in the southern hemisphere. Just put the finishing touches on the installation of our humble little wood stove. Low consumption but packs a punch! Little chunks of a dry fallen piquillín tree ensures a slow burn with hot long lasting coals. The ‘bush like’ tree grows a very small berry that has an incredible flavor. Imagine, the sweetness of a cherry with a hint of bitter pine. Exotic, no?

There are many more trees and plants of intrigue here in the jungle. To see more about what is happening here in northwestern Argentina check out Villa Monte Reserve! 

When in doubt, ask a butterfly…

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and
self-contain’d,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of
owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of
years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in their
possession.

-Walt Whitman (excerpt ‘Song of Myself’)

Monkeys in my backyard…literally!

Finally the monkeys came down! This is something we can look forward to every autumn once the temperature drops. They descend in search of berries, seeds, even tree bark for food. There is something so special about looking into a monkeys eyes. They have so many expressions, like no other wild animal I have seen. I suppose it’s their curiosity, personality, and how they move about using their limbs that make them so intriguing to watch. Here in the yungas of NW Argentina the brown capuchin monkey is one of my favorite attractions!

With its long red lanky legs the chuña crept up around the house for it’s morning meal. ‘Keeooo, Keooo, Keeooo,’ chuckled the family of three cocking their heads back to alert us that a breeze is on its way.

This is just one of the many animals that live where I live, in the yungas of Argentina. The chuña or red legged seriema is a mostly predatory terrestrial bird in the seriema family. If you are lucky enough to have a pair meandering around your house, you will be sure to be free of snakes, mice and all sorts of bugs you may not want in close proximity to your living quarters.