The Rose Garden

Yesterday was one of those beautiful days that no matter where we are, or where we live, we glory in it. The temperature was in the mid 60s, the sky a bright clear blue, the sun bright and warm on the skin. In celebration I drove into the med center area to visit the Rose Garden. The Rose garden is part of the Museum of Natural Science complex. Most of the year it has a pleasant, peaceful air, yesterday it was especially beautiful. The roses were in full bloom and loving the cool weather. The rose beds were surrounded by beds of marigolds and ferns (I would call them Horsetail ferns but they probably have another name.) No matter - the marigolds were as pleasing in their simplicity as the roses were elegant - an excellent garden combination.
I have heard several times over the years that Houston is not a beautiful city. If compared to the green mountains and the blue ocean separated only by a long stretch of buff colored beaches in Rio, it is not the most visual city, but taken by itself, measured on its own merit, it has moments of real beauty.
The neighborhoods, streets lined with old live oaks, their branches meeting in the middle, and in the spring the front yards overgrown with azaleas, street after street of neatly kept homes and boulevards with beds of seasonal

flowers, and many small neighborhood parks complete with bronze and marble statues, all these scenes combine to make Houston a city of clean and comforting beauty.

More about things to do in Rio

In what is likely to be our last outing as a group of friends living in Brasil, Camillo, Rio Rose and the Commandant, Sissi and Antonio (and I behind the camera) spent yesterday exploring Santa Teresa. It was a little dark, threatening rain and cool for Rio but - speaking for myself only - a totally enjoyable day. We visited the Museu da Chácara do Céu (r. Maurtinh Nobre, 93, tel. 2507-1932) This Ultra modern home of industrialist Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya, completed in 1972, now houses his personal collection of art and books and has several rooms preserving the furniture and decorations of that era. It is more than worth the taxi ride and the R$2.00 cost of admittance. To the side of the museum - using the same parking lot - is the Centro Cultural Municipal Parque das Ruínas - this
remains of a house built in the forest has been preserved and enhanced with an interior metal staircase that circles to the top of the home and gives you a 360' view of Rio.






Lapa

Centro

Gloria

Santa Teresa

After the walk through of the museum and the 'ruins', we made a quick stop at our friends, Rosa and Paulo, to see how their new home is progressing. They are at about 5 years from having bought the land and three years into construction and the house is almost complete. I think it will be many more years before it is full of furniture, my impression is that each piece will have to be choosen with care in order to enhance the house's remarkable architectural design. For me the concept of a house, complimenting the surrounding city and forests, no real boundaries between inside or outside is the ultimate of living with nature.

Santa Teresa is a small microcosm - a totally unique experience within the city of Rio. I think it would be great fun to go to Lapa and catch the trolley - hanging on all the way up to Santa Teresa, get off, have lunch at one of many small restaurants and then take the trolley back to Lapa.

Welcome to Fazenda Sacramento

After the airports and bad roads we finally arrived. These photos are in no particular order.


Workshop, one of several employee homes, the storage and drying barn, and an excellent soccer field where the employees spend after hours.

Sorry, another bad photo but the only close up of the workshop.
View from one of the owners homes.


The commandante trying to get a cell phone signal.

An owner home under construction.
The first home built on the plantation.
It stretches as far as the eye can see and then beyond.

Marta's little garden.
They have acres under landscaping around the 5 homes of the owners.

Pool and barbeque area construction.
Tennis court construction.