{Toadstools Digest Lignin in Nature}

In nature's life's cycle, toadstools (mushrooms) mainly digest e.g. lignin, which is difficult to break down by most other organisms. Husband Pieter wrote in his book about Modern Mushroom Growing: 'Everything is Everywhere; Only the Environment Selects'.

So this is the result of the Lignin break down: mushrooms will start growing on decaying wood.
These are the Armillaria mellea or Honey mushroom and is edible!
To the right you can even see younger fruitbodies...

That's how eventually old tree trunks will be digested completely and that closes the cycle of life.

We have many in our wood garden.
Those spores are everywhere and if the environment is right; they will yield fruit bodies.

Related link:

Honey Mushrooms or Armillaria Mellea Recipe | post by me

{Our Staghorn Fern - Platycerium Bifurcatum}

Instead of having a Staghorn Fern - Platycerium Bifurcatum as a pot plant, we had ours outdoors during the warm weather.

Dear Friend Natacha who resides in Miami, Florida, provided us with this 'baby' from her huge Staghorn Fern.

She can keep hers outside year round of course...

But Pieter did put it with some rope around a cut off tree.

It was quite happy but of course we have a winter with frost...

When we had all our big oak trees trimmed up, Pieter asked them to cut off the Staghorn Fern so he could place it inside the greenhouse.

Here it is, on the newly built side shelf in the greenhouse!

Looking like a happy camper for the winter season!

Do you have a Staghorn Fern as a Pot Plant?

{Part I of Husband Pieter's Trip to India - Arrival in New Delhi}

Following the Mission of H.R.H. Prince Claus, husband Pieter did travel to India from 14 - 28 March, 1982.
The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Delhli arranged that they were picked up at the airport in New Delhi, India.

Of course, they also had to report at the Royal Netherlands Embassy once in New Delhi, India.
The hotel was just around the corner, in walking distance.

From the air, looking down to the new and completely unknown territory where Pieter would be traveling and consulting for two weeks.

A new country with completely different architecture...
Wish we knew which building this is within the square...

Different people like this driver,m in a taxi on the way to the hotel...

From the hotel, the view was onto Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, the Diplomatic Enclave where all the Embassies are and also the Presidential Palace further to the right (not seen here).

In the back is the pyramid like ITC Maurya hotel, New Delhi, and bottom left is the High Commission of Malaysia.

Another direction from the hotel...

To the left, at the top, those blue domes are of the High Commission of Pakistan. 

To the right in the distance ought to be the Presidential Palace...

It was walking distance to the Dutch Embassy and this was the road with divided mid-section.

To the left of the tree trunk, you can again see the blue domes, smaller and bigger ones, from the High Commission of Pakistan. To the right of the tree you can just see the French flag waving off the French Embassy, which is across the road.

Being in a hotel, adjacent to the Embassy of Malaysia, Pieter was very close to the Royal Netherlands Embassy, just around the corner...

This is a Google map from 50-M, Satya Marg Chanakyapuri, New Delhi ←(click it) with the embassies and where the red marker is, the President's official home...

Those 3 round-abouts, that I marked yellow, can also be seen from the photo below the cab driver.

But husband Pieter did look around a bit further and away from that very affluent area...

Different local means of transport...

Lots of people too...

Feeling a bit at home by observing that many bikes; like back in The Netherlands!

Bike repair; right alongside the road!

Sharing a potato alongside the road...

Setting up shop in any street corner...

Shoe shine service...

Construction going on everywhere... It is a vast country with a population at present of around 1.22 billion!

That is, not counting all the animals that also live alongside...

Husband Pieter did break loose from the group as he was NOT in favor of adding a research wing to the University of Delhi.

That was for sure not what H.R.H. Prince Claus had opted for, as his mission was about development projects that would really help the poor in making a living!

So Pieter did listen to his friend colleague, Dr. Agha and would visit Mushroom projects in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh State and in Solan and Shimla, Himachal Pradesh State and all the way up to the J & K State = Jammu & Kashmir State in the North of India.

Related link:
{The Mission of H.R.H. Prince Claus - Husband Pieter's Trip to India} | previous post by me