Plenty of Nothing

October Tomato Patch

Mito's Public Gardens

Halifax's Public Gardens opened in 1867 on the principle that the community benefits when all its members, not just the wealthy and powerful, have access to a really great garden. The Kairakuen in Mito, founded in 1841, has the same purpose and essentially the same name as the Public Gardens, kairakuen meaning "a garden to enjoy with other people". There's a write-up at Quirky Japan Blog, where I stole the above photo. The Kairakuen website is here. The hydrangea festival kicks off in a week or so.

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8th-place Mito HollyHock visited 18th-place Roasso Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu today. Roasso is a made-up Italian word purporting to mean red ace.

UCD, Pohang Steelers and Montreal Impact are all off this weekend. One of the main advantages of summer football, that you get to play in the summer, is held in check by the international football schedule which claims the month of June for its own. If Scotland were to adopt summer football, the SFL would be able to play through June without a care as almost all of the players on Team Scotland play in English FA or the Old Firm.

Elsewhere, former Cerezo Osaka midfielder Shinji Kagawa has signed with Man U. [Kunamoto 2 - 1 Mito.]

Bee

Garden

Leaflike Bug

Rhubarbative

Icy

Sedum

Black-Eyed Susans

The Orange And The Green