I walked past this hotel so many times before I realised what made it so inviting.

Okay, so it’s kind of obvious when I take a photo and lead the post with it.

The Marriott hotel on College Street, Darlinghurst – across the road from Hyde Park – has a green wall (or garden panel, as the manufacturer calls it). It’s a garden of pre-grown plants, trained for vertical growing, and watered and fed by an automated drip system, and it all grows in a lightweight biodegradable foam (instead of soil).

It’s not cheap for the modules and drip system – an Age article last year quoted it at $1800 per metre.

Not cheap. And still reasonably token. But still far more striking and inviting than your typical hotel lobby.

There’s a tree halfway up Crown Street, Surry Hills, on the wall of the Salvation Army shop building.

It seems such a metaphor for the stories inside that place. Clutching on for dear life, but reaching out for this glorious sunshine above. It gives me a lift just walking past.

Sad news.

A year ago our friends Blake and Alexis showed you how to build an inner city aquarium. Well, if you’re following their instructions, you might need to hit the brakes. Here’s what Blake had to say…

We had to abandon the fish tank recently due to health concerns.

The poor buggers kept getting sick. We figured it was the water quality or pH, so we did a few tests, which were inconclusive.

Even with water conditioners and fish medicine, they kept dying. So, despite the advice from the aquarium guy to “Just keep buying more fish,” we eventually decided it would be best to to fill up the old shipping crate with soil and focus on the creation of life rather than death.

So far, we’ve been much more successful with garlic chives than with goldfish.