This Mountain Day morning, I decided to take my coffee outside and walk around 555. We’ve had a couple days of windy rain and I wanted to pick up any fallen branches in the driveway. A small daily joy is to wander around in my nightgown and garden boots. I am definitely a member of Melanie Sanders’ We Do Not Care Club.
First, a brief stop at the fishtern to feed the kingyo and medaka.
After appreciating my orange friends, I headed down the driveway. I found only the usual amount of branches and leaf litter. No drama.
Surprise 1: Boars
But I noticed that the boars have been digging holes around the bottom of the blue tarp sand pile. That’s awfully close to the house. Inoshishi have been everywhere in the neighborhood this season: Takao-san said he’s already trapped four of them over by the mud volleyball field; Bernie’s rice paddy was trampled; several tanbo at Oyama Senmaida were stooped, too. And we have them on two sides of 555 now.
I extended my walk to the top of the driveway and to get an update on the boar tracks over on the east side. There were some fresh digs and paths more visible due to the winds.
Previous years, we’ve kept the area mowed, but this year neither we nor Takao-san has had time or energy. The path to the boar trap is totally overgrown, except for a narrow path carved out by someone small – maybe kyon or possibly cats. The boar trap itself is nearly invisible.
I continued around to the hatake. It is no surprise that the overgrowth here is shameful and disappointing. All plans I had for creating a color garden this season went out the window with my herniated discs. But it’s also beautiful and wild and I can’t help enjoy it, especially as the wind dances with the turmeric and bamboo.
Surprise 2: Persimmon tree
Heading back to the house to put on pants and get closer to something I saw near the boar trap, I noticed that we had lost a tree to the wind after all. The beautiful old spreading persimmon had toppled. I’ve learned not to get too attached to nature, but I had a moment of sadness. My heart lightened when I took in the space and realised that after we get this cleaned up, we’ll have room to plant something new.
Surprise 3: Loosestrife
With my pajama outfit enhanced by the leg protection of joggers, I waded through waist-high weeds down to the boar trap to get to my prize: a patch of purple loosestrife that I’d spotted from the old road. This is the first year it’s been able to grow, since none of us has maintained the area. There are attractive advantages to inaction.
I cut some and brought it inside. It’s not a successful cut flower but I want to buy some time while I learn how to turn it into dye. The flowers should make a purple-grey and the leaves a tan color. There’s no good information online, so I will wing it and see what happens.
I’ve been missing my color experiments; the shed has been too hot to work in for long. Autumn is around the corner (I hope) but I am ready to brave the high temperatures to play. Expect some swatches soon.
