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Chaotic 5th graders
The Oyama Senmaida staff have all been telling me how random the 5th grade classes can be when they come to plant rice. I didn’t quite believe them. But today I saw it for myself. Ninety Tokyo-based 5th graders turned up on a field trip to plant rice. Hara-san, Kawasaki-san and I prepared two paddies…
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Post-GW Garden Report
Two weeks off weeding to enjoy time with guests has put me far behind the curve of growth. We had a big rain that kept me indoors yesterday so I ventured out this morning to have a look at the situation around the property. Mist was rising out of the valley and it was beautifully…
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Week two, what did we do?
Jeanie and Tim are returning home today and I have a week’s worth of memories to journal. I tried to take more photos this time, but I still failed to capture all the moments. Tuesday, April 30: A slow morning. Laundry. It was rainy so we spent a day at home. There might have been…
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Happy 55th
Tod’s mom baked his favorite birthday cake and we invited friends over to enjoy it with us. We spent the day preparing. Tim & I hung lights in the garden while Jeanie baked. Evening came and so did the guests. Our first party on the patio was a success. Happy birthday, Tod!
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Farmpark Koi Nobori
Today I participated in a children’s festival at the newly opened Soil to Soul Farmpark. The weather was perfect, there was a huge turnout and 23 people made koi nobori at my stall. I sold almost all the large fish and about half the small ones, which was opposite of what I guessed I’d do.…
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How an Artist Builds a Fence
Engineers, please do not read. In my imagination and vision, the patio still has some tasks to accomplish. One of them is putting up a fence to wall off the garden compost pile (formerly Gomi-yama #2) from the sitting area. A fence would make a visible end to the space and also provide a background…
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Family, photos?
Tod’s mom, Jeanie, and her husband, Tim, are visiting us. They were last here in 2018 but it seems like hardly any time has passed. Our days have been packed with activities that I have enjoyed so much I have forgotten to take pictures. But here is a daily log of highlights since their arrival…
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Artsy Koi Nobori
Koi nobori are carp streamers that fly on Children’s Day. On Friday, May 3rd, I’ll host a koi nobori art activity at the Soil to Soul Farmpark kids’ festival. Megumi and I both saw artsy foreign koi nobori that are making the rounds on social media and she was inspired to ask me to do…
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Stripey Tiles
The Tiles Mines have finally yielded a finished product at 555! For the last two weeks, in between rainy days, Sakaguchi-san has been coming over to lay the tiles I laid out in stripes in November. Yes, they sat there for six months before anything happened to them. My plan was creative and complicated. The…
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Hammer Knife Rotor
Feeling overwhelmed by the long grass today, I asked Kawasaki-san if I could use the hammer knife rotor. He gave me and Tod a quick tutorial and off we went. It’s been a dream for two years to try this beast! It is a powerful and complicated machine with a lot of controls. A pull-start…
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