-
Pettiness of cats
Maura and Beryl are frenemies. Each wants to be top cat and they try to dominate one another in various ways, usually involving food or my attention. Beryl blocks Maura from his food bowl; Maura skippity-paps her as she passes by him. Fur rarely flies, but they behave in the most petty ways. This morning
-
Torch Night 2025
For several years running, Minorigaoka High School in Tokyo has sent 200+ students to Oyama Senmaida as part of an epic field trip. They are with us for two half-days – first lighting fire torches in the rice paddies and then making straw turtles together the next morning. It’s an all-hands-on-deck week as we get
-
Two red-blue color sources
Roselle and Red Spider Lily are interesting autumn flowers are full of anthocyanin, a pH sensitive compound, so what you see isn’t necessarily what you get when you make color with them. But the changes are predictable. Anothcyanin Colors If you’ve ever added lemon or vinegar to your red cabbage to help it keep its
-
Nagasa Light Up
大山千枚田の「棚田のあかり」毎年素敵ですよね。 今年は、私たち長狭エリアの住民も一緒に楽しめたらいいなと思って…家の周りや店先、玄関先に、それぞれ好きな灯りを飾ってみませんか? クリスマスライトでも、ランタンでも、提灯でも、なんでもOK！特に決まりはなし。参加費もなし。申込みもなし。ただ、この時期、みんなで光を灯して、訪れる人も、私たち住民も、みんなが温かい気持ちになれたらいいなって。 「私もやる!」って思ったら、好きなタイミングで灯してください。 こういう輪が広がったら、長狭エリア全体がもっと素敵な場所になるでしょう♪ This is a community project to brighten the area during the winter season. Oyama Senmaida’s popular “Tanada Akari” opens on October 25th Let’s light up our homes and businesses in the area to welcome visitors and give ourselves some beauty, too. Anyone can participate. Light up in any way that
-
Perfect 36?
Happy anniversary to us, again. With a typhoon blowing in, we didn’t make elaborate plans but we had a three-day weekend to fill. We chose quiet, mundane adventures near home. Saturday The day’s cold rain made me want an onsen bath. We headed down to Tateyama for a soak at Satomi no Yu with a
-
Camera Roll
Time for another photo dump of my Instagram Stories. Here are some scenes of daily life from the past month, in reverse chronological order. It’s been a good month of early autumn weather, making color, teaching art, and noticing the small joys of each day. Also, cats. The praying mantis ran up my arm like
-
SOLD: International Marriage
Not the way you think. It’s an artwork. I rarely put my work up for sale. A combination of imposter syndrome, unfair comparisons to other artists, and fear of rejection/judgement put the brakes on my reaching my potential as a capital A artist. Because I didn’t go to art school. I am not cool. I’m
-
Harvesting cotton
Yesterday was the latest installment of the Wata-Ai Trust at Oyama Senmaida. As usual, we did field work in the morning and craft in the afternoon. Our morning activity was harvesting cotton. It was hot work. I figured out some efficient techniques for plucking the bolls and got as much picked as quickly possible while
-
The Cool Change
It has been a brutally hot, record-breaking summer again. Our home weather station recorded a high of 38.2°C (101°F) on August 30th and a “feels like” high of 53.9°C (129°F) on August 18th. But yesterday the heat broke and we saw our first sub-20°C (68°F) overnight temperature since mid-June. Now we’ll be in a slowly
-
Ramie Red
This week has been a unexpected color adventure from one weedy plant – ramie. Ramie is a fiber plant called karamushi in Japanese and also called “false nettle” in English. (It’s in a completely different botanical family than the stinging nettles that produce linen.) Ramie’s been grown for 6000 years in Asia. It makes smooth
Archives