-
Moonlight walks with cats
Maura’s wearing an Elizabeth collar since his Christmas day vet visit and can’t safely go outside by himself. The doctor prefers him not to go out at all, but that’s not practical; his litterbox is the big wide world. And he gets salty and destructive when his freedom is impinged. Fortunately (and unexpectedly) Maura seems…
-
Monkeys in the backyard
The Japanese macaques are stealing fruit from our trees and eating it in the garden. It looks like they were enjoying themselves while I was out of the house today.
-
Cheer 2024
Every year since 2009 I have selected a word to guide me. Not a resolution or a challenge, but a word that I can turn to for guidance or inspiration. My theme word for 2024 is a cue to lighten up and be supportive. Cheer has a lot of meanings – fourteen according to Dictionary.com…
-
Christmas Roundup 2023
Living in Japan gives us a lot of freedom when it comes to holiday celebrations. I don’t think we’ve had the same Christmas twice. This year, Tod opted to work in Tokyo over Christmas week and I preferred to stay home with the cats, so we decided to celebrate our holiday early and stretch it…
-
Making Botanical Colors
Surrounded by so many plants through the seasons here at 555, I decided to try my hand at making art supplies. It’s fun to experiment with the process of extracting color. If you decide to try this – and especially if you are using unknown or inedible plants – please do it outside or in…
-
Duetting with Dad
As a housewarming gift, Jenny shipped me a piece of Dad’s glass art. When I unwrapped it, I wept. I am so happy to have another piece to hang in the windows here. When Dad was learning the techniques of glass painting, he copied the church windows of medieval glass masters. Here’s what he wrote…
-
Nengajou jollity
Today I sent out our nengajou, the holiday cards that are delivered on January 1 in Japan. I am not 100% sure that’s going to work properly for my cards this year. I didn’t buy the special pre-franked cards the post office sells, instead drawing my designs on postcards I already had on hand. So…
-
Turmeric Ink & Dye
I have a lot of turmeric from my garden so I decided to try turning it into a botanical dye, ink or paint. It is sort of delightful to have enough to experiment with and not feel bad about messing up. I am really learning. So far I’ve had three fails and a semi-success. Fail…
-
Death and memories
Taking time to remember a person is how I grieve. This may not be the most classic way to process grief, but it works well for me and is influenced strongly by two books: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. In this book, a plague has wiped out all but one woman…
-
Two fewer inoshishi
Living in the countryside is not for the faint of heart. Neither is this post; turn back if you don’t like death. After writing here yesterday that the inoshishi weren’t getting into the trap, I woke this morning to find two of them in it. And one on the outside. He sensed me, snorted loudly…
Archives