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Wildlife: inoshishi
Inoshishi are wild boars. They are agricultural pests with a price on their heads – or their tails, as the city pays for every tail you bring them. We have some that live in the hills and vales surrounding 555. Wild boars eat roots, bulbs, grubs, and worms. They get into rice fields and roll…
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The barn is next
It’s been three months since we moved into 555. Next week I have a meeting with Sasaki-san about renovating the 120 year old barn that sits next to the house. It was a dairy barn for generations, but its been out of use for decades. The floors are still dirt and mud, but there’s no…
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Turmeric Harvesting
I have a jungle of turmeric growing in my hatake garden plot. It’s all volunteers from the Kawasakis old garden. I didn’t do anything to call it forth, it just arrived in its own time. Turmeric is a beautiful broad leaf plant with exotic white flowers. Over the summer it was lush and green. When…
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The old days of design
I started my design career in 1988 doing layout for a national wholesale food collective. Most of my work was preparing grocery fliers for the member companies. I also designed ads for food manufacturers, did graphics for events, and did page layout for magazines and programs. There were two of us in the desktop publishing…
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Intuition session with Christine
I recently enjoyed an intuition session – a sort of psychic reading – with my friend Christine from Clarity with Christine. I find it useful occasionally to get perspective that’s outside self-reflection. I interpret and absorb what she describes into a deeper understanding of myself. Christine’s readings are a creative experience. As you would expect,…
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Receive, Release, Give
Our hands are one of the most important tools we have to connect with the world – we use them to touch, explore, grasp, work. In this Drawing Meditation we use them as a conduit for connecting with our inner world. We let the drawing distract our conscious mind so that our inner thoughts and…
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Flashforward
I visited a friend in the hospital this weekend. I and two other friends went together to bring her snacks, drinks, and some much needed conversation. As we walked from her room to the visiting lounge, I had a flashforward to a time a decade or so from now. This scene will come again. While…
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Garden planning for climate change
I started writing this in August, but decided I was too novice to publish anything about garden planning. However, this week the USDA updated their plant hardiness zone map in the US and winters are skewing warmer, pushing areas into new Zones. So what I wrote is definitely correct. I have been vindicated, and here…
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Containerless
When we first looked at 555 in March of 2021, there were four shipping containers on the property. They were being used as storage sheds for household stuff, tools, and farming materials. Two were disassembled before the build started. One came down this summer when I wanted to use stones underneath it. This week, the…
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Inner Critic Points a Finger: Fearful, Fake Adulting
I am full of fears and personal hurdles that get in my way of being a competent adult. I have recently (re)acknowledged this about myself. I was in denial for some time, but moving into the new house gave me space to examine this aspect of myself more honestly. Maybe I can be better? Unfortunately,…
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