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The Shed
It’s not exactly a shed. It’s a gatehouse-atelier-kura-shed with a basement. I love how it completes a triangle of buildings to form a compound. As you come up our driveway, the gatehouse stands tall and imposing at the top of the hill. The barn doors open into “B1,” the concrete structure that holds our grass…
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Mother Trees
Up on the ridge of the mountain behind 555, there are five huge and ancient Shii trees. They are relatives of our Ent but somehow even larger. The mother trees of the forest. Photographs can’t show their majesty. While we were visiting with them, Tod discovered the shrine we knew would be there. We’d looked…
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Christmas 2024
I seem to be starting a tradition of taking Maura to the vet on Christmas. Last year he had an abscess that needed surgery; this year I have avoided that with prompt medical care. Mai-kun from Oyama Senmaida came over on Christmas Eve and got in a roiling fight in the storm drain with Maura.…
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Skeleton of Naya
Thanks to Nagai-san’s hard work over the past couple of days, the barn is cleared, the metal siding removed, almost all the trash taken out, and the interesting stuff put aside. Now we can get to work on the next stages – stabilising it and planning its final form as Tod’s space.
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Naya, the next stage
It’s taken three years but I got the barn cleared out. And “I got” means that I hired a strong young man to do it for me. We are three days into it and there will be a few more days next week, but the bulk of it is done. Nagai-san started at the top…
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Camera Roll
Looking at the world around me and finding interest in the mundane. Let’s start with cats. They are always interesting. The weather is cooling down so they are seeking warm places and changing their daily routines Nature continues to provide beautiful moments. I have played in my studio lots this month. For every project I…
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Cat bite
Friday night my friend from Oyama Senmaida, Mai-kun, trotted over to 555 and tried to enter the cat door. I am sure he wanted a snack and cuddles, but Fritter on the inside of the door was having none of it. They were both growling and angry. I ran outside to send Mai home. He…
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Halloween Cabbages
Since 2002 when we lived in Tokyo, I have presented Tod with a Halloween treat of ornamental cabbages. He’s not big into candy or spooky decorations. We don’t usually find pumpkins for carving around here but ornamental cabbage are seasonal. All the different shapes and colors make a long-lasting planter suited for the mild Chiba…
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Camera Roll
A roundup of little things I’ve observed in the past few weeks – none big enough for their own feature, but worth remembering anyway. Over at Oyama Senmaida, school experiences are back in full swing and I’ve been busy with papermaking and straw craft, but that’s not all. I suggested rearranging things at Gonbei, and…
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Overwhelmingly Messy Studio
Sometimes, I put myself in a situation where I am paralysed by my own diverse interests. Take the studio (please!) as a good example. This table contains a lot of projects in progress to the point where I have piled them up to get the out of the way of other things and then piles…
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