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Cutting grass, inaka style
Recently, I started hearing the buzz of kusukari-ki, our pared-down country lawnmowers, around the valley. I took it as a clear sign that grass cutting season had arrived. Last year I made a mistake and started cutting the jungle at 555 in March…several weeks before everyone else. That meant I trimmed back flowers and forage…
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Extending birthday week
I was wrong; birthday week wasn’t actually over. We had one final cake last night at dinner with friends. What a blast! P.S. Naomi said I look like “old Peko-chan” which made me laugh. I do look like her and I definitely have Peko-chan’s desire for sweets!
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Ending Birthday Week
It’s the cats’ birthdays today. Mine was yesterday. Birthday week is now over. Fritter and Maura were born five years ago. Facebook shared a memory with me today – a 25 second video of Three licking infant Maura clean. Little did she know she’d be doing that thrice more for Futatsuyama, Calico #3 (later Isabella…
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Birthday flowers
A log of what’s blooming today, a love letter to the plants 555, and a birthday gift to myself of walking around outside at dawn with with a cup of coffee and a camera. Before I even leave the house, I see flowers from the windows. The late-blooming camellia in the front garden is going…
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Package design
When I was a younger woman, I was fascinated by package design. I loved the way cardboard boxes could be fashioned in surprising ways to safeguard their contents. Tetrapacks were lovely little puzzles which I finally solved; see my Tetrapocket pattern from 2006. I seriously considered a degree in industrial and package design. In my…
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Birthday Week
My sister and I, and her daughter have birthdays all within the same week. So of course we refer to this as Birthday Week. There is a lot of cake baking activity. And though my family are far away, I have nearby friends with birthdays this week, too, and I try to keep up the…
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Bonichi Shimbun
Today I am on the front page on the local paper, the Bonichi Shimbun. And at the top of the digital edition, too. On Monday, I was interviewed about my activity at Oyama Senmaida, specifically how I am working with Ushimura-san to update their English language materials and planning an English version of the website.…
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Cat-astrophy
Yesterday, I headed over to Tod’s office to help with spring cleaning before guests start to arrive. When I alighted from the car, arms full of cleaning supplies, I heard a cat meowing loudly. So of course, I investigated. And I found this guy, with his leg completely wound up and stuck in the blue…
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Winter into Spring
Woke up with a bit of a headache and decided to take a walk before yoga. Mother Nature gave me some lovely scenes on a foggy morning. Spring is on its usual rollercoaster of temperatures and precipitation. We’re finally getting rain so the weeds and grasses are waking up from their dormant rosettes. It won’t…
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New “headshot”
I’ll be leading a couple of workshops at FEW Japan’s FEWture Conference on June 7th. It’s a one-day extravaganza for women executives in Japan and this year’s theme is diversity and inclusivity among women. Today they needed a bio from me and a headshot. The bio was easy; I love writing bios for myself and…
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