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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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Figuring out the gardening
Yesterday Tod and I planted potatoes in the hatake. It’s a bit late, but I hope they will still be okay. Once they were in the ground, I started to think about the rest of the field and what I might try planting. The monkeys and boars would enjoy most of what I would prefer…
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Roundup of Little Bits
None of these things is worth a full blog post, but they paint a picture of life here in this winter-into-spring season. Little bits that I want to remember later. Yesterday I hauled out my sewing machines for some play time. The serger is acting up (the lower looper won’t stay threaded, so clearly I…
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Long walk between rains
Kali came to visit this long weekend and though it rained on Friday and poured on Sunday, Saturday was a lovely day. We decided to head up to Futatsuyama from home. It’s about an hour’s walk one way if you aren’t rushing, and we weren’t. Most of the journey is a paved country road, narrow…
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Flea Season
Forget spring, what we really have is flea and tick season. After yesterday’s tick bite on my leg, I went on alert and sure enough, I caught a little tiny tickling wandering on Maura’s fur in the evening. I combed him carefully and found two fleas as well. Great… Flea combing the cats is a…
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Two Mice & a Tick
Here in Japan, spring has several heralds: Here at 555, I have additional metrics based in nature. MOUSE #1I was doing a crossword puzzle after dinner when I heard the cadence of a cat with a mission. There’s a certain pattern to Maura’s movement when he has caught a snack. Fast and steady steps, low…
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