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2023 with friends
I have great friends who I don’t take a lot of photos of. I didn’t get a single shot of Noopur and Kenneth when they visited from India. Two snaps of friends from America; maybe half a dozen of Jo who stayed with us for weeks! Here are some of the moments I managed to…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 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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