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Christmas 2021
I feel like I planned poorly for this holiday, though I did my best. I made an artful painted tree a couple of weeks ago and hung solar lights on the “Christmas bush” at the edge of the driveway. I did, finally, host a cookie exchange – my first in Kamogawa. I only just finished
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Walks in the Woods
Southern Chiba’s low and rolling mountains are criss-crossed with old roads, ancient cow trails, and other overgrown signs of past habitation. Walking them together is our happy time on weekends. Tod is very good at spotting interesting little mountain turnoffs that lead to a beautiful drive and/or a lovely hike. Many of the trails are
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On getting older but not yet Old
For past while, I have been suffering a minor personal drama of aging. At 55, I’m past the middle of my life (unless I live to 110) and starting to feel the lack of years in my future. When Tod toasted our 32nd anniversary in October “to the next 32,” I cried inside. Who can
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100,000 km
Today, Tilly Good Car’s odometer rolled over to 100,000 km. Tod planned a route to the grocery store that would get us to a picturesque spot on Tilly’s favorite road, the Lindo along the ridge, so we could stop and take some photos. Tilly is 22 years old and has been all over Japan with
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Thirty Second Anniversary
We discussed what to do for our anniversary this year. Travel is traditionally our celebration, but after 18 months of staying home during the pandemic, it’s feels uncomfortable to plan a holiday. So instead, we bought a clock. Because it is our 32nd anniversary. This one is an antique Enfield from the UK. It was
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Second Jab and a Typhoon
This morning, Typhoon #10 is bucketing down outside and the cats are going crazy, all of their morning calisthenics taking place in the office instead of outside. By the time yoga starts in an hour, I think they will be crashed out and sleeping. But for now, there is a great deal of scurrying and
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Time to rest
At the end of today, it was done. The kominka is nothing more than ashes and a few piles of straw and rubble. There’s more to do, of course. Those piles of hay need to be moved and the lot flattened out and readied for the next stage. But we’re all overdue for a break.
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Quiet on a hot tin roof
The weather today was sunny and felt more blistering than the 23C the weather apps said. Everyone at 555 seemed tired. Despite that, we all worked hard and many things happened. The yumbo lifted off the large section of totan sheeting that had blown off the roof in 2019. I have been wondering how we
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Stele
There is a stele at the top of the east road at 555, right around where I think the old road branched down the hill to the next village. This stone tablet was hidden by weeds until this week, when someone in the work crew uncovered it. It’s a bit of a mystery. 大日如来 (Dainichi
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Embers
After a day of heavy rain yesterday, we were back at the burn. I didn’t take too many photos today because around midmorning, one of the hydraulic lines on the yumbo sprung a leak. We spent a couple of hours feeding the fire manually while we waited for a repair. Fortunately for us, Komatsu had
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