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Category: Personal Reflections
  • Trivial Pursuit 日本版

    Trivial Pursuit 日本版

    Yesterday at a thrift store, Tod stumbled upon an old Trivial Pursuit game in a dusty original box wrapped in cling film with an oddly printed out import label on it. We both have fond memories of playing Trivial Pursuit around our family tables, so he snatched it up for 2000 yen. Upon unboxing, we…

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  • Shady skies

    Shady skies

    The past week has been full of photos on social media of extraordinary sunsets with intense colors, shadows, crepuscular and anti-crepuscular rays. This morning I caught crepuscular shadows in the sunrise as a typhoon heads our way and the clouds are big and billowing. Below are sunset photos from recent days by friends on Facebook.…

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  • Rewired

    Rewired

    A few years ago I bought this lovely lamp at a local thrift store. It has the most amazing pierced copper shade. But I soon learned why it had been abandoned by its previous owners – its touch sensor was haunted and would turned itself off and on at random. I quickly opted to keep…

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  • Tiny horrors in my garden

    Tiny horrors in my garden

    Today I learned about a weird mushroom called bird’s nest fungus or cyathus stercoreus. It’s only about 1 cm talk, but it packs a lot of ick into its small package. These mushrooms like to grow in decaying biomass or soil that has dung in it. I found these along the green strip next to…

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  • What I’ll Complete

    What I’ll Complete

    In the New Crone’s Complete-It Club this month we’re working on our Path to Fulfillment by listing and prioritising the unfinished projects we want to complete. Prioritising is hard work. It take a lot of mental energy and self-realisation. Listing projects – large and small – was easy enough. I struggled a bit at first,…

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  • Who saw that, too?

    Who saw that, too?

    The Perseids peaked this week and I went out a couple of times to watch for them. Mostly it was disappointing, though the night sky was pretty every time. Tuesday night at Monaca, a bunch of us saw a gorgeous green streak. Then Kengo’s mobile kei-truck platform gave me and Hitomi spectacular sky views on…

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  • Wara no junbi

    Wara no junbi

    At Oyama Senmaida, the season’s first official harvest activity is on Sunday, when the sake owners’ program brings in its three paddies of grain. I was there for the planting and I’ll be there for harvest, too. There is lots of work to be done before the owners come for their event. One of the…

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  • Camera Roll

    Camera Roll

    A roundup of photos from the last month. Pictures telling 1000 words and mark memories for me. It’s been a slow couple of weeks mostly hiding from the hottest summer on record with art, cats, craft, flowers, and activities at Oyama Senmaida Come back next month for more photos I might have shared on Instagram.

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  • Crystal Altar in the Crack

    Crystal Altar in the Crack

    Woo Alert: I am a firm believer in science and also an advocate of talismans and magic. These things coexist comfortably for me. If that’s not the case for you, it’s understandable. I have friends on both sides of science and woo, but few in the middle with me. Anyway, I set up my first…

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  • Paper sculptures

    Paper sculptures

    Allow me to introduce you to three pieces of art that I have worked on recently. “Love Letter” is an assemblage made with hand-formed paper, milled card stock, copper wire, cotton thread, wood beads, cedar board, red iron oxide, watercolor, and ink. I immediately recognised the initial form of the handmade paper as an envelope…

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