Happy New Year 2023

This ornament is called "shime kazari 注連飾" , put on the entrance door for the New Year. All materials have lucky meanings. Red is a symbol color of happiness.

Shide 紙垂, a pair of red and white lighting-shaped paper shows that the building has been cleaned in order to greet the New Year.

Daidai 橙, a kind of orange, is a symbol of family continuation.

Dried leaves of Daphniphyllum macropodum 交趾木 are rolled with white paper. Their new leaves come out when older ones still on branches. People hope that a family continues ceaselessly through time.

The back of Gleichenia 裡白(a kind of fern) leaves is white. People put this plant on the ornament to wish their family long life. 

The shape of a opened fan is associated with expansion of prosper.

Red sea bream 鯛 and lobster 伊勢海老 (miniature) are used for happy events.

A red-crested white crane is a symbol of long life. 

Wishing you all a healthy and happy New Year!

 

The luster of the colored leaves

The right tree is ginkgo. The center one with no leaves is a weeping cherry. No cloud is in the sky.

I don't know the name of the left conifer with reddish leaves. 

Two plantains in front still keep their big leaves green.

 

Deep Fried Oysters 炸蠣蟥

As it becomes colder, oysters become tastier. They contain high protein, healthy fats, many vitamins and minerals.

眼下正係食牡蠣嘅季節。

Sasanqua Under The Warm Sunshine 茶梅花

Sasanqua is a kind of camellia. Camellias open flowers in spring, sasanquas open in November to December.

Sasanqua flowers are smaller than camellia.

Their flowers tell us that northern winds are getting stronger and colder. 

Winter is just around the corner.

Leaves are changing colors. On the other hand, some trees such as sawtooth oak and zelkova have been shedding leaves.

 

Chrysanthemum Flowers Someone Takes Care Of

Colorful flowers open in a small park in this season. I don't know who takes care of them every year.

This plant is very tough. But without weeding, it cannot grow high and have many beautiful flowers.

I have never watched a person weeding or fertilizing. The flowers are giving off a noble fragrance this autumn as well.

我想起了聊齋志異裡

嘅

黃英。好久以前讀過。

 

Colored Leaves 2022

The change of seasons were very rapid this year. A month ago we had suffered hot days without cool breeze. Now leaves have been changing their colors. 

Plants never miss signs of nature.

Heart shaped round leaves are shining like a gold medal. They might enjoy whispering. Is their topic people walking under the tree, who are worry about many things in their lives?

Looking up the autumn sky, I forget to breathe....literally breathtaking. 

I sometimes think about how far we have been from nature. Some say nature is our teacher, she is always ready to teach us wisdom. Have we been a good student for the last one hundred years? 

 

Good Rice Reaping

Farmers have finished rice reaping.  As this summer was very hot and had many fine days, the rice crop is very good.

Some of them operate an enhanced combine harvester that  has a function to perform the threshing treatment on the spot. 

Straws are used for feed, compost. Farmers often spread them on the vegetable field to protect the growth of weeds and the appearance of harmful insects and also to keep the ground temperature warm.

Many persimmons have survived typhoons and strong winds.  

I do not know whether they are astringent or sweet.

唐君毅先生寫「懷鄉記」介紹他的故鄉四川宜賓有＂嘗新＂的習俗。秋收時的嘗新要先餵狗。因為穀子是狗帶來的。你們聽過沒有？到了農曆十一月，日本神道神社都舉行＂新嘗祭（漢日語法不同，好多詞彙翻倒）＂感謝天神地祇。東瀛還保存著同一稻作信仰呀。

 

 

 

Coffee House On Highlands 高原的咖啡店

This coffee house is located on a hilltop. A mistress selected  this place and designed the house and the garden so that the guests can enjoy the drinks and cakes made by her elaborately in a comfortable environment.

Little apples have turned red earlier than on the level. I will show you her cakes next time I visit.

 

Flagrant Olive Flowers Have Opened 桂花才開了 秋天到了

Have you enjoyed a fragrance of autumn yet?

The day before yesterday I took a short walk in the night and smelled flagrant olives for the first time this year. The flowers usually open in the middle of September. The very hot and long summer would have them hesitate to decide when to open their flowers.

It's 1st of October today and the highest temperature was 29.4℃. You will get sunburned only in a ten minute walk. 

Flagrant white olive.  We call silver flower. 銀木犀

Fragrant orange-colored olieve. We call golden flower.　金木犀

好花偏占一秋香

 

Weight and Spiritual Power 蛇形繩子和神力啞鈴

Today I went to Hoshinomiya

shrine. A rice straw rope hanging on the stone gate looks like a snake which was a sacred animal in ancient times.

 

Have you ever seen stones or metals in some Shinto shrines? I saw a round stone at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. People come there to pray to realise their hopes.

If you put up the stone and feel it is light, your hope will be realised. On the contrary, it's not easy to realise your hope when you feel it heavy.

Most of all will concentrate their strength and put it up. They will feel lucky.

Hoshinomiya says that you will be able to strength your spiritual power when you stand on this octagonal stone and put up the dumbbell.

Good Growth

In spite of too high temperatures, rice has been growing well.

The new rice is sweet and tasty. 新米和烤秋刀魚好食呀。

 

 

Searching For the Cool 找涼爽去水邊

The weather is still a bit too hot.  The temperature went up to 34℃ or 93°F today, the humidity was 70%. It's so muggy.

I rode a bicycle and came to this waterside. While I was in a residential area, I felt the wind was been sending from the hair dryer.  Riding the bicycle along the water, the sensible temperature went down suddenly. I enjoyed the cool here!

Sunflower Field

The sunflowers are at their best now. A volunteer group grows them every year. In 2020, the first year of COVID-19 pandemic in this country, they discontinued growing the flowers to protect visitors from the infection.

 Since the last year, the group has put boards requiring visitors to wear a mask and keep distance. They have not built an observation deck either to avoid concentration of visitors.

The yellow in this year is same as that of before the pandemic and before the war. Times have changed.

年年歲歲花相似

A high school counselor shows two categories.

What you can change:

yourself, thinking, action and future

What you cannot change:

others, emotion and things that happened in the past 

Have a nice weekend!

 

Shoebill Key Ring 鞋嘴鸛鑰匙鏈

 This bird is very interesting. It stands still without any motion for hours beside the stream to catch a fish. After coming to a zoo, it doesn't worry about food and moves freely.

Terrible heat waves are attacking many countries now. Be careful not to suffer from heat stroke and dehydration. 

在三伏中，注意中暑和脫水。

Persimmon Fruits Are Growing

 Yesterday the temperature was 38.2 ℃ or 100.8F. It's too hot!!

This is out of focus not because of the amazing heat. lol 

昨天氣溫38.2度。我從未經歷的炎熱。

An Endangered Species 瀕危植物 澤珍珠菜

Lysimachia candida is very rare in Japan.

The situation in Taiwan is same as in Japan. Two years ago, this plant was discovered again for the first time in 122 years.

I felt this one has some beauty of geometry.
 

Modern Japanese Style Architecture

A wealthy merchant built this house 100 years ago. He handled fertilizers.

Azalea flowers are beautiful. 

映山紅盛開。

The wall of the storehouse was plastered.
 

Doores are very thick and designed carefully not to have fire slip into. There is a big maple tree in front.

I enjoyed a cool breeze under it.

Little Carps In the Breeze 鯉魚旗（鯉幟）

This river runs through the middle of city. Every May a non profit organization (NPO) of tourism puts up ropes over the river and ties the carp flags.

Carp flags have a history of 200 years. The first carps were all black and big. On May 5th people erected a long bamboo fixing a black one and wished their boys healthy growth like it. Later people decorated red and blue ones as a mother and boy. The black was deemed a father.

You can find many colors such as orange, green and purple. 5th of May was the day for boys and now this day is the children's day  including girls.

I deeply admire the man who got a creative idea to make carp flags and let them swim in the air.
我佩服人把水中和空中看成同一，就做鯉魚旗讓它游泳在一陣爽快的風中。

Flowers In May 五月的野生植物

Rosa rugosa is a kind of rose growing in eastern Asia. You will find them near the beach in northern Japan. 

野生玫瑰

This one is the original. There are many improved breeds in Europe.

The red azalea flowers (Rhododendron molle) are at their best now.  Though the flowers are beautiful, its tree is very poisonous. Cows and horses in a grazing land do not eat them. 　野生杜鵑

This is Kerria jponica. You will see them in a Japanese garden. 棣棠花