On my way down to my office I ran into this zen zone in our foyer. The calming force field pushed me back upstairs where I dumped my steaming cup of coffee in favor of a chipped stone mug of green tea.
I managed to make it into my office on my second attempt, but how am I going to get much work done when I pause to meditate each trip up or down the stairs?
Seriously, this is another lovely creation by Yumi, who comes up with something new every few weeks or months. Thank you!
While cleaning the garage today I ran across a brochure from a private kindergarten in Japan where I taught very basic English for many years. Yep, that skinny guy with lots of dark hair is moi, circa late 1980s/early 1990s. It was an extremely well-paying gig for just one morning a week.
I was doing some baking and couldn’t find one of our glass loaf baking dishes so I used a square one.
As I returned to my basement office, I passed Yumi’s seasonal display in the foyer, and silly me, there was the dish, full of salmon coming back to spawn in a colourful bed of glass beads : -).
You know you’re sliding toward fall and winter when you make your first batch of oden. It’s a bit late to dig in now (9:30pm) but it’ll be great with a side dish of genmai brown rice in the morning.
Anyway it’s often better when you let it sit for awhile and let all the flavors mingle…
Yumi’s Mom in Aomori (northern Japan) makes wonderful nishime in the fall & winter — I get the impression that her stock simmers for months and she just keeps replenishing veggies and seafood.
I just saw an NHK (if you’re Canadian think CBC) clip of a snake trying to snatch a goshawk chick from a nest way up a tree — in Meiji Jingu park in Tokyo. Mom GH intervened…
I used to walk through Meiji Jingu a couple of times a week on the way to work when I lived in Tokyo. I would get off the train a few stations early to fill my lungs with somewhat naturally filtered air and enjoy this haven in a sea of concrete and pavement…
But I never imagined a goshawk/snake fight in this green oasis in a metropolitan area of some 25-30 million people!
I’m attaching this Google Earth capture, just to show how isolated this island of biodiversity is in one of the largest metropolitan centers on Earth.
The red marker is Meiji Shrine and its park. The surrounding grey area is all buildings, concrete, and pavement. The other green areas to the right are other parks, and the Imperial Palace.
Damn, er, I mean, om.
