Shibori Knots

Hairy Woodpecker

2010-03-21T15:53:00.000-05:00

Okay, put away the Middle School jokes. There is such a bird as a Hairy Woodpecker, and it lives right here in River City. My neighbors have the best bird attracting stuff! They put up this new feeder and I don't know what it has in it, but the Hairy Woodpecker was there this morning ON THE BOTTOM of it. Here are the grainy, badly taken photos:

And the pièce de resistance, the CLOSE UP. It's also bad and grainy. Sorry.

If anyone knows what kind of feeder that is, please, do tell.

Misnomer

2010-02-25T07:40:00.040-06:00

[Ed.'s note: I found out that if I allow our camera to leave the date on, even when I crop it the date stays there! Maddening.]

This is the immature Cooper's Hawk that I thought was a Merlin sitting in my neighbor's tree 2008.

This is the immature Cooper's Hawk that I thought was a Merlin eyeing the suet feeder in my neighbor's yard, 2008/2009.

Just to add context. 2008/2009

This is the now grown up Cooper's Hawk that I thought was a Merlin sitting my other neighbor's tree. 2010. Disregard the camera's marking. . . Move along...move along.

This is the Cooper's Hawk that I thought was a Merlin being rewarded for hanging out in my neighbors' trees.

This is the Cooper's Hawk that I thought was a Merlin getting a little wary, eating his catch, watching me take pictures of him eating in my neighbor's yard.

This is the Cooper's Hawk that I thought was a Merlin watching me take pictures of him being wary while eating his catch in the neighbor's yard.

And this is just plain cool.

Snow

2010-02-17T08:34:00.002-06:00

Snow. I am so tired of the fluffy white stuff that I don't even want to take pictures of it. It has been a long, hard winter and I can understand the prairie pioneer women going crazy. Kind of. This is a picture of the 1st snow. Note the date. That snow is still on the ground to this day.

It doesn't snow with the sun shining and everything all sparkly and pretty. It howls around the house, angry it can't get in and make the house cold too. It's gray and dark. There is a sidewalk to the left of that tulip tree, with steps up to the house. Don't see it? Neither did I.

And when the sun comes out, it is pretty. For awhile. This is still the 1st snow. That snow is still there, lurking under the other 20 or so inches of snowfall since, waiting to cause havoc this Spring.

2nd or third snowfall (read "blizzard"). The landscape is now flat, with mountains of snow at the sides of streets, with Everests at each side of the driveways and intersections. We finally broke down this year and bought a (relatively) cheap snowblower. Note the date. We are already tired of hearing "snow in the forecast".

First, I will state here that the camera reset because of battery issues and I hate resetting it each and every time I change batteries, which is often. So this was not taken in January of 2007, but rather end of January, 2010. This is either the (?) merlin falcon or sharp-shinned hawk (can't decide) that visits our neighborhood from time to time. It stayed around for 2 whole days this time. Merlins are called "sparrow hawks", which would be an opportune thing to be in this area, what with all the sparrows living in the tenement arborvitae and the higher rent barberry bushes who feed on our seeds together. Barberry bushes have better security what with all the thorns.

Talking about food. We are prohibited from feeding the deer. Which doesn't bother me. They've already eaten all deer height serviceberries from our (formerly useless) serviceberry tree. They knock our bird feeder over to gather seeds from it, and scrape up the husks of birdseed on our patio during the night. The number tracks are fewer, and there is no running any longer. The deer tracks look depressing, like they are plodding along, knowing their trek is useless and there still won't be any food for them.

I've heard of rabbits stripping bark from ground bushes, and am sure the damage done by them will only be visible when this SNOW melts.

Bell Ringers and Guilt

2009-12-05T12:11:00.000-06:00

Should I feel guilty that I don't put money in every bell ringer's container? Because the looks that one gets when one doesn't are very guilt producing. And what's up with Santas in the grocery store? Sitting on twelve pack thrones no less.

We have truly given over the asylum to the lunatics. Truly.

Just sayin'.

Halloween

2009-11-24T08:37:00.000-06:00

I was busy in October making my son's dreams come true.

The Green Lantern and Star Sapphire

Considering that there are no Green Lantern costume patterns and no one has ever heard of Star Sapphire except my son, I had to wing a lot of it. I have never sewn pleather. And I don't do stretch fabrics. Ever.

Until now.

Aren't they adorable?

The only things I didn't make are his gloves and his mask and the rings.

My son made rings for each of them, learned how to make a mold and sprue and the whole nine yards, and cast them, and put little LED lights in them. He also molded the mask out of some moldable stuff that hardens.

The rings all lighted up. I thought that was really cool. Give a nerd a child, and you get two nerds.

Feel the love.

So, as a side story: #1 son comes over to my place to use my workroom. He has morphed an old Superman action figure into a character of his own creation and wants to make a cape. An action figure cape. This is after I made these costumes to his (often) very extreme demands. He works down there (my workroom/studio is in the basement of our house) for awhile, then comes up and states: "Fabric is the most difficult medium to work with! It moves all over the place. I don't know how you do it."

:-)

Praying Mantis

2009-08-26T08:28:00.002-05:00

Came home yesterday to this hanging out on my garage. Poor guy only had one "arm". He was really quite large: about 3 inches stem to stern.

It's pics like these that really make you realize just how badly your house does need painting!

Conversations

2009-08-23T16:46:00.003-05:00

With my mother, who recently moved in to live with us:
[While watching Millionaire when Ken Jennings was the "expert".]

PJ (That's my Mom): That Ken Jennings. I don't know why they have him as an expert on there. He made his money on Wheel of Fortune, not Millionaire.

Me: You mean Jeopardy, Mom. He was a multi-million dollar winner on Jeopardy.

PJ: No, it was Wheel of Fortune.

Me: Jeopardy, Mom. Jeopardy.

PJ: No, it was Wheel of Fortune.

Me: *Sigh*. Okay Mom, whatever.

PJ: Oh, you mean Jeopardy! I thought you were saying Millionaire! That's right, it was Jeopardy.

*Sigh*

---------------------------------------------------

Heard from my son, who was home eating for a visit:

Mom, I'm gonna take the jalapeno pepper jelly home with me 'cause I'm the only one that eats it.

Like he's here the other 22 hours of each day, each week.

Gold Fish?

2009-05-11T10:13:00.000-05:00

I have a goldfish plant. Because I can not do anything really normally, my goldfish on this plant do not really look like goldfish. They look like sharks. Or maybe remoras more than sharks.

They certainly are not evocative of little round fishes with puckered up lips ready to kiss each other. These look like they are on the prowl for fresh meat.

Hanami Iowa Style 09

2009-05-10T10:01:00.000-05:00

I love that barberry bushes flower. Unobtrusively. After they leaf out. Makes the prickles after hero hubby shaves them bearable. Almost. Here's a kind of a closeup. They are just very sweet.

Flowering almond.

The people that built this house planted this gorgeous bush in a corner on the side of the house where 1) NO ONE sees it unless they walk between the houses; and, 2) NO ONE sees it.

Lilacs. Need I say more. I can smell them just looking at the picture. Oh, wait, that's because the window is open! Silly me.

Mother's Day

2009-05-09T09:32:00.006-05:00

My son ordered tulips for me for Mother's Day. They were not a surprise. He told me he ordered them 2 weeks ago. He always does that! If he had kept his mouth shut, I would have had a surprise for once in my life. Alas. The card says: "My son went to Holland and all I got were these crappy flowers."

He has never been to Holland. It's a joke. And the flowers are NOT crappy. Red tulips make me want to puke, because of a previous experience in, oh, 1975, with tulips and Valentine's Day and idontwantogointoit, but these are just beautiful and sweet and I love them!

We try to have fresh flowers pretty much all the time.
They're reasonable to purchase at Sam's Club and keep
fresh for about 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I no longer have a cut flower garden, so I have to purchase them. This is our current bouquet. I just kind of loosely arrange them. Nothing drastic. I like them to look a little jumbled.

Monster from the bathroom sink

2009-04-29T13:44:00.002-05:00

Imagine my surprise this noon when, while brushing my pearly whites (or pearly beiges), I looked down and saw something growing out of the overflow drains in the sink! Here is a photo, sink hairs and all. This opened up all sorts of questions in my mind. What the...? was the first.

When I went to pull it out - I kept pulling and pulling. This thing is a mile long! How in the world did it get there? What the heck is it, Eggar? What kind of gunk lives in that drain that would be even half hospitable to a plant to grow in? Can I start growing sprouts in my sink overflow drains as a second income? WHAT PUT THE SEED THERE?

To say that I'm mildly puzzled is an understatement.

The "Big Game" Party Highlights Minus the Football Commentary

2009-02-03T07:40:00.006-06:00

I apologize for the crappy photo placement and spacing, etc. Blogspot just doesn't have a great program for arranging photos. I did the best I could without obsessing.

The Cards just scored with the tremendous catch that some guy with dreads caught. It was great. The guys were pumped.

Half time and Jeff, B'dette and Terry are talking.

Son Daniel and his wife weren't interested in the game much. At all. They posed for a creepy picture of her holding a knife up behind Daniel's back, but Jerry deleted it from the camera before I could upload it.

I think she's hatching the plot to take that creepy pic. She's got a "muahaha" face. If yaknowwhudimean.

At the feeding trough. Greg just couldn't get enough of the blue cheese dressing, and used every delivery system I had out there for it. The only one he didn't use was his fingers. Way to go, Greg!

Lisa hates American football because she's from Romania and doesn't get it. But she does like food and talk and catching up.

"The Big Game" Party Food

2009-02-03T07:02:00.005-06:00

[We aren't allowed to use the SuperBowl term because of copyright, unless that's for advertising only, but it's fun to be a butt about it, so I will use "BG" for "Big Game" and will always put it in quotes.]

I didn't think to take pics of the food until it was basically all gone, but here are the high/low lights:

We had Buffalo Chicken Wing dip (awesome, I did make that), chips (almost gone. The green ones are cilantro lime by Mission Chips. Yum) Blue cheese dressing (as dip), ranch dressing (as dip) and homemade salsa. Yup. Went to a lot of work for this one. (Drip sarcasm all over that last sentence and eat with a dash of vinegar.) The blue cheese dressing was a huge hit with Greg whose wife hates blue cheese and therefore doesn't buy the dressing. I always manage to pick something to serve when the Schaefers come over that Greg loves but doesn't get often.

Carolyn brought a plate of shrimp and crackers and cocktail sauce as well as an awesome Raspberry Zinger cake. I made brownies. Not from a box. There used to be a lot of shrimp on that plate. Those are the pink things hiding up in the right section. They didn't want their picture taken. There are people like that in every group. Annoying.
Bernadette and Jeff brought rumaki - the water chestnuts wrapped in bacon and baked with sauce on them. They were GONE before I thought to take pics, and didn't think an empty and clean crockpot would be exactly artful. Or whatev'.

Son Daniel brought and cut up a melon so we would have some healthy, fibrous food to eat. Well, I did have a plate of broccoli, carrots and zucchini, and a bowl of celery. There was not one item left from those, either. My son, who was raised on NO SUGAR or CHOCOLATE for the first 2 years of his life, and very little thereafter; who ate WHOLE GRAIN EVERYTHING FROM THE WOMB UP and NEVER ate a meal at my house that didn't include AT LEAST one vegetable, and rarely (if ever) included opening a box or can unless it was Uncle Ben's rice or tomato sauce or something like that, thinks I don't serve healthy food ever and assumes that I will have only fatty, sugary, and non-fibrous foods when I cook or serve meals/parties. That's because he has discovered for himself what I taught him passively all those years about good eating. Just because in the past 5 years I have grown weary of meal planning and cooking...Geez.

Overall, I consider it successful if: everyone got enough to eat without being stuffed and there were no leftovers. They did and there weren't.

Deer Junction

2009-01-22T17:51:00.011-06:00

The particular backyard that we share with our neighbors has, for some inexplicable (or maybe, explicable) reason, become a thoroughfare for white tail deer. The picture below is from Google images to show you what we are up against:
I personally seem never to be able to actually see these rabbits with long legs, noses and tails, but I have spoken to actual people in my family who have. All the tracks in the snow tell the story, though. While I am peacefully fighting bad guys, having babies or unplugging monstrous plugged toilets during the night (think about it. The answer will come), the white tail deer are carousing in my neighborhood.

They come from or to the neighbor's yard from or to mine. How confusing. Coming or going, I don't know. What I do know is, there is a bird feeder on the neighbor's deck, where all those tracks end up eventually. There are also a couple of suet feeders to the right of the arborvitae on the right. You can see the deer tracks veering off around the trees. As if some intrepid white tail wanted to see if by some miracle during the day the suet feeders may have burst open, making it possible to gobble up the fat and the seed in them.This is where the deer trail off after stomping around under OUR feeder, which they empty during the night, keeping us from filling it during the day. Or quite possibly, they trail up the street into our 'hood this way, and then check out the neighbor's for whatever they can holla up. Dunno. What gets me is we watch for deer when we are driving anywhere, but to avoid them. When we are in the mountains, we watch for deer so we can gawk. Go figure. What would a New Yorker do out here? They would be stopping every 5 minutes to see deer or pheasant. Which I saw yesterday in abundance in northern Iowa. Pretty gutsy, those guys. There were 17 of them out in a field. Fields are white right now, and pheasant are dark. Maybe they don't have any natural flying enemies. I'm just saying...it were me, I would wear some camo or sumpin'. There are at least a couple of ROBINS up here, and have been for about a week. Either they are very confused or they are from the Arctic Circle and think -20 degrees is balmy. This is robin #1.
Here is a picture of the OTHER robin's hiney, (NOT a racial slur, it's hiney because it's short for HIND END) because he is being obnoxious. This was taken January 22, 2009. In IOWA. In all fairness, today the temp got up to 34. But these guys have been around for a while - since the first of the year.

This is the site of the purported attack by a hawk or other raptor, about which I previously wrote. I think another one happened after the last snow, but the tracks are too degraded to photograph now. And if you want to know why I didn't take the pics when they were fresh, it's because it was -0 out with a wind, and I just didn't think it was THAT important, that's why. If you compare this to my drawing (see http://iloveshibori.blogspot.com/2008/12/mr-falcon.html ) you will see that it was fairly accurate in the way things look, with the exception that this photo is taken from a completely different direction altogether.
On another other side note, Mr. Falcon was back today. Possibly. Hero hubby saw something but wasn't sure. I tend to err on the side of throwing caution to the wind, so I am going to say that my hypothesis is correct, and Mr. Falcon shows up once a month to hunt in this general area.

It's my blog and I can err when I want to.

Mr. Falcon

2008-12-23T05:49:00.021-06:00

He came back. Or she. Whatev'. It's the merlin. And this time, I took pictures. Mainly because Quickdraw McGraw (daughter of mine) said "get the camera". So, this is the merlin that came looking for more sparrows to eat in our neighbor's yard. You can see the bird perched on the trellis, eyeing our neighbor's suet feeder. What you don't see are sparrows. Hmmmm. This is the merlin closer up. I apologize for the poor quality, but at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and not wanting to risk scaring the bird away, I took these through a double door. With rain/snow spots.

I just had to share that I was not delusional about seeing this bird in our yard! It flew to the tree by our bird seed feeder, then flew down toward the ground and vanished.

In other news, we were looking at the tracks in the snow, and what looked like this scenario. Please note that it is entirely fictional and supposition, but entirely, mostly, sort of plausible:

A rabbit was running around, making tracks. A hawk or owl (I think a merlin is too small) swooped out of the evergreens and picked up the rabbit, who was screaming its tiny rabbit scream by now, and took off in the early morning light.
I drew a picture to help you. I love scanners.

If I had any skills in MS Paint, I could have made this much more believable, but you just have to use your imagination. If that is limited, then I can't help you. Sorry. I have never held myself out as a drawing artist. Note the absence of tracks to the right of the miniature snow angel. For a long ways. At least going in the correct direction. You can draw your own conclusions if you like. I'm sticking with the raptor story.

Anniversary

2008-12-16T19:11:00.004-06:00

Well, we made it to the big 3-0. Hero hubby and I were married December 16, 1978. And it was almost as cold that day as it is today. I would upload a whole bunch of wedding pics from that day, but I can't find the wedding album. Aw shucks. That's what happens when the honeymoon's over. Today also just happens to be the day that I was able to get my wedding ring back on, and actually take it off again without taking half of my finger off with it!
We went to Chicago for a short weekend away. Stayed in the honeymoon suite (Saturday night) at the...Lombard Hampton Inn! It was sooooo cheesy. Greek columns in formica and sad pink bunting hanging from the mirrored bed canopy. But it was fun to be cheesy. Then we moved to a real room for the next night.
After visiting Lombard Gospel Chapel on Sunday we drove downtown. Jerry had to drive down Lower Wacker Drive just because it's cool. We walked the Magnificent Mile. Michigan Avenue. Only 2 wrong ways on one-way streets before finding a parking spot. Sweet. There was a Kristkindlmart at the Daley Plaza where they had all sorts of German crafts and artwork for sale, as well as the ubiquitous brats and beer. I went into Filene's Basement just to see what the hubbub was about. Reminded me of the stores we were in while I was in Japan. Sort of. Only American. Hmmm. The thing is, I only barely got in the door, because of the aforementioned hero hubby and his prediliction for staying out of stores he doesn't want to go into.
And, for the pièce de resistance, I introduced hero hubby to Bao, or Nikkoman as they are called in Japan. There is a "fast food" place called WOWBao, and they have amazing tasting ones. And homemade gingerale that really packs a punch. Pun sort of intended. I was soooo excited.
Monday we visited a customer just to make the trip legit, and had a long scary trip home in the ice. I think over the weekend everyone in the country got hit by ice. Now it's snowing today. Yee haw.

2008-12-14T11:31:00.000-06:00

These are some of the kitschy items that sold at my "sale". Two woven placemats that were in horrible condition on the reverse color scheme side, and the fringed edges were all falling apart.

This is the inside.

These are some snowman hangers that sold. They are the least artistic items that I had for display/sale. They are the first that sold. Gag me.

Ditto.

Sashiko Handbag

2008-12-13T11:06:00.001-06:00

My sashiko purse. The first of (I hope) many. I have one piece of fabric embroidered, but as usual, I don't know exactly what I will do with it.
This side is the Arrow Feather pattern. Don't be hypercritical. I have in no way perfected sashiko but I'm workin' on it!

This is the Diamond Blue Wave side.

One Bag that Sold

2008-12-12T10:19:00.002-06:00

This is a strip quilted log cabin-ish messenger bag that I made out of new fabrics. This is one item that did sell. This is the front.

This is the back.

This is the reverse side front.

This is the reverse side back. That's a log cabin patch pocket, which is the lining pocket when everted. Or inverted. I thought it was clever. So did the person who bought it. YAY.

Unexpected Thanksgiving Visitor

2008-12-11T09:51:00.004-06:00

Thanksgiving day we saw this bird sitting in the tree above our bird feeder:

Not this exact bird. This is a Google Image. But the great thinking person who thought to capture a photo got it right. It's a merlin. A prairie falcon. Falco combarius. It sat in our tree for a good half hour, then just took off. We were so excited. We see kestrels and red-tail hawks and other hawks around our neighborhood, but never a merlin. Wish I'd thought to get a picture of it. We almost thought it was a mourning dove, except mourning doves don't swivel their heads almost 360 degrees. That's when the binocs came out. Then Peterson's Field Guide. Made me late for getting the prime rib in the oven for Thanksgiving dinner, I'll have you know I was that excited.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Something

2008-12-11T08:54:00.007-06:00

Sorry, dear readers, for being absent for so long! I was chided by one of my staunchest readers that it's time to update. I will try to do so with a minimum of italics, bold and exclamations. I'm not promising anything, just that I will try. I've been sewing up a storm since I last posted. Here are some results. Since it takes so dang long to upload pics in blogspot, I will save some more for later posts.

This purse is made from obi fabric given to me by a lady in Japan. I can't remember if it was Takenaka-san or Makata-san. The strap is removable. I used black/gold cotton fabric for the lining.
Remember the orange wedge monstrosity? Under the advisement of my muse, I changed it into this

Remember the strip quilt block I did that I couldn't figure out what to do with? I just mangled that English all over. But I'm stickin' by it.

This is the back side of what I came up with: This is the front:

That's all I had the patience for uploading today. I had a "show and sell" at an Independent Living retirement community place yesterday. I sold a couple of things. Mostly kitschy stuff. I heard a lot about so-and-so's granddaughter or daughter who started a business sewing purses and now has three people working for her yada yada yada...translated: "you're a loser, my 'whatever' isn't. Take that. " I absolutely do not want to make the same thing 30 times over, nor do I want other people sewing something with my name on it. Note how I held back from bold, italics, caps and exclamations. Note my self-control. One woman droned on about how her granddaughter sells so much of her beautiful things at church bazaars and Adventureland craft fairs. After she droned for about 10 minutes, I asked what the g-daughter makes. Rice filled heat packs. Rice filled heat packs. You can take a sock and fill it with rice and tie it, and you have a rice filled heat pack. Phyllis said that "old woman" is a bore. Phyllis is 85. The "old woman" is probably only 80 or so. But Phyllis was right. That "old woman" is old and a bore. Back to the gist of this whole thing:

I believe I am going to try to sell these beautiful works of art to some boutiques in town. Maybe on the web. Who knows? More later, friends. I have 11 other purses to share with you. That you haven't seen yet. And then, I have the kitschy stuff that sold that I need to share with you.

Some people just don't get it. (bold, italics, capslock, exclamation point x 2.)

Fruition

2008-10-19T15:47:00.009-05:00

I have actually done some pieces with some of the fabric I brought back from Japan. Bigger pieces than chiri-men boards, anyway. I thought I had better post them for posterity before I give them away. That's why I never have anything to show for all the work I do in my studio: it goes out the door before I take photographs! I will note that now I see these in picture form, I don't care for some of them. I will explain...
This is "Ishi Guruma" or stone wheel. The pattern was created for quilters by Sheila DeRose. If you are crazy about Japanese inspired quilting, these are great to have. Difficult as well - challenging and fun! Anyway, this was a practice piece. The quilt block itself is 100% antique Japanese silk fabric, recycled. The border and binding are new cotton fabric.
I scaled the size waayyy down, just did one block, and did an extremely simple border. Now I know how I want to choose my fabrics for the next one. And I will, young Skywalker, I will...
This is based on the Seven Treasures motif, and is one block in the quilt designed by Sheila DeRose. The only new fabric in this one is the black surrounding the quilt block itself. The rest is recycled Japanese silks. The solids are kind of a brocade. I did a very amateurish job trying to mimic the brocade pattern (kind of a greek key thing) in the black in machine quilting. I'm still learning. Be gentle with me!

This is a take off on the thistle quilt block pattern. I call it "water lily". The only new fabric in this block is the blue background. I did the "waves" and the "clouds" quilting before I got the book on motifs, or I would have been more true to Japanese motifs on it. Oh, well.

I got on a grandma's fan kick one day and made a whole bunch of just the fan portions. I started playing around with those, and thought it was kind of like a Rising Sun to put two together. Couldn't really come up with something that I like for a background, so I made a purse out of two of them. Looks like an orange rather than Rising Sun. This may have to go back to the drawing board...
Anyway, the orange and the peacock feathers are chirimen, and from the same piece of fabric. The green wheel fabric is a very fine silk - almost lighter than handkerchief linen.

Then, I got on a strip quilt kick, which I am still presently on. This is 100% recycled Japanese fabrics. I will probably devise a clever border for this and quilt it as it is. Strip quilting is really great for "odd" quilting fabrics like silk because if you are a little off line-wise, just put another piece on there to compensate! Love it.

One day, all these "kicks" I get on will pan out into something stupendous. At nearing the big 5-0, I would hope that would pan out soon.

Although, there's always Grandma Moses.

Purses, Crazy Quilting and a New Addiction

2008-10-14T17:59:00.014-05:00

I have been a busy little beaver. It all started with me getting a book (on a whim) by Janet Haigh called Japanese Inspirations, 18 Quilted Projects. Wellllll, I actually read the thing before trying out the techniques in there. What a good girl am I! She explains different motifs that are commonly used, and some ways to achieve the look of Japanese made fabric by using applique, quilting, painting, stencilling and embroidery.

So, she has a section on crazy quilting, and explained it in a way that I could finally say "I could do that!" So, I took some of my Japanese antique fabric, and made a crazy quilt purse. My first. This is the front. The handle is not antique Japanese fabric, but it IS silk and it worked.

This is my second try, using leftover toile fabrics with coordinating fabrics. It's based on what the pattern company had for instructions for doing crazy quilting. Not crazy enough for me, actually, but it did go quickly using all squares.

This is the lining. My daughter asked me what I used for lining. So I had to take a picture of that as well. That's a "patch" pocket inside.
I even made a cell phone purse to go with it. Can you feel the simpering through cyberspace?

Then, using the author's idea of using medallions on top of crazy quilting, I made this purse. This is the front. The front medallion is "snow on bamboo". This is a real mixture of Japanese fabrics and recent fabrics I have been making clothing with.

I call this my "2 Seasons Purse" as I was only able to get 3 medallions on this particular purse pattern. I will have to do a "4 Seasons Purse" at some point, I expect.

This is the back. Plum blossom and the pine bough for winter, and the maple leaves for, of course, fall.

BACK in the saddle, again!

2008-10-02T06:55:00.015-05:00

Hello, dear readers. Tired of the same old posts? Finished going back to the beginning and reading all the misadventures? Gotten all caught up on this blog? Can't wait for more? You may have to. Haven't really been anywhere, done anything...

Except, welcome home my daughter from Japan (see Daddy Dayton's Southern Comfort: Celebrations!); help throw my mother an 85th birthday party, together with my two sisters; (actually two birthday parties - one small "family" celebration) Table scape. Free advertising: Barbara's Champaign Cakes are the BEST if you are in Des Moines. She makes mini filled champaign cupcakes that just pop in your mouth.
There were almost 100 people there. About that many more couldn't come long distance.
Mom, on the right, got to reune with a number of "old" friends.

Saw my son married to a wonderful young woman.

That's the photo with the grandparents.
My two boys.
I just loved this picture.

Went to Indiana to find my daughter an apartment (after the birthday party, before the wedding); moved her to Indiana after the wedding. Came home for about 10 days during which I pulled up the carpeting on the stairs to the basement and the family room; got new carpet laid in same. Hero hubby's aunt died and we went to the funeral Labor Day weekend; had houseguests for that. Went BACK to Indiana on Labor Day, alone; moved my daughter OUT of the apartment she was originally put in, and to a different apartment in the same complex. Long story. Collapsed for two weeks when I got home. Literally. And figuratively. Bounced back for two weeks during which I created some amazing items from my antique Japanese fabrics; finished up some projects; collapsed again for about a week; bounced back again. Started learning how to do sashiko embroidery; started learning how to do more creative applique work (which I used to disdain, sorry applique lovers); started learning how to do crazy quilting, all leading up to something wonderful which will coalesce out of all this learning, incorporating all of these arts. I will devote another blog entirely to what I have created. And now, for something

completely

different.

I'm tired.

Motoko

2008-08-05T07:09:00.006-05:00

Here is another update on Motoko-chan. We talked on the phone not long after her packages arrived.
Motoko-chan was born in 1930 (so she is 78, not 60-something as I originally thought). She lived in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped. All she had to say about that was "it was terrible". I'll bet. Then they shipped her off to the countryside in the Kansai province.
Piecing that together with some other things, like the fact that she has only been in the States for 14 years, and was in England before that in "a sanitarium" (at some point), I would gather that living through the bombing of Hiroshima was rather horrible and life changing. Yet, here she is. In love with America and Americans. Go figure.
That would explain Motoko-chan's (if it is acceptable for me to be so familiar with her) poor English. My gosh, she came here when she was 64. If I had to speak in a new language and learn it well at the age of 64 -- well! Should I be so spry.
What humbles me is that she chose me to connect with after all these years. Thirteen hours on a plane. That's all. And she decided I was one she could connect with. Am I the only "young" one who would take the time to listen to and speak with her? I know she has friends, or at least acquaintances, at the Senior Center in the town in which she lives.
I'm scared of the responsibility. Each time I "collect" a person, I seem to let the ball drop and I know it disappoints them. It disappoints me.
So, what do I do with the responsibility she's passed on to me? What about the futon and the other items? Why does this haunt me? (Okay, I know why -- rhetorical question.)

I still have a honking big box in my [now dry] basement and I just don't know what to do with it!

Waiting with my puppy

2008-08-04T08:30:00.006-05:00

Okay. This is it. Why do we place such importance on the arrival of someone? Because we have a connection to them and want to reconnect. Not the umbilicus but the life, the relationship, the friendship, the HUGS.
Hammering out relationship with one's adult offspring is like walking a mine field blindfolded. Once a mother, always a mother. It just won't go away, no matter how hard one tries. On the one hand, a certain amount of mothering is expected, if not required. On the other hand, a certain amount of restraint is required, if not expected.
We are expecting our daughter to be in country from her two year stint in Japan. Countdown is down to hours, not days, now. Except, we can't pick her up for a couple more days. (!) Okay. Time to tell the mother to chill. She's an adult. She has adult relationships. Good thing she's independent. Has a life outside Mom and Dad. WAH. WAH WAH. WAAAAAHHH.
I know that we will drive her crazy within 3 days of her living in our house. She will drive us crazy within 10 days. (The parent factor extends the crazy factor by 66%, evidently. Look it up.) The only one who won't drive her crazy will be the dog. And he will, eventually. Drive her crazy. He's just so NEEDY. Cute, but needy.
As the countdown continues, and my fingernails dwindle, all I can do is wait. And wonder - will that parent factor actually extend the crazy factor by 66% or is it much, much lower?
We'll see, won't we?

Gifts from the past

2008-07-25T06:13:00.005-05:00

Read the previous post (below), this is an update:

I received yet another package FedEx yesterday. This was in a FedEx letter sized envelope. The contents are described below:

One souvenir shop book on Higashi Honganji (Shinsu Honbyo). This is in English, has a treatise on Shin Buddhism and Buddhism. It is a seven minute walk from Kyoto Station, and we totally missed it. Hmmm.

A tablet of Utamaro stationery that is beautiful. (The cover is pictured below). It says 20 sheets. I suspected that a few have been used. And I was right - as usual. There are 9 sheets left.

Some sort of flat pocketbook, with some paper in it. The fabric is beautiful and it's in its original package, which is old.

A furoshiki - looks fairly new and definitely unused.

A handkerchief in a package. It is wrapped like it has a napkin holder on the top and has chickens on the motif. And sakura.

Another thing of stationery - this with the modern stylized kimono wearing girl. I wonder if she is the Japanese version of Holly Hobby? This has 4 sheets of cloud shaped paper (with sakura water stain as well) and 4 envelopes.
Two pieces of finished cloth in a package. They are new (possibly 21st century) and of a size that could be tea towels, or placemats.

That is it. Now the questions are coming: in light of what comments I could understand from Motoko-chan, is she planning hari kiri and giving away her Japanese life's gatherings to someone who would (possibly) appreciate them? Am I too nice to strangers? Or just too nice to strange people? Was conversing with someone on a plane being too nice? What could I possibly send her that would not clutter up her life further, causing her to send it on to someone else that was kind to her? (I would love her to send it to her English teacher. Hmm, there's an idea. If I had a beard, I would stroke it now.)

So, I have two big futon, a collection of stationery and fabric things and a book about a shrine I didn't know existed.

My daughter can have the futon when I'm done scalping them.

HaHa.

More Non Sequitors

2008-07-23T16:32:00.006-05:00

I got a call from Motoko-chan the other day. (See "Random Acts" 04/17/08) She wanted to send me *something-something* in the mail and wanted to make sure that I was still there, which is here, which is where I am currently. It is very difficult having a telephone conversation, as I have stated before, with someone who sounds like they are pronouncing the English in kanji. And is ahndoh, etc. However, I was able to understand these things:

Motoko-chan goes to the Senior Center once a week for English class and TaiChi. (I personally think the English teacher should be fired. If you know this person, tell them to look into some other program, please.)
When asked if she misses her homeland (near Hiroshima) she informed me that, no, people where she lives in the U.S. are very nice and friendly. People there smile a lot, and people smile at her. According to her - remember she is well over 60 years old - women who smiled too much when she was growing up were "loose women". NOT my opinion. Do NOT shoot the messenger. It just cracked me up. Especially since things have changed a lot, I think.
She is going to die sometime soon, and has no one to inherit her *something-something* that her mother made (I know it involves siruku or silk - she says siruku) and she wants me and my daughter to have it because we like Japan and things Japanese.
The above item was made before WWII. 1938 I think she said. or 1948. Which would be AFTER the war. Just in case you have trouble figuring that out.
I have forgotten all of the rudimentary Japanese I learned in two weeks. Unless I think about it for a few days. Sad. Very sad.

I received a package tonight. From Motoko-chan. It is a huge package and I thought she sent me her life's belongings in one go. Not so. Just the futon that her mother made. From silk (at least on the front sides). I could not believe she sent 2 futon. I didn't see the silk, the way they were folded and just laughed out loud. The way the Japanese say futon it sounds like spitting. Almost. Which is what I wanted to do after sleeping on 2 of them for 2 weeks.

The silk is very beautiful, though. Very beautiful. Hmmm.

Toad and Vole are GONE. Sad as well.

Something mysterious is breaking off the tops of our tomato plants and dill weed and even sunflowers and peppers. These are TALL plants. Hero-hubby has the idea that it is revenge plucking by angry grackles, frustrated that he changed to safflower seeds in order to discourage them from coming around. So he changed the seed back to what he calls "real bird seed" to appease any and all bird creatures that might have revenge as a motive for breaking off the tops of plants. The actual truth may lie in a number of STORMS that we have been having, but these things are GONE and not just green-stick fractured and hanging. So...

I think it's punk squirrels, up to mischief.

My nephew (37) thinks my son (27) is his nephew. He is the oldest grandchild of either set of grandparents. Logically, he is the oldest offspring of my sister. He could not possibly have a nephew 10 years his junior. I am seriously concerned for him. Seriously. Could have just been a Freudian typo, but it will still be fun to razz him for the rest of his life about it.

Speaking of water, my hero-hubby once again used his superpowers and not only figured out (during one of the above mentioned blinding rain storms) how the water was getting into the basement, but fixed it temporarily so that water has not been gushing in every time it rains. AND got another superhero set up to fix the problem permanently.

And now for something completely different...

Flora

2008-07-15T16:53:00.013-05:00

This is virgin's bower. It is in the same family as what us tame people call "clematis". I had read about virgin's bower, but never seen it, and never knew that it is, in fact, wild clematis. How unexpected and delightful. More v.b. because I couldn't get enough photographs of it.

It's amazing how trees grow in the mountains. They find all sorts of ways to get around rocks, snow and ice. Hence the interesting shapes. They grow in and around solid rock, breaking it up yet cementing it together with their roots. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

This is bracted honeysuckle. Doesn't smell like honeysuckle, but that's what the book says.

Lupines. In the wild. Very thick up there this time of year, and beautiful. Everything was blooming, it seemed.

Lupines, gallardia, all sorts of different white flowers that are hard to distinguish in the photo (cow parsley, yarrow, wintergreen, pearly everlasting and bear grass were all abloom) and mallows are in there as well. And crane's bill geranium, let's don't forget them. And yellow columbine.

These are glacier lilies. They are nodding together with the common European dandelions, which are not to be confused with Japanese dandelions, which grow only in Japan and are white/yellow. Anyway, glacier lilies only bloom just after the snow melts away from the plant that has been growing under the snow. Like croci, only up higher. We were up high. Oh, yeah.

These are carpets of yellow monkey-flower, according to the pathetic Rocky Mountain Nature Guide I have. It says they are in the snapdragon family, and were all over these hillsides on the Loop trail.

I thought this was orange agoseris, but I'm not so sure now. I did see orange agoseris, but I believe I took this pic to identify the flower, and can't find it! HELP. If I don't name this flower, I will probably die trying, and that wouldn't be pretty, now would it?

And last, but definitely NOT least, bear grass. It's actually a lily. Blooms once every 3-7 years and is fragrant only when there are a lot of them. One on its own doesn't do much for the olfactors. There was a lot of bear grass blooming this year, much more than we've ever seen. It was just beautiful.

FALLING WATER

2008-07-15T07:54:00.003-05:00

What is it about moving water that moves us so?

Going to the Sun Road was built over, around and beside water falls. Small ones, most of them.
Many disappear when the snow does. Then you are left with stairsteps on the mountainsides.
All along the trails, there is a sound of fountains tinkling, somewhere. On the edge of your hearing. Then, from what seems like miles away, the tinkling turns to thundering and booming. You turn a corner in the trail and BOOM, there it is...
Turmoil, right at your feet. For some reason, us humans are incapable of NOT being moved by rushing, tumbling, roiling water. Whether in huge quantities, or just small trills. We feel compelled to re-create it in our homes, our yards, our malls...
and go to great lengths to see the real deal. Up close and personal.

There is just nothing like it.

Wild Life

2008-07-12T21:29:00.013-05:00

We just got back from hiking in Glacier International Peace Park (Glacier). It was our third year to go there (in a row). I highly suspect it won't be the last.

I actually saw some animals I never knew existed, plus some I had just never seen before in the wild. I am limiting this to the fauna because at some point you have to limit limitless things in order to get your brain around them. And the mountains aren't even limitless! The bear picture has been completely eliminated so as not to scare the kiddies. The fact that we didn't stick around long enough to get the picture is irrelevant. We could have, if we wanted to end our hike 5 minutes into it. We could have stuck around and gotten some very good pictures of that mama grizzly taking hubby down while I tried to dig in the back pack for the bear spray. As it was, I actually had the spray out for once, and the guard OFF. THAT's how close the bears were, people.

It was great.

In the exact center of this pic, on the water (above the wider black splotch) is an American Dipper. (Click on the photo to get a better view.) This amazing bird lives in rapids. It landed on the rocks, bobbed up and down like it was chair dancing for a while, then just disappeared into the water. Then it just as quickly jumped back onto the rock again! It's like a penguin that can fly. Amazing. Read up on them. They walk against the rapids, on the stream bed, under water.
This is a moose. I had heard of them before (yuk yuk) but never seen one in the wild. She was amazing as well. This is at Fishercap Lake at the beginning of the Red Rock Falls/Swiftcurrent Trail.
Say hello to my leetle frien'. And yes, I did feed this Columbian ground squirrel. He had it coming. Cheeky critter. Actually, the fact that he wasn't stomping, but was properly scampering endeared him to me.
Until he tried to run away with our back pack. This was the second time we caught him in there! I suspect he has seen these objects before. He had six or seven friends that were gathering like The Birds. I think they were planning on how best to abscond with the bag and get it into their dens before we could catch them.
This guy was just way too big on himself. He posed for a long time, then started to check out the people, which is when we walked away - quickly.

Don't worry - more to come.

Water Everywhere

2008-06-26T17:18:00.011-05:00

[Ed.'s note: this was written on June 26, 2008. Posted late because I have been taking care of some business. Read on.]

I hate flooding. I hate water in my house. Unless, of course, it is nicely contained in whatever is supposed to be holding water. The rain gauge holds water. It says 6 inches since last night. It stopped raining at around 3 this afternoon. I waded through the mosquitoes that are hatching out of our GRASS to look at the gauge.

This morning my first clue should have been the toad trying to climb up our window to escape the window well. He seemed pretty desperate.

The vole, however, should have sent warning bells clanging in my head.

It was going in and out of its hole, running around the well, back and forth in the window, and trying to gnaw the window apart to get in. Do you realize how difficult it is to take a decent picture (or any picture) of a crazed vole trying to run for its life?
Here are more pictures of a barely detectable vole in a life and death struggle. Against what? Well, at the time I was blissfully unaware.

More brave but pathetic attempts at snapping a vole in the throes of desperation.
BTW, the windows are filthy because the wells keep FILLING UP.
Which led to the devastation in the basement.
That 6 inches? About 2 of them came back into the house.
This morning, when I went down (I had one of those "someone behind me in the dark/shark in the water" feelings) my sewing studio and the poor de-carpeted area were covered in a layer about 1/4 inch deep. Water, with just the right amount of dirt mixed in to make it disgusting.
Later this morning, when the electricity flickered off, and I heard a high pitched squeal continuously, I got another one of those feelings. Watching a sump pump spew water at 10 gallons a minute back INTO THE HOUSE while every window in the basement is gushing INTO THE HOUSE is disconcerting to say the least.
No pictures for that one. Sorry.
I really, really can empathize with all those people whose homes were totally destroyed in the recent flooding. My eldest son kept saying (as he was extracting water from our basement on his day off), it could have been so much worse.
And he's right.

Just ONE More?

2008-06-21T08:43:00.003-05:00

I can no longer promise that I will no longer do flower boards chiri-men style! I'm addicted. This and paper crafting could just do me in. Blogging doesn't help. Time, I need TIME. And energy. Time and energy.

This is my attempt at clematis. My neighbor has the most beautiful clematis vine growing outside our kitchen window, so I had to try to memorialize it in fabric.

For those of you who don't care about 5th quarter arm-chair quarterbacking, quit reading. For those of you who do, read on, intrepid ones:

I found steam-a-seamII. I mean, I re-found it in my quilt stash and used that to stabilize the backs of the "flat" petals and the tendrils. Worked pretty slick. I still need to get more depth in these, but I'm working on it. Stabilizing really, really helped. Maybe I will use Pellon or something for the gluing down bits. Dunno yet. I need to figure out how I am gonna do stamens/pistols and the whole re-generational bits of the flowers. But, I left them out rather than make it way too complicated.

More to come, I'm sure!

TREATS

2008-06-20T12:24:00.003-05:00

I recently went to the Asian Market, where there are a LOT of items that I have no clue what they are. This is one of them. Sakura Denbu. I know what it is, I just don't know what I would do with it. But I bought it anyway, just because it says "seasoned codfish grinded" on it. And the idea of cherry blossoms and codfish together is rather intriguing, don't you think?

My Japanese food fetish continues. I found these YamYam made by Meiji at the local grocery. The crackers have cheese in them, so they are good for you, and there is a very sane amount of icing to dip (not scoop) them in. I love how languages have their own ways of describing animal sounds and animals in general.

Squirrels are not necessarily thought of as our best friend in the U.S. Especially stomping thug squirrels. And our lucky number is 7, not 8. But then, if I were an octopi, my whole world would revolve around the number 8, I suppose.

By and large, I just love these treats. I feel for the poor child of the transplants that counts on getting one of these when he/she goes to Hy-Vee and some gai-jin has been getting them all! Although, I wouldn't be the gai-koku-jin, would I?

Invisible Fence

2008-06-10T09:47:00.013-05:00

I was watching my across-the-street neighbors this morning. The Invisible Fence guy was over there, setting out flags around the perimeter of the compound.

Before they moved in 2 or so years ago, our neighbors had the invisible fence installed for their elderly weimaraner. (That's a dog for those of you that -- don't know.)* Either the dog would never train into it, or they didn't use it much, because that dog was all over the place. Sweet dog, though. She has since gone where all dogs go (to heaven, again for those of you who a little slower on the uptake); they have added a child to the one they already had; and, they have recently purchased a brand NEW weimaraner puppy. Sweet dog. Hence the Invisible Fence guy again. It will be interesting to see if it works with this one.

Back to my Gladys Cravitz imitation (Bewitched. I'm getting really tired of 'splaining myself to you X'ers): I was watching the neighbors. Grandmama was on the front porch with the baby (person) watching the Fence guy, and Momma was in the yard, um, helping the Fence guy. It occured to me then that a kid friendly version of invisible fencing would be a terrific revolution in child care. A Force Field Playpen. PlayForce. People can walk by, and make faces at the children behind the force field and laugh at the kiddies playing, but the kids can't come out and bite people on the butts. Or pull neighbors' tree limbs off the trees (from what else would they pull them?) which is a particularly evil problem in MY neighborhood.

Just made me think of the possibilities.

I would love to see that hood squirrel stomp by and smack the dog one in the face, and stomp off.

And the poor dog could do nothing but go crazy.

*The reason I say this is that when my Momma was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago, there was a woman going room to room with a weimaraner therapy dog named Grace. I saw them in the hall while I was giving my husband an update via my cell phone. I started petting the dog, which is something I cannot ever keep myself from doing, and told my hubby I was petting a weimaraner. The owner was so thrilled I knew what kind of dog it was, she practically hugged me and almost adopted me into her family. From that, I gather that not many people, at least people who inhabit hospitals needing therapy dogs, would even know what a weimaraner is if one bit them on the proverbial hand.

Writing of weimaraners, this is great:

Our first long-hair dachshund, Fritz (Margrave Ritzy Bits-O'Fritz) liked to take off after rabbits. We lived on about an acre in an outlying section of Brewton, Alabama at the time. There was a weimaraner in the house across the woods from us penned in with an electric fence. Fritz took off one day, chased a rabbit through the woods and straight into the electric fence.

That was the weimaraner's luckiest day on earth. Dachshunds get grumpy when they don't catch rabbits and Fritz probably would have taken it out on that poor HUGE dog. But the fence took care of THAT. All we heard was a YELP and then about 30 seconds later, heard Fritz crashing through the brush and saw him limp into the yard.

It was great.

I know, this will be the last one of these in a while -- Maybe

2008-06-09T19:40:00.010-05:00

I just had to share one of my latest creations. Out of my daughter's love for origami crane motifs, I made these for her to have if or when she wants them. The background fabric is antique, and has those lines and dots scattered throughout. I loved the way it looked as a background. Of course, later versions will have changes made to them, but I thought they weren't bad for prototypes. At least there are no glue spots on the tops of these!
That's progress.

THE BOYZ

2008-06-09T15:34:00.005-05:00

We have some boyz that hang out in the 'hood. They are suspicious looking. They are thugs. They are peeping toms. That pun was intended, by the way.
We had a BIG rain. I could write that almost every day. Referring to yesterday. This particular big rain spilled over into our basement. We had to rip the carpet up. Wah. Wah. I'm sure we were better off than a lot of people in the area.
Back to the boyz. In the 'hood. We didn't know that they were going to be hangin' around this year 'cause of all the leaves in the well, yo. My home dog and I kept checkin' the window well 'cause that's what we do. In our spare time. We check out the toads.
Sometimes when they be messin' with me through the window, watchin' me work and all dat, I sic my home dog on 'em and watch 'em right back.
But I don' really mind them bein' there 'cause they eat bugs.
And that's cool wi' me.
Yo.

Check out Sonny's version of events at http://sonny-clu.blogspot.com/clu.blogspot.c om/.

Yellow Poplar

2008-06-08T20:31:00.005-05:00

This is the flower of the yellow poplar tree, otherwise known as the tulip tree. It's Latin name is Liriodendron tulipifera and has a sister plant in East Asia called liriodendron chinense.

This tree must be a smaller version than the Smoky Mountains kind, because in the Smokies it only blooms when the tree is 60ft or more high and you can't see the blossoms until they fall.

This is only the 2nd year this tree has bloomed. Last year, we barely noticed it because there were only about 7 or 8 blooms. This year, it's loaded.

Yay.

Quilt

2008-06-07T10:02:00.004-05:00

This is one of two quilt pieces that I made from some fabric my daughter bought at a flea market in Shimonoseki. The purple is the Japanese fabric, the creams are from my stash, and the gold I purchased to go with the gold in the purple. That was the only color I could find to match a color in the purple. The pattern is from American Patchwork & Quilting Oct. 2005. It's called "Pierre". It's supposed to be monotone, but I only had a "skinny quarter" of the Japanese fabric, so I had to fill in with the creams. So, there it is.

I sincerely could not even imagine doing a bed sized quilt with that ice cream cone border. This came out to be about 30" square, and it took me a month to handstitch the binding.

I have some issues with my design of it. I kind of wish I had done the purple in the 4 bear claw corners, with gold sashing and purple blocks on the outside edge, but I have not been one to do much design contemplation. The frenzy just kind of takes me along. I am starting to be a little more conscious of the design elements now, though. :-)

Coffee, Tea and ME!

2008-06-04T19:12:00.006-05:00

My daughter's 1st Japanese (as a 2nd language) teacher in Japan was Ishii-sensei. She volunteers her time teaching Japanese to foreigners, and worked full-time as an English teacher in a Japanese elementary school.
She very graciously invited us to her home for a tea party to celebrate "girls day". Actually, I guess it lasts the whole month of March, but we had a girlie tea party with the other Americans who are Ishii-sensei's current Japanese students. I say she "worked" as an English because the day we were there was her first official day of "retirement" and she was going to start a new job as a house mother at a boarding school not too far away.
Ishii-sensei has a beautiful apartment, and she had quite a spread of food. She had maki rolls, Pretz, yatsuhashi (I'm not sure of that spelling - sakura flavored mochi folded into triangles), sembai, which are rice crackers, Pocky and then she had strawberry short cake AND cheesecake. For drinks she served momo sake (peach sake) and green tea and coffee.

Her decorations for girls day was impressive as well. On the piano (at left) and

on her foyer display shelf.
It was an enjoyable little glimpse into the home of a Japanese, and it was the only one that I had, other than staying with my daughter.

We had pictures taken of the other American girls and Ishii-sensei, but I didn't think they would love having them plastered all over cyberspace.
For what it's worth.
Ishii-sensei also took my daughter and I to Ganryujima, an island in the Kanmon strait right close to Shimonoseki. It's where the two samurai duked it out. See http://homsar06.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html for a more complete story of the history.
I was completely bowled over by the charm and hospitality of the Japanese towards me, and taking my daughter under their wings, so to speak. It was very precious, and will stay with me forever.
Arigato gozaimas, Ishii-sensei!

Squirrels

2008-05-31T10:11:00.006-05:00

It's a well know scientific fact that squirrels scamper. Always. Except when they are sitting up on their haunches eating. Or scurrying along the ground with their nose to it, looking for seeds and such. It's just a well known scientific, documented fact. In any country around the world, in any language, squirrels scamper.
Except the one I saw in the hospital parking lot last evening.
My 84.75-year-old mom had an "episode" of the variety "I don't know, I'm just all of a sudden weak". So, we spent 8 hours in the ER waiting for them to decide they could find nothing wrong, only to put her in the hospital for "observation". So then we had to wait for a room. That's neither here nor there, but just an explanation as to why I was at the hospital parking lot in the evening.
I had the last space on the farthest side of the parking lot, so I got to walk the whole thing. Lucky me! That's when I saw the anomaly. A squirrel. In the parking lot. With a crooked tail no less. Rather than S shaped, it was Z shaped. Or, upside down L shaped rather. It was suspicious looking.
The thing that got me most was the way it was . . . stomping. It looked like a sumo wrestler on 4 legs. Or a Bowery Boy. Or a Lollipop Guild Munchkin. It definitely was NOT scampering as squirrels by all rights ought.
It scared me.
Not as much as cockroaches scare some people I know, and certainly not as much as centipedes and spiders scare some OTHER people I know, but it - shall we say - disconcerted me. Put me off. A squirrel stomping. A punk squirrel, stomping around in a parking lot of all places. Tarmac. Not the seed yielding ground. No trees in reachable sight.
I had an urge to sound the alarm of a possible rabid squirrel in the area, but there was no foam, and I was tired and halfway to my car by then. I was stomping by then.
I think my tail was a little crooked as well.
So I went home and wrote about it instead. Imagine my surprise if I see a headline about a crazed punk squirrel opening up with an M-16 in the hospital last night.
Will my face be red!

Learning Chiri-men and Other crafts

2008-05-28T07:22:00.006-05:00

I decided to try and figure out how to do the chiri-men flowers and artwork that I like so much. This is my first attempt. It is harder than it looks, and the example is extremely elementary and full of mistakes, but that's how we learn, ne?
These are supposed to be tulips, but are on a fantasy vine with fantasy leaves. I don't think I will be doing the vine and stem thing again. Unless I can think of some way that is not EXTREMELY painstaking to do it well.

This is done from a kit I purchased at UEKI, a paper shop in Shimonoseki. Wow, what a shop! They had kits, washi, chiyogami, origami, everything. Calligraphy stuff, and then, in back, an art gallery with the owner's mother's water colors and photographs on display. That was another WOW. She does flora/avian studies. They were inspired and beautiful.

This was the first I did from the kit that had 3 different projects. Of course, I did not follow it to the letter. Especially since every letter was in hiragana or kanji! I had to rely on drawings and trying to match the Japanese characters on the diagram with the characters on the different patterns and to the picture to make sure I was cutting the correct color. I still made mistakes, but was able to recover them nicely, I thought. Don't know what I'll do with it. But it's done.

This is another project in that kit. A 3-D postcard. Don't know how the postcard is expected to make it through the mail system, but maybe they are more gentle in Japan than in the US?

Here are all 3 together. My bouquet.

Okonomiyaki

2008-05-25T12:36:00.003-05:00

I made okonomiyaki for the first time today. It actually turned out rather well, but not perfect. I found the sauce for it in an Asian market here in town, and some Korean Ottogi mix. Ottogi is evidently very close to okonomi so it works. I just didn't use enough mix AND I used Napa cabbage (doesn't work so well) and used shredded zucchini (which really doesn't work as it is too wet). I will continue to put minced ginger and minced garlic in it, though. I thinly slice some eye of round for meat. And put cheese on it. It was good.

I also made Annin Dofu yesterday. It is as easy as making Jello. Much yummier and less sugar. Hero hubby sussed out some Roasted Coconut Juice at the Asian Market, and that goes well with the Annin Dofu. MMMMM good.

And all the comforts of HOME. Doesn't get much better than that, my friends.

Quite Possibly the Best Food on Earth

2008-05-21T17:13:00.005-05:00

I realize that a picture of a house doesn't do much for the digestive system, but bear with me, please.

This is in the city of Moji-ko. Right next to Kokura.
Albert Einstein stayed in this house. That is all I know about that.

What I do know about the white building on the corner (right) is that up above it has a little antique store that has great old scraps of kimono fabric - antiques. And I spent a lot of dough there. What fun!

There is a mall in Moji-ko (of course) that

has a soba restaurant in it. They make a really good dish called "kawara-soba" which literally is: rooftile noodles.

They heat the (clean, don't get your knickers in a twist) ceramic rooftile until it is oven hot. They top it with soba noodles, scrambled egg, fried pork strips, sliced green onions, and a decoration of seaweed and lemon and hot pepper sauce on top.
One puts the hot pepper sauce in one's bowl, then tops that with the lemon, then pours the sauce in the little hot pot over it and mixes it around.

If one is very good with chopsticks, it goes fast. Even if one is NOT very good with hashi, it goes quickly.

All I had to say about that was YUM. Was it good. The noodles next to the tile get crackly and the sauce is great, without being too spicy.

I included a shot of my empty bowl. I polished off my half of the dish, I'm sure.

Gifts and More Deliberate Acts of Kindness

2008-05-12T18:18:00.003-05:00

While at the tea party described in People are People, Higa-san gave me a beautiful lacquer box. It's evidently a modern commemorative box with the Imperial crest on it (the Kiku which means chrysanthemum). No one could read the fancy script on the box, but Higa-san's husband's employer gave him the box to commemorate some event and they really don't want it. So I get it. (Ruthie and I think it may be commemorating the fact that the Imperial family had a boy, but that's just us.) It really is beautiful - black and gold.

Then, when Ruthie and I went to her school to visit, Nakano-sensei's husband (who is in administration there) came to greet us and asked us to wait for him, just a moment. He came back with a bag that had an obi in it. A beautiful blue/pink and white piece, it belonged to Nakano-sensei's mother, and she gave it to me to "make something". How sweet.

A few days later, Takenaka-san brought over some fabric from her family hoard of kimono scraps, and some of the fabric was new - made by someone she knows in her birth town, whose family makes fabric. They are beautiful pieces and will be fun to work with.

Just before I left Japan to wing my way home, Makata-san called and asked if she could bring some fabric over! She had a red kimono that she gave me. She also had a child's kimono with an underkimono that belonged to her neighbor's daughter and was soiled, so they couldn't sell it to someone else to wear. As if that wasn't enough, another friend of hers buys antique kimono and makes new, contemporary clothing out of them to sell, and she donated a bunch of nice scraps to the pile.

All in all, I made out like a bandit! In addition to all that, I bought some antique shibori and chiri-men at an antique store AND more antique shibori at a kimono store in Shimonoseki called, oddly enough, Kimono. I love shibori!

I can hear the conversations these gals were having among themselves as well as with their friends and neighbors. "Can you believe it, that poor woman bought that old, soiled stuff for way too much. We have to show her that not all old kimono fabric is that rotten! I have some nice fabric that I will never use, I'll give it to her, and maybe she can make something with that, too."

And I think I will. ^_^

People are People

2008-05-10T09:51:00.008-05:00

I have been neglecting my memoirs of Japan lately and I will correct that now. The ladies in my daughter's English [Bible] study wanted to meet me (but, of course) so the ones who had no prior commitments came over to her "flat" with food to share and commandeered her kitchen and they got to know me. I can't say I got to know them very well, since I was definitely the flavor of the day. I would have loved to get to know each one deeply. I will try to describe the "party" and the guests without offending anyone. Try being the operative word here.

Takenaka-san was the first lady to arrive. She is the newest member of the study group and my daughter knew her the least. She brought some sesame fried chicken the way only the Japanese can prepare it. Dee-lish. She stressed that it was made without oil. Steamed, then baked. It's great cold too. One observation: very little Rubbermaid, Tupperware or Gladware. Most of the ladies brought their items in small white boxes, much like the size and shape of various sized chocolate boxes. Just a little difference I noticed. It's a nice difference. The sesame chicken was in just such a box. We had a few minutes to chat, just us three. Although the language barrier made anything but deliberate conversation difficult. I was able to discern that she is a very sweet woman, a little shy, and trying to feel where she fits in the group as the "newby". "Také" means bamboo, so I am told, and "naka" means inside. Whether together the words of her last name is connotative of someone who is as strong as bamboo inside, uses bamboo, reams out bamboo, or what, is anyone's guess. More on Takenaka-san later.

Amy and Stephanie - two other English teachers, came next. Amy is a first year teacher with my daughter, and Stephanie teaches at the University. I liked them very much. Amy is very quiet, and likes to observe. Stephanie likes to talk and ask questions. They brought (together) some fried chicken ala Japanese which was very well done, and TUNA CASSEROLE. Stephanie was apologizing all over the place for it not being baked (ovens are scarce in Japanese apartments). It has been ages since I had good old-fashioned, made on the stove top tuna casserole and I loved it. They left the leftovers and I scarfed that as well. They brought their food items in Japanese versions of Rubbermaid. BTW.

Makata-san was (I think) next, although the rest of the ladies kind of arrived at the same-ish time. It's all a blur. She is short, even by Japanese standards and reminds me a lot of a friend of mine in Carroll. People are people all over the world, dontcha know. She brought a Costella, which is a pound cake of sorts. Makata-san is the lady who drove us to Tsunoshima and the onsen after that. See "Tsunoshima and Nude Bathing". More about Makata-san later as well.

Nakano-sensei is an English teacher at the school where my daughter teaches. She had gone to Chicago and then Buffalo and NYC last summer. Her English was quite good. She brought strawberries. Lots of strawberries. They were quite yummy on the costello. One of the strawberries is very reminiscent of a "fugu". More about Nakano-sensei later as well.

Higa-san is last (but came the same time as Nakano-sensei and Makata-san). She is a Japanese ME. Mini-me. Although she is quite tall. She was wearing a knitted silk vest that she knitted herself and it looked cool.

For food Higa-san brought Annin Tofu (it's pronounced more like "Dofu" in this case, but I can't find anywhere where it's spelled that way) (!). It is ambrosia. What we would eat in Heaven when we have bodies that need it. It's almond "jelly", which is what they call Jell-o. Has no tofu in it. It's a jelled almond confection - not too sweet. When it is time to serve, it's cut into cubes, then mixed with chopped fresh tropical fruits. Then a simple syrup is poured on top. YUM. Ruthie was jumping up and down and squealing, so I knew it would be good. Higa-san was so embarrassed because it didn't gel properly this time, but that didn't stop any of us from wolfing! And, because she was embarrassed and the costello cake was kind of overlooked amongst the furor of the Annin Tofu, I made a trifle with my costello and the annin tofu. That was, like, Nirvana (if there were such a thing). The ladies were quite amazed at the mixture, but I sense that someone will be coming up with a uniquely Japanese trifle one of these days that becomes "traditional Japanese fare". Other than me, that is. I have already been devising ways of blending the two for American taste. MY American taste, anyway.

We ladies talked about life in our two cultures, and concluded that we are all too busy. With fairly inconsequential things. People are just as stressed out in Japan as in the States. Probably more so, because they seem to care a little more. Hero-hubby and I would fit in the Japanese work life very well, because we have both cared about how our employer looks, and giving our 100% to them - while at work, anyway. Hectic lives and fast meals at all hours seem to be epidemic. And being tired, tired, tired.

Everyone was interested in seeing what I had bought so far in Japan. I dragged out my antique fabric that I bought in Moji-ko. They were amazed that I would spend money on old, torn and soiled fabric in such small pieces. Then, I had to bring out my snowman quilts I had brought as gifts, and the "cry of the loon" quilt I had brought too, and then they could see what I do with the fabric. Higa-san, I think, quilts, but she uses all new, cotton fabric as most normal people do. They told me how shibori is made. I love shibori. And chiri-men.

They were still mystified as to why I would want even the tiniest scraps. There were some in the bento that were just 1-inch wide by maybe 6-inches long. I held up the red one and said, "Somewhere, a snowman needs a scarf." Very serio-comically. They all said "Ah, so-ka!" With the indrawn breath that only the Japanese can do. Later, Amy and Stephanie were laughing about how serious I was and how the ladies, sitting on the floor in a horseshoe around me, were so serious. Like I had spoken from God or something. I personally think they were just being polite by not laughing out loud at me.

Or maybe I just scared them.

Somewhere Between Aardvarks and Zealots

2008-05-07T18:01:00.006-05:00

I can't believe that I wrote 17 posts in April and only 1 for the whole (short) month of May! That's what happens when hero hubby gets pulled for jury duty (and selected) and you get left juggling the biz. That's why it's called business. It keeps you busy. And frenetic. And posting silly pics of our great friend Scott taking a bite out of a very big sandwich. And I have more where that came from. $10,000, small unmarked bills, delivered tomorrow or else.

Blogging is weird. To say the least. It's like a journal or a diary. I get that. And it's like a newsletter published in cyberspace. I get that, too. But am I supposed to expect people to read it? Does anyone read it? Am I writing to myself? Is it okay if I write it and it stays to myself? Will Clarice marry Jose and live happily everafter?

And then, my son Aaron and I went to Court this afternoon. He pled not guilty to a traffic ticket that he did not earn. It's a good thing the police officer did not show up, because I shot my mouth off and the judge didn't like it (not a big shooting, just a very tiny one really, the judge didn't have to take it the way he did. It wasn't meant for him, anyway. There is a purposeful echo in that room so everything carries.) So, if the officer had shown up, the judge would probably have bent over backwards to get Aaron convicted. As it is, he got off scott free so all is well.

This week, I realized a couple of faux pas I have made. (I realize I have made quite a few faux pas, in fact, thousands upon thousands of faux pas [see above judge angering] but I was reminded of a couple just the other day. It's hard to blog clearly, or anything else for that matter, when one has a snoring dachshund draped across one's arm.) I neglected to get addresses for all the people in Japan who did something nice for Ruthie and/or me while I was there. The 2nd is like it: I neglected to send thank you notes. One of the emails I was given doesn't work and I'm afraid to ask one of the others for it, because they would go to all kinds of trouble, and if they can't find it, they would feel as if they had failed me. Kind of like how I feel in the trucking industry. People ask me to find a truck for their freight to go from point A to point D and I move heaven and hell to find a truck for them, and I can't. And then I feel like a failure.

I wonder when my hero's trial will be over so he can be home? And will Clarice marry Jose or run away with Francois after all?

Spring In The Tundra

2008-05-06T12:02:00.005-05:00

Spring has finally come to Iowa. I hope to have more spring pics to publish after Mother's Day.
Our neighbor's Bradford Pear is beautiful. All the pear trees are blooming right now, and there are quite a few in the neighborhood.

Our bleeding heart finally plumped out. Funny flowers: they come out like butterflies from the chrysalis, all wrinkly and small. Then, they slowly inflate.I was pulling this thing out the 1st 2 years we were here, thinking it was a weed. Silly girl. It finally dawned on me last year that the leaves looked a lot like bleeding heart leaves and to leave it alone for a season.

A pair of American Robins redecorated the old nest in the serviceberry tree. The only reason I could take this pic is that serviceberries won't bloom probably until next week. When they do, the tree will be covered. Great camo for this momma robin and the eggs she is hatching.

Tsunoshima and Nude Bathing

2008-04-29T19:02:00.010-05:00

View Larger Map

Tsunoshima is an island near Oyama in Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan. It's where all the markers are on the map. It used to be accessible only by ferry, but about 10 years ago a bridge was built to connect the island with the main island. People go there to take in the flying squid in the parking lot. And to freeze their ears off in 30 mph winds (sustained). It is also a place where there is a lighthouse.

We learned that the lily below is sort of a symbol of either the lighthouse or the Yamaguchi Prefecture. Weren't sure about which. But it was a cool tile in the sidewalk anyway.
A lighthouse is an ingenious device invented by health nuts to lure the knees of old, out of shape women to their deaths. They torture their victims with silly little signs about how many stairs are left. To add insult to injury, a ladder is added to the last 10 feet, just to make it interesting. This provides wayward daughters with photo ops that mothers would just as soon it didn't provide.

This is Makata-san who so graciously braved the elements (and us) to cart us out to the haven that is Tsunoshima. That's Japan behind her. Well, behind the railing that is behind her.

Makata-san also treated us to onsen in Takibe. (You wondered where the nude bathing would come in, didn't you?) Takibe is supposed to have the best natural spring water around. Onsen is relaxing in a hot water springs pool. I don't know if the word onsen refers to the pool itself, or the act of bathing in same. This is done either with your family, or people of the same sex. The pools are segregated, in other words. It is simply hot tubbing in a natural hot spring (we were outside) with everyone in the buff. With no bubbles. It was great. Calm down, it was set up so people from the outside couldn't see anything! And it was really neat to be in the hot spring and have the rain coming down on your head.

Then, when you are done steaming yourself, you take a shower/bath. They provide pumice stones for your feet, and neat shampoo and conditioner for your hair, and soap for your body, and you give yourself a mini-spa.

I didn't take pictures.

Pizza

2008-04-29T06:58:00.003-05:00

I like pizza. My hero hubby likes pizza. We especially like Nick & Willie's pizza. So, the other night when I was with "the girls", my hero stopped by our fave take and bake to pick up a pizza. Imagine his surprise when he was told that would be the LAST pizza. N&W's would be closing. Apparently no one actually wants to get in their car, drive a few blocks, pick up an uncooked pizza, take it back home and bake it! Absurd. Especially since their pizzas are sooooo yummy. My little big sis says so, and she has exquisite taste. In everything. Really. I'm not making any of it up.

My desolate husband went into some kind of mental fugue state upon receiving his bad news. I wasn't there, so I can't actually say that he wept, although that would make for a great story. Instead, he went into action, which is what all hero hubbies do, don'tcha know. I am sure that he quizzed the hapless owner to make sure he had done everything in his power to keep the biz afloat. Next was to make sure the other N&W's in our fair city wasn't closing. It isn't. Big hairy deal, it's really too far away to consider. Unless we went on an N&W run and bought like 15 pizzas and froze them, which defeats the purpose of FRESH pizza. Which thought was running through my hero's head at lightning speed.

Then, he did what comes naturally to him: cushion the blow. He bought:

1 - 20lb container of [what he thought was] N&W Italian Sausage (which turned out to be hamburger);
1 - 20lb container of mozzarella cheese (quite possibly their propriety blend of cheeses, but it was already in the freezer downstairs when I got the news, so I have not a clue!);
1 - 5lb container of cooked bacon (do you see where we are going here?);
a 2 year supply of the cool cardboard pizza baking sheets (these were actually free - the hapless owner took pity, I think);
2 take and bake cookies.
The only reason he DIDN'T purchase the 2 year supply of pizza dough is because he DIDN'T want to purchase the nifty dough press they use to make it so thin.

When I got home Saturday, I went to try and find a place in the fridge for the stew pot that had mostly finished beef, chorizo and black bean chili in it so I could finish it off the next day. I opened up the produce drawer in order to stuff something in it (all other possible room in the fridge was taken up with the above list of items, minus the cheese) and found - a take and bake cookie!

That really got me to giggling. I love my hero hubby.

KitaKyushu

2008-04-25T19:53:00.003-05:00

Our first trip out from Shimonoseki, we went to KitaKyushu. Kokura was the city, to be exact. In this pic, you can see the "cheese wedge" shaped building behind the wild woman chasing pigeons. That is 1 building of the Riverwalk Mall.

Directly behind the mall, and across the pigeon bridge, is Kokura Castle. Here is a picture of the castle with a clever lamppost in front of it. They tend to sneak into every picture.

The sakura were just starting to show their color when we

were there. It was a rainy day, and late in the afternoon and just beautiful.

Inside, ninja were scaling the wall to attack the speaker set up in the diorama of Kokura in the early 1600's. It was quite an impressive diorama, with more than 1500 dolls, all in period costume, and a featured fight at Ganryugima (see http://homsar06.blogspot.com/2008/04/ganryujima.html for more info on that subject). There were cool samurai headgear displayed, and portraits of the daimyo, and other cool stuff from the culture of the era.

I really like the demon mask with his tongue sticking out. I'd be scared to have someone wearing that come after ME.

It was pretty cool to be there, all in all.

Ziploc Bags

2008-04-24T19:14:00.003-05:00

Our society has been taken over by Ziploc and Glad. How have we ever survived without Ziploc bags or Gladware? WhenEVER we have something that needs to be toted or stored, temporarily or even sometimes permanently, the first thing a lot of us think about is clear plastic. With a zip or a lid. I picked up some buttons yesterday that were falling off a customer's curtains (because of the glue on them) and in what did she store them? You guessed it. 2 points! So I put HER pint-sized Ziploc into MY quart-sized Ziploc and took all of them home with me to fix.

Boats

2008-04-20T19:38:00.022-05:00

Still 03/25/08

After Osaka Castle, we wrestled Buck and Red back onto the subway (thank you, kind sir, who pointed out the elevator across the street!), to Cosmo Square, where we got on a monorail that took us to the Ferryport.

The Ferryport is where were to get on the ferry bound for Mojiko. We had to schlepp the usual suspects around - upstairs, of course. There we watched trucks driving into the ferry, even when it got dark. We had coffee at a little cafe called the "Port said Haishi". Whatever that means.

Then we looked for something strange, but couldn't find anything. We hated disappointing the Ticket Counter, but the only strange thing there was was US (and Buck) and we weren't about to turn ourselves in.

It was really cool watching

our progress on the television all night long. Well, just the parts of the night when we weren't

sleeping. There weren't many of those, either. I woke up when we were going under a humongous bridge and couldn't sleep. I could have played mah-jongg in the mah-jongg parlor, but I figured I would just annoy everyone with my stunning inability to play the game. I could have played backgammon in the backgammon parlor, but 1) I don't know how to play in Japanese; and, 2) I didn't want to get thrown off the boat for winning too much. I suppose I could have taken a bath with everyone else. . . Nah.

I did get a really stellar pic of the sunrise as we were nearing Mojiko. I have one more if you want to see it.

Then, day broke and I went to wake Ruthie. Late! She freaked. Don't blame her. We were the LAST ONES OFF THE BOAT. We got on the last elevator down (because Ruthie thought we needed to go down) and Buck put the weight over and the elevator would not go and the man behind said "GET OUT". We got out. Then a nice man in a uniform asked if we had a car (!), and as we so obviously didn't he escorted us off the boat. He did not even offer to carry Buck down the stairs for the old lady. Hm!

My not waking Ruthie up in time made us late for the bus into the train station. We had to OVER pay a taxi driver. But, as with all tales (?) this one has a happy ending and we did, indeed, end. Up at Ruthie's apartment. And crashed.

Buses, Trains, & Subways

2008-04-18T17:25:00.012-05:00

I left you last, dear reader[s] at Kinkakuji in Kyoto. Wait, there is more. And this is only the 3rd day I've been in country!

Kinkakuji

Pavillion

*sales

Kawara-machi

*Imperial Palace

Ponto Cho (again)

Osaka Castle

Trains

subways,

buses

& boats

Buck & Red

March 25, 2008

We had to bid sayonara to Kyoto Century Hotel which was rather nice, and left Buck and Red at the concierge while we finished our sightseeing in Kyoto. After Kinkakuji, we took the bus to the Old Imperial Palace. What a compound. Most of it is in ruins, but there are beautiful areas of gardens, and the ume (plum), momo (I think-peach) and even the sakura were blooming. We took some purty pitchers.

When we got to the entrance of the Imperial Palace itself, we discovered that they do not allow walk-ins! We needed to go to the Kyoto City Hall and get a permit to enter. Needless to say, we didn't go inside. It was cool from the outside, though.

Then to the bus again.

We trekked back to Ponto Cho to eat lunch. Went to a soba restaurant. Ruthie had traditional soba (I guess) layed out cold on a wooden tray, served with rice and meat of choice. Which in this case was tuna sashimi. Served with okra and some slimy egg-whitish stuff that wasn't real appealing. But good for you! I had the udon hot. This is served with broth, soup style. It's served with a bowl of rice on the side with meat and cabbage. It was good. The fried pork gave me heartburn.

Back on the bus to Kyoto Station to pick up Buck and Red from the hotel. I got a seat, Ruthie didn't. At one stop, a woman about my age, maybe a little older, got on. Using the universal non-verbal cues, I offered my seat to her because she had packages in her arms, but she declined. Then she asked if we were tourists. (!) Well, she could have assumed we were tourists. And been half right. We started talking, and I told her how much I loved Kyoto. She told us about her son - a pharmacist close to Inari.

When we prepared to "de-bus" she gave us each 3 pair of tabi! We tried to tell her no, but she insisted. Probably from the 100 yen store. She said she wanted to give something to the nice American ladies. I think she also felt bad because she pegged Ruthie as a student, not a teacher. She phantom tabi gifter disappeared into the crowd at the station.

After we got Buck and Red out of hock, and regaled our very pleasant and well-english-spoken concierge with our exploits, including the tabi ("Why? Why would she give you tabi?"), we toted the big guys away with us for Osaka Castle.

We (make that I) must have looked nuts! Even in America, we would have looked nuts! I froze trying to get Buck onto the escalator, and had to carry him all the way down the steps to the train platform. We took

The Local Express to Osaka Station

Elevators

Escalators

Steps

to transfer to

The Loop Train

from which we transferred to

the Subway.

We found out that Buck doesn't fit well through the turnstyles. He doesn't really fit well anywhere. Especially Japanese luggage lockers at subway stations. We ended up toting Buck through the Osaka Castle park.This is Ruthie, taking a break on Buck at the park. He was such a baby.

Osaka Castle. It really is quite imposing, while managing to be quite tasteful. But, the picture is REALLY of the street lamp, lurking at the left of the picture.

Osaka Castle, up close and personal. It would have been quite the deal to get up there in a palanquin.

I really liked taking pictures that juxtaposed the old and the new. Like the ancient castle fortification, the moat in front, and a present day "castle" in the skyscraper downtown.

We just don't have any idea unless we've been somewhere that is very old, what it's like. Old in Iowa is 1840's. Old in the Northeast is 1690's. Old in Japan in 1500's and before. Osaka Castle was first destroyed in the very early 1600's. The Imperial Palace was moved to Edo (Tokyo) at that time. That moat and fortification were there before anyone from Europe settled on the new continent.

Stick that in your tabi and walk on it awhile.

Random Acts

2008-04-17T12:34:00.008-05:00

I just received a package today from Motoko-san, a lady that sat next to me on the flight home from Osaka-Kansai. She sent me some stationery with a motif of little girls wearing kimono as well as origami cranes together with a little coin purse made out of that big weave striped fabric they have. The name of it escapes me. How sweet.

This is what I could glean from Motoko-san's spoken kanji: she was 64 yrs old, raised in Hiroshima. I gather from that, she must have been an infant when the bombs dropped and WWII ended. She somehow ended living up on an island village close to there, but I couldn't remember it. She met her American husband, who is in his mid-80's, in London 15 years ago. She said something about a sanitorium or asylum in London, but don't know if she was a patient or working there. She lives in Maryland now on the Bay in her husband's old family vacation home, which is their only home now. He has children, I didn't gather from her conversation that she does. I don't think his children have anything to do with her, but I could be wrong. I was trying to translate from kanji to English. Gets garbled sometimes.

I felt that she is a really lonely person and misses her heart language and her home. I wonder what's keeping her here?

New Mission in Life - Survey

2008-04-13T15:30:00.004-05:00

I have found a new mission in life. Since all these YOUNGSTERS are adding me to their facebook contacts, I should start a blog "Ask Momma CLU" or "Get a CLU for YOUNGsters" or "Dr. Momma CLU". So, let me know, all 2 or 3 of my readers, if you want a CLU. Good idea or not?

Why is Ginkakuji Silver and Kinkakuji Gold?

2008-04-13T15:19:00.005-05:00

It just doesn't make sense that Ginkakuji (which starts with a G) would be silver and Kinkakuji (which DOESN'T start with a G) would be gold. Duh. Needless to say, I kept getting them mixed up. I still do, as everyone knows that gold things start with a G.

Kinkakuji is indeed golden, and the park was very beautiful. I have only added a few pics to whet your appetite. This is in the city of Kyoto. By the way, Japan has lots of open space. It's all in parks and gardens and terraced fields. And they tend to build up, not out.

Which leads me to the next thing: sales technique. A Compare and Contrast. (I think I'm one of the few people that actually LIKED that little excerise in English classes.)

American souvenir shop (or any other American shop, for that matter!): one kid, sitting in a corner behind the register either listening to an ipod or texting on his/her phone or reading a book. You could stand there for literally 3 hours and not be noticed until you did something rude, like DYING. Loudly. When you do finally decide to be rude and bother the poor sales person, information has to be dragged from them kicking and screaming. You know that this is true. You almost feel guilty for taking their time and buying the product their boss is trying to [sell] put out there for people to decide whether they want it or not.

Japanese souvenir shop (or any other shop in Japan, for that matter, at least the ones I saw. 100% of them): People are speaking, sing-songing out to you as you pass by their display. If you stop to look, you are given explanations GRATUITOUSLY. This is mochi, this is matcha mochi, this is dongo, this is yatsuhashi, etc. Then, if you stand there a little longer, trying to decide what to do, they start dragging other things out for you to see. How could you live without THIS or THIS? THIS is very nice if you don't like what you see already displayed. Then, if (and when) you purchase something, they give you a freebie. Not in the large department stores or retail stores, but in the smaller places, one owner, mom and pop places. Not anything huge. Just a way to say "Thank you, I really appreciate you buying something from me today. Come back again and buy something from me tomorrow too."

Who would YOU rather patronize?

Of Ponto Cho, Purikura and Ginkakuji

2008-04-12T17:13:00.013-05:00

When we got back to the Kyoto Station after Gion, we were ready for a NAP. So we slept, then went all the way out to Ginkakuji, which is the Silver Pavillion, which is really made of wood. But, by the time we got there, it was closed. But we had an opportunity to see a sign that said pointed up to a restaurant and said "See Up Stear!"

After we ate at the tanuki's okonomiyaki restaurant in Ponto Cho, we hung out in the Shin Jo Kawada-Machi (really, downtown Kyoto) area. They have the usual streets totally covered at the top so it's like a mall with every shop imaginable (and some beyond imagination). That's where your heroine was introduced to Purikura. (pooDEE kooDUH, or a close approximation thereof)

This is the coolest Japanese invention of all. Why do we not have it here? Because American kids scoff at CUTE. But not Japanese kids. These are actual kids of the teenage variety. The Purikura photo booths are filled with Japanese teens all the time.

What is this thing? They are photo booths, big ones, where for around $4.00 you can take up to 6 or 8 pictures in front of a green screen, with scenes that

you pick from the computer. Like, a flying carpet, flying. Or a hamburger that has a big split between the top and bottom, or . . . whatever. Then you go to a 2nd booth, and

decorate the photos with all sorts of cool stuff on the computer,

then you can print out pics or stamps. Dachshunds figure heavily in Japanese culture,

so we have dachshund on one picture for each time we went, which was 3. Total. During the 2 weeks. It was fun, what's your problem?

Then we went to a treat shop called "God Mountain Cafe" no kidding. And I had green tea cake and Ruthie had chocolate gateau, which informed me then and there that the Japanese can be very pretentious and hifalutin' as well as anyone. And I had almond milk, iced, and Ruthie had almond milk, hot. That was good, too.There is an actual slice of cooked sweet potato on top of that green tea cake (which was scrumptious) and red bean paste inside the layer. You can see it if you look really, really hard.

Ruthie [acting] as if she were a monster, about to devour the dessert.

She did.

Devour it.

Japan Chronicles

2008-04-12T10:46:00.019-05:00

[Ed.'s note: any "misspelling" of words in this entirely tongue and cheek posting are deliberately so. Don't be so literal. Look them up at dictionary.com if you need to figure out the joke behind the "misspelling".]

PART VI

. . . a long, long time ago on an island far, far away our heroine, after being held hostage on an Empirical flying ship for nearly 24 hours, finds herself in . . .

a Ponto Cho restaurant, secretly surveiled by Empirical spies cleverly disguised as gravid tanuki while she is introduced to the pleasures of okonomiyaki. Lest the reader think that is a dirty word, okonomiyaki means, basically "whatever you like, fried". It's a lot of shredded cabbage, some veggies, whatever meat you want, some batter and an egg (fresh). It's brought to your table which is ingeniously set up as a griddle as well, you mix it up in the bowl and fry it slowly to make sure the meat is cooked, and then you eat it! With sauce, and fish flakes and mayonnaise. Yum.

But how did CLU get from the Osaka Airport, clu-less and friendless? [That's why they call this a cliff-hanger]
Kyoto Station
Her tour guide and host showed up just in time to save CLU from totally disappearing under all that water, (see Meltdown at Kansai) and whisked her away to Kyoto, land of great food, great desserts and a ginormous train station hub. It was totally fun carting Buck around on the train, (or did they take the bus? it was all a blur for CLU) and on the buses and up AND down the stairs to get to same. Our heroine loved how heavy Buck was, and cumbersome, and Ruth did too, CLU could tell. (Can I take my tongue OUT of my cheek now?)

Kyoto Station
Then, Ruth picked out a tempura restaurant in PORTA, the ubiquitous underground shopping mall replete with food vendors. Thus, CLU was rescued AND fed, and the only thing she needed was a BED. For six weeks.

Kyoto Station

Alas, she had only 2 nights in which to enjoy the bed at the Kyoto Century Hotel. It was very pleasurable. If messy. Price you pay for having your tour guide stay with you, I guess.
Kyoto Century Hotel Room

They left Buck there. He was desolate. CLU was not.

Empirical spies were everywhere, though. Disguised as wily foxes

Really EVIL looking wily foxes
and interesting street lamps in Gion and other quite clever disguises. Hardly ever knew they were there. But CLU and Ruthie knew what to look out for. Those street lamps can be quite dangerous if you don't get pictures of them.

Our heroines were too smart by far for the Empirical spies, and they confused the spies by pretending to be in Memoirs of a Geisha and while Ruthie ran through the Sembon Torii, CLU stayed behind and took photographs. Photography threw the spies off quicker than anything. They just don't get the stupidity of it.

Pretending to be totally disinterested by picking their ears and wearing their own ingenious spy costumes, our heroines were able to stun the spies into a torpor (or throw them into laughing fits) thereby throwing them off the scent.

Melt Down at Kansai

2008-04-11T14:35:00.009-05:00

Okay, dear reader(s), I know you are waiting with bated breath for the next installment of the Japan Chronicles, or CLU gets a Clue, so here we go.

March 23, 2008:

Please (offering) Dozo. [Ed.'s note: that 1st O is supposed to have a
little
straight line over the top of the it, horizontally, but Ed. hasn't
figured
out to do anything but the most basic stuff on this blogspot.)

Please
Kudasai - asking for

Reshito (RAY SHEET O) - receipt
Fukuro (FOO KOO DO) - bill
Thank you Arigato Gozaimas

You're Welcome
itashimashte

i t a s h i m a s h t e

Silk - ki-nu

Fabric - nu-no

Cotton - men

Sorry - Gomennasai, sumimasen

Quilt
- Kakebuton

Isn't it? Des ne?

* Ruth - find word or
phrase for "cry of the loon"

Beautiful - utsukushi - person -
thing
*Nihongo wa kirei des
kirei - nature, country,
intangibles

Chot-to matte - wait

Grace before meal -
Itadakimas

It was a long and boring flight.

Cutter-machine man was to my left, and young sarari-man was to my right.

I took an Ambien CR, 12.5 mg. Slept (if you can call it that, and you can't) for 2 hours. Two. Out of the 13 possible hours.

Did I mention it was a long flight?

And boring?

Then I had to live the day ALL OVER AGAIN because I went back in time. I left Sunday, 4/23/08 at 11:00 a.m., flew for 13 hours and got off the plane on Sunday, 4/23/08 at 1:15 p.m. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

And when my daughter was NOT at the airport to meet me (!) I had a meltdown. Crying is not something the Japanese are comfortable with, I gather.

When I couldn't get her on her phone, I went ballistic. And melted some more (tears make me melt all over, what a world, what a world).

There is a legend told now of the 7ft tall gai-koku-jin-jo with the watery face, dragging a huge suitcase called "Buck" up and down the halls of the Osaka Kansai Airport, crying out the name of her long-lost daughter, scaring little children and bugging the information desk ladies with questions they can't answer (EEEEEKKKKKKK).

No Red Covered Tome

2008-04-10T19:10:00.003-05:00

One of the reasons I started this monster in the first place is so I could chronicle my journey to Japan and back. It's no red covered tome, but it's all I've got right now, so back off.

I think I will start at ... the beginning. What a surprise.

March 22, 2008: The thing I don't like about traveling alone on planes is that there is no one to talk to relieve the stress of situations like this one.

(Flash back)

On March 22, 2008 a snowstorm ripped through the upper Midwestern U.S., dumping considerable snow on such cities as Minneapolis and Milwaukee and Detroit. I don't care about any other cities that may have been impacted by this snow, because all I really care about is the fact that Minneapolis and Milwaukee getting hammered caused MY flight to Japan to be delayed so they could wait for the transferees to get to Detroit, because jets just don't take off for Japan every 3 or 4 hours. Well, by the time the Minneapolis people got to Detroit, it was snowing in Detroit. But we sat on the plane for 6 hours. Six. During which time they: played the same Grover Washington music between announcements from the Captain and crew;
played the same Grover Washington music between announcements from the Captain and crew;
de-iced
the
plane;
knocked out the electrical with the de-icer;
fixed the electrical problem;
pulled.out.from.the.jetway;
taxied
d
o
w
n the runway; sat on the runway and waited for another de-icer to come along; de-iced
the
plane
again; knocked out the electrical

again;
sat for awhile
(again);
decided we couldn't take off, the plows couldn't keep up with the snow on the long runway;
c r a w l e d back to the jetway;
sat in the plane for 2 more hours while the people inside the terminal got their ducks in a row (which, when translated, means getting the cheapest possible rates out of the shabbiest possible hotels in the area)

See, I at least made it interesting. It wasn't. At all. And the woman behind me was just frantic that her child would freak because he thought the Easter Bunny wouldn't know where he was on Sunday. Don't ever call me combative or blunt, because I was just as tactful as it is possible to be in that situation. I absolutely did NOT tell that boy that there is no Easter Bunny. But I wanted to. Put that mother out of my misery RIGHT NOW. At least he was WITH his mother.

What made it worse (could that be?) is that my cell phone was losing power fast and the charger was IN THE SUITCASE IN THE PLANE'S CARGO HOLD. So, any communication had to be terse, and only to my hero hubby, who then relayed info on to my daughter in Japan. Playing telephone, with a, um, telephone.

I did learn a few really cool Japanese words, but I won't share them here. It would be embarrassing and in very poor taste.

I spent the night, not on a plane bound for Osaka, but in a crappy hotel room that I upgraded to a jacuzzi room (shoulda never done that) so I could have a relax from 6 HOURS ON A PLANE GOING NOWHERE.

We did not leave until 11 a.m. the next day.

The charger I bought at the airport did NOT work in my phone.

But the Cyber cafe in Concourse A, right next to gate 28 has the best mango smoothies (made fresh) you could ever hope to find.

Fun

2008-04-10T19:09:00.003-05:00

Now that I have this monster I've created, I have to feed it. And tend it. Clean and dress it up and then compare it to all the other little monsters out there.

Fun!

Question

2008-04-09T18:00:00.001-05:00

Okay, so they give you this random question to answer when you set up the blog. But it's not published anywhere, and I slaved over the answer, so here it is:

"For your birthday, your aunt gave you a maple syrup dispenser shaped like a rooster. Please write her a thank-you note:
Dear Aunt Flora, Thank you so much for the colorful birthday present. Although roosters have not been a part of my home decor, it is nevertheless a unique gift. Who would've thought that there was such a thing as a countertop pancake syrup dispenser? I know that each and every time I serve pancakes to my diabetic husband, I will remember you. Thanks again, CLU"

Uguisu

2008-04-09T17:35:00.001-05:00

Okay, this will really be about the uguisu.
I never knew this bird existed. Now I'm wondering what other treasures of the animal kingdom there are out there that I don't know about and it's driving me crazy. Although, as they say, it really is just a short putt.
The uguisu is a bird that lives on the Japanese Islands. It's associated with the blooming of the ume (plum trees) and with hanami. I have also learned since (from Wikipedia, so if this is wrong please let me know) that an uguisu-jō is a female announcer hired for her warbling voice. Green and therefore difficult to see in the trees except in the early spring, it is so small and quick that it is said to be difficult to photograph. By everyone except ME. They live in the trees behind my daughter's apartment, and by standing on her clothes drying balcony, I could get clear shots with my husband's last year Christmas present from me: a 12 megapixel digital camera. 12. Twelve. One dozen. Megapixels. Those big pixels caught the uguisu as clear, no, clearer than you could see it.
So, when I found a kit for making a paper banner that has uguisu on it, well, I just had to buy it. And put it together within my first week back!
Sweeeet.
Photo follows for my daughter's viewing pleasure.

Japan, Children and Dilettantes

2008-04-09T16:39:00.002-05:00

I recently returned home from my first (and more than likely, only) trip to Japan.

I thought that after almost half a century I had seen pretty much all I wanted to. I'm fairly satisfied that I've seen most of the U.S. I will more than likely see the parts I haven't yet. I have been a voyeur into other parts of the world. A dilettante, if you will. I know a lot about a lot of places, but haven't experienced much of it, except vicariously. I've been to France and Switzerland once - for 2 weeks in high school and have lived on that one ever since!

Then, my daughter moved to Japan. Temporarily.

Let me digress for a moment. The thing about mothers is this: they have a great need to know how their children are living. Even when it means traveling halfway around the world to see it. I suppose it's the shared experience thing. "I gave birth to you, we experienced that together, it goes both ways when you grow up!" maybe. Maybe it's just sheer nosiness. Whatever it is, this mother couldn't stand not sharing in the way her daughter has been living for the past 18 months!

Soooo, my hubby who, as I have stated, is my hero, gave me a 2 week trip to Japan to go bug, er, visit her. As we are in biz for ourselves, he had to stay and slave away so we could afford the trip. What a man!

My daughter never knew that Shogun by James Clavell was one of my all-time favorite novels when I was - uh - quite a bit younger than I am now. In fact, that was my sole teacher of Japanese until my daughter taught me while I was in Japan. I knew wakarimaska? wakarimas and wakarimasen along with hai, iye and the -san, -sama thing for the longest time, never divulging that little gem to my kiddos. Imagine that. Me, with a secret! So, when planning this little junket, of course, Tokyo wasn't even factored in. I wanted to see Osaka and Kyoto and points south. And generally, I get what I want. Unless it's not that important, and then I don't care.

Really, I thought that I would not at all like it. After all, as far as I knew, it was terribly overcrowded, they eat raw horse flesh for Pete's sake AND blow fish (and absolutely everyone knows that blow fish can kill you) not to mention the octopi and squid and seaweed! Oh, and those chicken livers wrapped in bacon. Ugh. I also just really don't do well sleeping on the floor. Of course, I also knew that in their favor, they don't eat dogs and love dachshunds as pets. I guess I really didn't know what to expect, but expected that I did know what to expect, which is the way my brain usually rolls.

I absolutely LOVED it. I adore Japan. More than that, I adore the people. And I apologize to more than one person from those islands for making reference to or joking about something that went totally over their heads!

I loved the food, too. Of course, my daughter, who is very wise (often) steered to me the "safest" food. I have lived long enough to know that raw fish is just not me. Not after getting worms from poorly cooked (translated: almost raw) fish when I was three, which I don't remember, but do remember being told about so many times that I don't eat raw fish. I did try the tuna sashimi just so I could convince her that I did try it. Nah. Not my, uh, cup of tea. Speaking of which, I adore mugi-cha. Buckwheat tea. And melon-pan. A (evidently) Portuguese style of sweet bread that is shaped somewhat like a melon, although that may not be why it's called melon-pan and is called that for some other reason.

This has gone on long enough. More later, dear readers. Sayonara.