Pet population

Thursday and I have a semi-free day. Maybe I can go upstairs and sew.

The cats are trying to keep warm. Mi has basically joined the rest of the group and since she seems to have a very passive personality (except with garbage. She LOVES garbage) the other cats leave her alone and she doesn't bother any of them either. When I'm not around or at night she goes into the kitty cage but basically she sits in front of the heaters along with the other cats. I hope I won't be sorry later on for allowing this but shuffling cats was hard work.

Mi's favorite place is on Tetsu's stomach and she is still lavishing all her cuteness and charm onto him. I think cats know with whom and when they need to be "cute" and once they have burrowed into the owners hearts they take on the cool feline personality. Toi used to nuzzle up to us and say

"Aren't I cute? Don't you think I am just wonderful? You wouldn't think of putting me outside would you?"

but nowadays he just ignores us when we call. Typical cat. Mi has taken on the fluttering of eyelashes expression that brings "Ahhh isn't she the sweetest thing?!" remarks from Tetsu and me.

Here is Toi claiming my knitting. That is still in the half-finished stage.

And here is a rare picture of Patora reining over the rest of the household from the top of the refrigerator.

This is Cleo luxuriating in front of the heater.

And you saw Velvet the other day in his cat kotatsu. He's such a hermit.

And Chip and Toi like to explore Mi's cat enclosure (though Mi isn't as fond of it as we'd hoped.)

All the cats are happy today.

Choco feels out numbered.

Morning mists

Early morning mists.

Pictures from our morning walk with Choco.

Natural farm composting.

I love the way the clouds form almost at our fingertips.

Between the houses and the fields is a river. I think the water temperature must be warmer than the air temperature and a fog forms just above the surface.

The first snow of the winter on the mountains above Nikko.


God's beautiful world!

Velvet's tent

I am a quilter. I am a quilter. I am a quilter.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that the sewing room upstairs is not just a storage area. It is the place I sew. Sometimes. Recently it is cold and my sewing room has no heat so it is a struggle to go up there and sew. And then I remind myself that Velvet lives there and would like company and HEAT. I bought Vel a little seat warmer (made for pets! How cool is that!) and have set up his own warm tent.

In Japan, cats (and people) like to sit in the kotatsu, a low table with a heating element in it and heavy quilts over it all. It is a wonderful appliance (if you can get down on your knees) and it is amazing how warm the whole body stays if just your lower body is heated. Unfortunately the quilts all over the floor take up space so right now Tetsu and I aren't using kotatsu though we had two for the kids when they were into their heavy studying days and had to hibernate upstairs.

ANYWAYS... I have made Velvet a sort of cat kotatsu (they sell those too for about $80 apiece!) and put a fleece blanket under my ironing table, the seat warmer, and covered the whole thing with one of the kids old quilts. It makes for a good cat hiding place and hopefully Velvet stays warm when I'm not around.

BUT, I did do a bit of sewing on my Mexican Star Batik quilt (remember that? Yeah, quite awhile ago... It is still waiting to be quilted.) I decided to put in pebbles and have been working on different sizes. I can't really tell how this is working out but the pebbles give it all a lot of texture. Just a bit more to go!





Mrs. Nakazawa called me this morning with news of her kitty Mick. Mick lived a great life of 18 years and Mrs. Nakazawa has been completely devoted. I hope other kitties will get a chance to live with Mrs. Nakazawa in the future. I know Mick would approve. Thank you for thinking of them.

Early Thanksgiving

This weekend about 20 0f us got together at Marlene's house for Thanksgiving. Marlene and Kohei (who is now living in Hong Kong and couldn't join us) have had Thanksgiving in their home every year for the past 20 years and invite friends with American connections. Their house is the only place that has an oven large enough to roast a turkey so every year Marlene gets stuck with the turkey roasting job. From April Marlene will be joining her husband so a couple of the wives at the party were taking notes in case the turkey job falls to them next year. I don't how that's going to be possible unless one of us moves into Marlene's house. Japanese ovens only hold 12 cookies at a time...











Lots of good food brought in pot luck style. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows (Tetsu's favorite!) stuffing and mashed potatoes, numerous salads, green bean casserole (did you know Japanese wives have never seen a casserole) gingerbread, and pumpkin and rhubarb pies. All pretty normal stuff for Americans but my Japanese friends find it very interesting. One husband who had been back to the States recently was clever enough to remember to buy large Thanksgiving paper plates and decorations and someone else discovered that Costco has come to Japan and made the long trek to it to buy cranberry jelly and black olives. All so good and I was reminded again how thankful I am to have friends who are from similar backgrounds with all of us living in Japan.



I will miss Marlene when she goes to Hong Kong and not just because she can roast a turkey. She has been a special friend for the past 20 years and together we have raised our Japanese/American families, giving and receiving support and advice from each other. Marlene has been a huge influence in my life. Thank you Marlene and much love.

Swimming

I have been religiously going to the pool nightly and walking the 25 meter lap across the pool continuously for an hour. I've even added some swimming laps so you would think that I'm getting in shape, right? More on that later...

A lot of the time I chat as I walk around the pool. I've made a lot of friends, most of them older, and usually someone I know is already walking when I arrive and will call out to me in English. We have a sort of "Walk and Talk" English class and I answer English questions or teach vocabulary as we walk. If I'm not chatting, I'm people watching and I must say, in an hour's time a lot of interesting people come in and out of the pool.

One man hums as he walks and I wonder if he notices his "music" bouncing off the walls and echoing around us. One lady is painfully anorexic. A little girl takes great joy in winning races that she has with some of the older men. A couple ladies just like to bounce by the poolside.

Most everyone who comes to the pool has their own walking workout. One lady walks like a crab up and down the pool. One man huffs and puffs and practically leaves a wake behind him. Some people kick their legs wide and in a circle as they walk. Some one else will keep their arms above their head or behind their back. I tend to try to touch my elbow to my knee in hopes of decreasing the natural tire that I wear.

And the swimsuits! I haven't been "swimming" for nearly 40 years and and barely know the difference between a one piece suit, a two-piece suit, and a bikini. Well, you know what I'm looking for if I ever buy a new swimsuit (natural tire, right?) I think I'm rather on the conservative side but in my little neighborhood pool there are people that look like they are garbed for professional scuba diving! Long sleeves and long leggings. Webbed finger gloves. High necks with zippers. Is this normal swimwear? (And most of the people never swim... just walk.)

Tetsu has lost about eight pounds already and is looking pretty good. I get to the pool more often than he does but have not lost a dang pound. This is especially frustrating since it means that I am no where near my weight loss goal nor the reward that I'm dangling in front of myself of a new swimsuit. Rats. The suit I've been wearing everyday for the past three months is already losing some of it stretch. (It was already 6 years old when I pulled it out of storage in September.)

I'm afraid I can't see myself wearing any of the above but at the rate I'm going I'm not going to get my reward anyway... Tetsu is ready to take pity on me and buy me a new swimsuit, flab and all. We could call it an award for effort.

An apple pie without the cheese is like a hug without the squeeze

November 17th was my father's birthday. My father passed away about 10 years ago and I don't really write much about him on my blog. My dad was a bit eccentric and somewhat anti-social. He was always right, the rest of the world was foolish, and he had no qualms about making demands of waitresses, clerks, and anyone (most people) he thought was under him. He considered himself extremely intelligent (and probably was) but he rubbed people the wrong way and he didn't care. I think my mother who had the opposite personality, had a difficult time making excuses for my father's behavior.

There were contradictions in my father's life too. Probably because he couldn't stand to be with "bumbling" strangers, he was a family man. He insisted that we children should see the world and so our family spent many summers traveling through Europe and Asia, Mexico and Alaska, Scandinavia and one year Spain. My father figured that when we were older we would have a chance to see America but that he was the only one who was going to be able to show us the world. As it turned out, I came to Japan and have never seen much of America...

One of my father's "hobbies" was magic and he was a member of the exclusive magicians' club, The Magic Castle, in Los Angeles. My memories of my father are of him with a pack of cards or coins practicing his slight-of-hand. We kids were always getting trapped into watching him perform which we didn't appreciate too much and if nothing else I learned to see through the puzzles and tricks that he presented to us.

My father stayed pretty much away from child raising, and some of his words of wisdom to me were rather questionable but one has stayed in my head.

"Smile! It is much more attractive than all the goop girls put on their faces."

So I smiled a lot but I tiptoed around my father all through my childhood. He took no interest in my schoolwork except to frown at my mediocre math grades. He claimed the rest of education was a waste of time and the only thing important was math. I have always been completely dyslexic about numbers and that was a great disappointment to him.

In fact, the only thing that I can remember doing right with my father is baking him apple pies. I hated baking apple pies and why the job was given to me I don't know. Every so often he'd announce that he wanted an apple pie and it was my job to produce one. What a lot of fuss and messing around with flour and shortening and rolling pins and pie tins. Some days my father wanted it served with vanilla ice cream but most often he wanted a serving of Cheddar cheese alongside. My pies usually passed inspection but I could never see what was so great about them.

This week I went to the neighboring apple orchard and bought a couple bushels of apples for baking and eating and giving away.

And yesterday in a belated celebration of my father's birthday I baked an apple pie. Unfortunately for him, frozen pie sheets are so convenient that I resorted to those and had a pie baked in no time at all. Tetsu loved it but I'm afraid I could only think that my father wouldn't have approved of the frozen pie crust.

I've still got loads of apples so I may do this again with a little more effort. At any rate I spent the day baking and thinking of my father and his quirks and eccentricities.

Made me smile!

Being friendly?

I tend to make friends fairly easily. I try to greet most anyone that I meet on the street or in their yards. I say hello to humans and animals alike. And I try to call the dogs and cats by name.

Last month a new family moved into our neighborhood. The humans are not so visible but I noticed that they have a dog and at least one cat who sits in the window. The dog has a dog house and on the wall across from the doghouse was a plaque that said "Ryo".

Every morning I go past the house on my way to crosswalk duty.

"Good morning Ryo. How are you doing?"

"Hi Ryo. Looking good this morning!"

Ryo doesn't say anything to me. He just stares as I go by.

The other day I met Ryo and his owner in the forest.

"Hello. Nice day for a walk isn't it?" Ryo's owner smiled and nodded.

"Ryo's very nice and quiet isn't he?" Ryo's owner stared at me much like Ryo does and went on with her walk.

"Hmm. Not particularly sociable but she seems like a nice neighbor."

Yesterday I met Ryo and his owner again and greeted them.

"Hi. So nice to meet you. I have cats and dogs too. How old is Ryo?" the owner stuttered and stammered.

"Excuse me. Maybe I've made a mistake. I thought you were our new neighbors with the dog named Ryo."

"Ryo is my son. The dog's name is Kuro..."

I did a lot of apologizing and sputtering. I wonder what the real Ryo has thought when I go by every morning and loudly call out my greetings...

He needs to put his plaque in another place.

Bara-bara knitting

Possible answers to yesterday's Japanese test were;

"Tetsu said Choco will have to be cold this winter because she bara-bara-ed her dog bed."

"Tanya's knitting is now bara-bara because Mi managed to drag it into the cat cage."

"During the night, Mi found the dog food and it was bara-bara all over the floor."

Lori and Scottish Lass get A+ for their test scores! Scottish Lass even answered in Japanese!!!

The knitting in the one picture is an attempt at understanding English knitting directions. Usually I use Japanese knitting books which are a lot easier to understand (because they are written with graphs rather than abbreviations and marks.) I had found bag of new cotton yarn at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago and I decided to play around and make something for myself. Of course coming upon the half-knitted vest inside Mi's cat cage with most of it off the needles and unravelled, did nothing for my progress. This is going in a basket (far away from Mi) and I will start on Tetsu's vest because the ordered yarn came in yesterday.

Japanese language test

Today there is a Japanese language test. There are three questions. Please give an example to each picture using the word bara-bara.

1)

2) 3)

For review go to the Japanese lesson on October 20, 2009.

Many answers are acceptable.

Blog archives!

My computer has been quiet lately. No freezing. No blog disappearing. I seem to have lost anonymous comments coming into my e-mail box but basically things have calmed down a bit.

While things are good I've been working on another blog book at Blurb's Booksmart but I'm afraid I post more than I edit so I am falling far behind with no catching up in sight. I should just go away on a blogging retreat and spend a week making a couple blog books.

Callie was busily trying to figure out good ways to save our blogs and she came up with a couple websites but so far I like Blurb the best. Besides I can't understand any instructions on how to save blogs (from the websites or from Callie) so I'm sticking with what I know. Thank you anyway Callie.

However, Computer Whiz, Mrs. Ochiai, took pity on me and downloaded all my blog archives and made me a DVD of past blog posts. She has explained the process to me too but I'm afraid I don't understand her any more than I understand websites so I'm still in the dark about how this is done. SUPPOSEDLY I can finish a month of posts, click on that month's blog archive, right click and SAVE ALL on my desktop and then add them to this DVD at regular intervals.

I have yet to see HOW the actual process is done and haven't tried it myself but thanks to Mrs. Ochiai I have my blog history from October 2006 to October 2009 on a disk! And a copy to boot! And look at those cool CD labels!!!

Mini-Round Robin

Last Thursday I met with my patchwork friends and we got back on track with our various projects. One group endeavor which hasn't been working out so well is our Mini-Round Robin.

This is my fault because I saw some wonderful results of a Mini-Round Robin on someone's blog last year and thought that this would be a fun "game" for the ladies in our group to do. There were eight of us and Mrs. Furui and I worked out the instructions for a Mini-Round Robin. And then we started with a schedule. But we didn't give any specifics for telling people

"I would like to have a quilt that depicts spring." or

"I really love stars." or

"Make mine in orange and yellows."

No theme and so our Round Robin goes on haphazardly...

"What on earth is the continuity between this black square and the Victorian florals?"

We also made a vague schedule of passing the blocks every month OR SO. Or so is right! Life interferes (and that is completely understandable) so whenever our group DOES get together we spend some time trying to figure out where blocks have gone.

"Does so-and-so still have a block?"

"How many blocks does so-and-so HAVE?"

Yes, sometimes 4 blocks get passed at a time (and remember there are only eight of us.)

This month I've got a block again (haven't seen a block since May!) and I get to do applique on it. I have spent three days looking at it and there doesn't seem to be ANYTHING that is holding this quilt together! I'm thinking about leaves (so many of them littering the streets these days) and have started cutting out scraps. Applique tends to take claim to the whole quilt so I feel like whatever I decide upon is going to make or break this quilt...

After my post about next year's bazaar BOM quilt and now the Mini-Round Robin, do any of you question my patchwork group's organizing abilities? I'm probably not going to do a Round Robin again for a long time...

Irohazaka

This picture was in the newspaper the other day and I wanted to share it with you. This is called Irohazaka, a series of twists and turns up the side of the mountain not too far from us. At the top of the mountain is a wonderful scenic lake, hiking courses and ski areas. We get up to the lake area a couple of times a year.

Nowadays there is a one way road going up the mountain (probably this one) and another one way road going back down the mountain and everything is well-graded with guard rails etc. Not so in days of past and my mother still talks of our visit to Japan 40 years ago when the tour buses drove both up AND down this one road. Big buses trying to maneuver the curves, buses that had to back up to let other buses around, tour guides with their whistles that directed the drivers as to when to stop (in order not to fall off the cliffs), passengers with height phobias having heart palpitations at the view of the overhang and cliffs (and cars) below. If you look at the second picture you can see the man made piles holding the road to the cliff. I always wonder how sturdy those are... Earthquakes you know...

I don't find this drive so daunting except for the number of cars that are still going up and down the mountain at this time of year to enjoy the autumn scenery. If you look closely at the first picture you can see ALL the hundreds of cars backed up on the road waiting to arrive at the mountain top. Hard on the brakes and the clutch pedals.

Speaking of brakes, there was one year when our family (plus dog) went up for a day at the lake and as we came down the mountain and reached level ground, smoke started pouring from the front of the car. Tetsu stopped that car fast, ordered us all out of the car and pulling the dog with us we all backed far away from the car in case it decided to explode. It didn't and a quick check found that Tetsu had been riding the brakes so much during the trip down that the rubber was burning! We were backed up to a mountainside and there was a little stream of water coming from the cracks and so the four of us started collecting water in soft drink cans and dog bowls to splash over the burning tires. I also remember someone stopping, not to ask if they could help, but to ask what kind of fantastic spring water we had found and wondering if they should collect water to take home too... Uh. I wouldn't recommend it. Tetsu has never lived down his brake riding.

The only other memory I have of Irohazaka is not really mine. When Takumi was in high school he had a motorcycle (another story. He wasn't supposed to have a motorcycle). One weekend he proudly announced that he and his friends had ridden up and down Irohazaka that day on their motorcycles. I was SO glad he told me that after the fact! All those curves and turns.! A motorcyclist's dream! Tetsu felt we could hardly expect our motorcycle riding son to NOT go up Irohazaka when it is only 30 minutes away from us. I'm glad he lived to tell us.

(Pictures from the Internet.)

Paper piecing finished

Yesterday I presented my paper piecing quilt to Mrs. Nakazawa to thank her for all she's done for me. So now I can show what all those little paper pieces were about that were strewn around the sewing room last week.

This is a pattern I found on Paper Panache a few years ago and I just had to purchase it! I quickly made up one quilt (it is quite small) for myself and have it up on my wall. This can also be made with a small dog sitting in the chair rather than the kitty but this was a better representation of my sitting corner. There is always a cat in my sewing/watching TV chair.

For Mrs. Nakazawa I made an little orange cat in honor of her Mick even though Mick prefers sitting on the TV rather than in the arm chair... Anyway, I wanted to hurry and get this done for them.

My choice of background quilting wasn't so great because as usual I'm not too confident of my quilting skills but anyway I machine quilted hearts all over the background. I'm rather pleased with the border quilting and wish I had done it in a color thread that would have stood out more but that's the way it is with quilting. Afraid I'll make a mess of something so use a color that will hide mistakes and when the quilting does come out nicely then wish it was more visible. Ah well... This was a design of my own and I played around on the white board awhile before attempting the border. Can you even see what I was trying for? Paw prints! If I ever make this quilt again I'll be bolder in my thread choice for this pattern... it's kind of cute.

So my paper piecing is done for awhile. On to other things!

BOM progress...?

Some progress in the handwork department. My patchwork group has been busily making the BOM that Lorraine sent us in its entirety at the beginning of this year. Yesterday was patchwork day so we gathered to work on the BOM blocks.

Uh-hum. I think we have made an important discovery which I wish to announce here.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER take apart a BOM and try to do it out of order! It doesn't work!

One is supposed to take get a BOM packet and follow the directions, right? Make the block. Some months there is extra fabric to add a border that month, or start corner squares etc. Some months it says

"Okay, now you have enough fabric for the center borders so make 6 strips of 2" each and sew them together and while you are at it, don't forget those 4 strips of 1" that you make every month for the inner borders and by the way this month you need to make two of those so double the strips."

Fabric? WHAT FABRIC? Is there any of this fabric in that basket where we dumped everything together?

The blame is not with the BOM creators! The fabric is THERE! Somewhere... But because our group innocently emptied all the BOM packets and handed them around to people to work on the blocks SIMULTANEOUSLY, now we've got PAGES of instructions that have been mixed up, and fabrics DANGLING from handbags and packets, and fabrics that are the same but DIFFERENT CUTS depending on the month they came and we DON'T REMEMBER!!!!

Mrs. Furui and I spent a couple hours trying to locate all the instructions, put them in order, figure them out, find the fabrics needed, compute what we could cut from where that wouldn't mess up the remaining directions, sew on what we could find before we lost it again, and all the while muttering that maybe the BOM wasn't complete. Maybe the fabric was never sent to begin with. It was. It was all there. Just in different forms than expected. And yes, if we'd read the directions we'd know, but since I am the only one willing to wade through the English directions (12 packet fulls!) we were confused (to put it mildly.)

Okay. We got 6 blocks and their inner borders made. Three ladies were furiously trying to get the embroidery done so that all nine blocks could be put away until next month. They were still squinting at their embroidery when I left.

So ladies. If you ever do a BOM be sure to complete each block and follow each month's directions before the next BOM packet arrives.

But you already knew that. I wish we had.

Cooking

I've been cooking a little bit. A very little. I'm not much of a cook.

I made Nancy's delicious Banana and Coconut bread with Lime glaze and it was delicious! Please give it a try! It looks like I burned it in this picture but I didn't. Nancy suggested adding lime zest to the glaze but there is no way that I can find real limes in my town and I was only happy I found lime juice.

As the evenings get colder I'm sure housewives and mothers the world over make steaming soups and stews for their families and in Japan everyone makes nabe. Nabe actually means "pot" but in this case it means the meal that is inside the pot.

Nabe can be almost anything (that's why they are so popular) and various vegetables are cooked in a deep ceramic pot with soup stock and then placed on the table for everyone to dig in and eat together. It is quite a different way of eating from the normal numerous small dishes that Japanese meals usually consist of. (Well, we still have rice dishes and maybe pickle dishes...)

Nabe pots come in a variety of shapes and sizes but most are ceramic. Each area of Japan will have their specialty nabe using ingredients of the area, for example, on the coast the nabes will incorporate shellfish and seafood; some areas use a lot of chicken and green onions etc.

My nabe last night had chicken and chicken meatballs, Chinese cabbage, green onions, carrots, deep fried tofu, mushrooms, sliced icicle radish and tofu. The soup base was miso flavor. Yum! It always seems like though there are only two of us, we finish off the whole nabe but I guess there are a lot of vegetables so it is pretty healthy.

And this is a nabe that actually doesn't occur in my house but for awhile was quite popular. It seems that cats are drawn to the nabe pots and find them good napping places. A couple of years ago during the winter season, a news station asked viewers to send in neko-nabe pictures (Cat pots) and what a flood resulted. (Picture from the Internet)

My cats show no interest in my nabe pot though I have introduced it to them...

"What's the big deal about nabes? I'd much rather eat what's inside." --Chip

Influenza

Influenza has struck our city, and friends and neighbor children are toppling like dominoes. Four kids get influenza in one class and that grade is canceled for a week. And the next week some other class is infected and that class goes down. And parents have to stay home, partly to care for the ill, partly because if it is Swine flu the companies have a policy that workers must stay home a week if any family member is stricken. This makes for a lot of absences. I mean, SOMEONE in the family is sure to bring home some virus and then mom and day are banned from the workplace for a week, and then pretty soon some other member of the family gets it and everyone takes a week off again!

Usually there are about 20 kids from my neighborhood walking to school every morning but last week there were a whole 7. Some of the kids had influenza. Some of the kids' grades were cancelled. Some of the kids were just staying home for prevention purposes. And those that do go to school wear masks all day and gargle with green tea at breaks... (Not such a great picture but all the girls going to school in their group are wearing masks.)

All last week I was saying

"Let me get through the weekend Lord! I do not want to miss my guests!"

And I did make it. Yeah. I wonder how much longer I can hold out.

Connecting again

I had a nice weekend with my friends from the States. Yoko and her husband and daughter made it to Nikko on Saturday despite train schedule changes and missed connections. On my side, a few of the plans I'd made got mixed up but I guess the purpose was to catch up on each other and past friends so it was a good two days.

Yoko was my roommate in college and we lived together on the International floor of the dorm. I had gone to Japan on the overseas program and was studying Japanese when I moved onto the floor and Yoko helped me with my Japanese homework. I can still remember asking Yoko to check my writing assignment (in Japanese) and she not having the slightest idea of what I was trying to say. Sigh... I might have given up Japanese altogether back then if she hadn't helped me.

This weekend we laughed about dorm life memories; the girls' side of the floor buying men's trunks and dyeing them pink to give to the boys' side of the floor for Valentine's day. Drinking plum wine in the evenings (hoping to build up our alcohol tolerance) though neither of us were drinkers. We both remember those days as REALLY good ones!

Yoko married an American boy immediately after college (we were all in the same year in college) and I took off for Japan and later married Tetsu. So our lives have been somewhat mirrored. Yoko living in the States these 30 plus years. Me living in Japan for nearly as long. It was interesting to compare stories of child raising and nowadays parent care (or lack of it since we both don't get back to our parents' homes but once or twice a year). Since Yoko had gone college in the States I asked for any advice she might have for my kids who are trying to do the same thing now.

While chatting we did a lot of driving around which may have been uncomfortable. There was no way 5 of us were going to fit in one of our small cars and so we moved around in two cars; womenfolk in one car so that we could chat, menfolk in the other car with more leg room. Unfortunately, Tetsu and Yoko's husband didn't really have a common language so lots of shoulder shrugging and smiling.

I think it is true that the people that come into our lives shape us sometimes ever so slightly, sometimes hugely. Yoko is one of the people who influenced me greatly and helped bring me to where I am today. In the past, we have been Christmas card friends (but her daughter reads my blog! Hi Sarah!) but I hope we'll be better about keeping in touch now that we've touched bases again.

Utsunomiya by night

More night pictures. Tetsu took me out to dinner at a fancy restaurant a couple of nights ago just because... I guess there wasn't an occasion. He just thought I'd like to see the night sights of the city. I suggested we go look at the sights and then go eat our usual noodles but he insisted on a fancy dinner. Wow! And it's not even my birthday or an anniversary or anything!

And this was the fancy dinner, scrumptious morsels Japanese style. Mmm so good! And this is the scenery from the restaurant. The restaurant is at the top of the 15 floor prefecture building that was unveiled last year and though I drive by the new building fairly often I'd never been to the top. It was fun to walk around the whole floor and try to locate landmarks that we frequent.

Utsunomiya (the city next to our Nikko) is not very big but it looks pretty metropolitan by night.

My friend Mrs. Komatsu sent me a picture of the shawl that she made. And she made it from the directions on my blog!! Wow! Does that make me feel good! When I posted I thought

"What a lot of rigamarole to take all these pictures and draw out all the directions when no one will ever really make this."

(But I was also writing it all down so that someday I can come back and have the directions at hand... in case I misplace my paper copy... which I often do). And then I was in such a hurry that I didn't even have time to check and see if the instructions were correct. Mrs. Komatsu called to say that she'd seen my blog and all the pictures and then downloaded it all and enlarged the pictures and made it all by herself!! That really makes me feel good!

Beautiful shawl, Mrs. Komatsu and I love the fringe and the scallops you added!!!

This is going to be a quicky post because I'm having guests today!!! Special guests! Friends I haven't seen in nearly 25 years! My college roommate and her husband and daughter are coming up to Nikko today so we are getting together to have a chatathon. I need to get my sewing room cleaned up (they want to see some of my quilts!), clean out the car etc. etc. I'd better go check and make sure the camera battery is recharged too!

Fall? Winter?

Winter is approaching. Tetsu and I got out our down jackets this week and I am back to wearing layers upon layers. In the mornings we wake up to LEAVES! Living next to a forest has some disadvantages (but not many! I love my forest!)

Tetsu complains about all the leaf raking that he has to do but I point out that he doesn't really have to do it since I don't mind the leaves. And then in the next breath he is saying what a small fulfillment it is to clear an area of the leaves in a short period of time. Our yard is tiny so he goes on to clear the road too and does a very good job! Doesn't he look happy?

And here is the cleared driveway. In a few hours it is covered with leaves again.

The cats are keeping warm by making a cat ball. Four cats. Vel will get a heating pad pretty soon and I've already started giving Mi a hot water bottle. (I pamper my cats. It's not really that cold yet.)

Mi is very noisy and trills like a bird all the time and wants to be with the rest of the family. Since she has to be watched closely when with the other cats she lives basically alone. And my! What a racket she puts up on the other side of the door... I keep reminding myself that we are looking after her health, have resolved the unwanted kitten problem, give her food and warmth and love. Too bad if she thinks she deserves company all the time too...

IGADS! Is that paper piecing? (Did you know that IGADS stands for "I've Got All Day Syndrome"?) ...meaning I start something and the whole day is gone with not much to show for it. Yes, I wanted to make a certain wall hanging for my friend (Mrs. N. ...Shhh....) so I pulled out an old pattern and have been struggling away. I hope to get that done this week...

And I bought yarn! So Tetsu's vest will be next on the docket.

Mrs. Nakazawa

This weekend my friend Mrs. Nakazawa (she made Mi the bara-bara cat box) took some of her friends out to lunch. We met in the city and then Mrs. Nakazawa drove us out to a far off town and a farther off, very fancy French restaurant! So classy and so much fun to spend the day with friends.



Mrs. Nakazawa is amazing! She talks a mile a minute and smiles constantly. She seems to do everything and has more energy than anyone I know. She takes food to shut-ins (because she's used to cooking for her family anyway). She learned to use the computer so that she could be a sometimes secretary to a sight-challenged friend. She is active in her church. On Saturday she had boxes of ingredients lined up on her table to use in her baking marathon for the YMCA bazaar this week (she was planning on making nearly 30 loaves of banana, persimmon and fruit bread). And of course she takes care of cats and cat lovers like me.

I'm afraid the French restaurant was so elegant and the food was so posh that I didn't think it appropriate to bring out my camera and take pictures at every dish served but I did get a picture of the four of us as we were leaving.

The occasion was a farewell luncheon for Marlene who will be joining her husband in Hong Kong next year, and all four of us are connected through YMCA (where Tetsu used to work) but Marlene and I have a 20 year long friendship, Rumi-san and I meet a couple times a month for English, and Mrs. Nakazawa and I have our cat loving connections.

After a lovely lunch and much conversation, we all headed back to the city where Mrs. Nakazawa presented each of us with some wonderful tea cups made by an artist friend. Look carefully. Can you see the tiny kitties painted on the cups? Such a special, loving, generous friend I have.

Mrs. Nakazawa is taking care of her ailing 18 year old kitty this week. Thank you Mrs. Nakazawa, and much love to you and to Mick.

Nikko at night

Last night Tetsu and I went up to the Nikko shrines and temples for the city's light festival. Last year Tetsu had taken me to a small park to see the lights against the autumn leaves but this year he suggested we go up to the historical part of Nikko. It was certainly worth the trip!

"Wow, this is a lot more stupendous than last year's park."

"I should think so. Nikko's shrines and temples are registered as a World Heritage site."

There are so many temples and shrines up in Nikko that I can't keep the names straight and in some cases have trouble telling the difference between which is the shrine and which is the temple. No matter. They are all beautiful and the grounds are surrounded by towering ceder trees and cobbled roads. Last night it was slightly drizzling but not enough to use an umbrella and the mist made the area seem all the more ethereal. My small digital camera doesn't do any of the scenery justice but maybe you'll get an idea of the beauty of the place.

Some of the colors may look confusing but if you look carefully you can see the reflection of trees and stone pagodas in the temple pond.

Nikko is one of the more famous places in Japan and most children will have a school trip to Nikko once in their lifetime. Sometimes you can hardly see the grounds because of all of the kids and their chattering and excitement takes away a bit from the spiritual atmosphere. Last night was a quiet way to enjoy the natural and man-made beauty of Nikko.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Well we are finished here in Japan. This year I got dressed up as a witch for the kindergarten and the nursery school and was asked to come to a preschool (babies!) event too. My outfit gets used everyday for a week and now it goes back in the box until next year... This is a picture from 2004. My outfit doesn't change... only me...

And yesterday was the kindergarten bazaar which I didn't attend after all. There were two quilts this year, one that our group made and one that the kindergarten mothers made (which I never saw in person.) Mrs. Furui sent pictures to me last night of the raffle in progress and the winners.

And the winner of the Crazy Lady Quilter quilt (my group's) was one of the former kindergarten teachers!!! Yeah! Ai-sensei's son is now going to the kindergarten so she is really one of the kindergarten mothers but we all know her as Ai-sensei (teacher). It is so nice when someone everyone knows wins the raffle quilt. What fun!

This morning we brought Mi into the living room with the rest of the cats and paid close attention to their introductions. Mi doesn't seem to mind the other kitties in the least. The other cats were interested but they've seen Mi through the cat cage and in the cat enclosure so no spitting and growling. I guess if Mi is willing to stay on my lap while she is in the living room she can join us occasionally. Such a good natured kitty. I'm sure she would be a great cuddler if we could let her have contact with the other cats...

I need to go to a yarn store and get started on Tetsu's Christmas present. I haven't found a great pattern yet though I've been visiting Ravelry, a knit and crochet site. I'd better get a move on. Only two months to get something done!

Persimmon bread again

Yesterday I had a bunch of persimmons sitting on the counter getting soft so I quickly made up a batch of persimmon bread.

I checked. I posted about persimmon bread last year so if you want the recipe look here. It is one of the old standbys for autumn and one of Tetsu's favorite desserts. I need to go to the wholesale store and buy some more walnuts. I had to use almonds instead which was just as tasty but chopped almonds gave it a different texture.

My wholesale store is very strange. I think they cater to restaurants and bakeries. The people in the office have zero customer service awareness. Years ago someone had told me that there was a wholesale "store" for baking goods and I went past it a few times before I figured out that this was the place. Just an old warehouse with an old linoleum floor and metal doors leading to an office. The office had a few ladies peering over their computers but hardly anyone even looked up when I first went in. Nothing that makes this place look like they are selling anything. I asked if this was the place that sold walnuts and one lady sighed and started to go into the warehouse part of the building.

"Wait! Do you sell raisins? Chocolate chips? Almonds? Butter? What all do you sell?"

I figured out that they sold all that stuff but no price list etc. Just say what you want and someone will go into the back and bring out a bag. You have to buy by the kilo and they aren't going ask for any extra information like do I want chopped almonds or sliced almonds etc.

Lady you asked for almonds so here you are. If you wanted sliced almonds you should have said so. That's a different bag. (But I didn't know you had sliced almonds too...)

I one time got up enough courage to ask if I could go back into their warehouse.

Suit yourself. Close the door on the way out.

My exploring showed they sell cake pans and cookie cutters too and peaches by the gallon and canned bamboo shoots. I don't know what one would do with bamboo shoots in a baking place.

I'll make a stop this week again and brace myself for a big bill. (I make a lot of granola and go through a lot of nuts, coconut, and raisins.)

As soon as my bananas get mushy I'm going to make Nancy's Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze. Yum sounds good. I wish Tetsu would stop eating all my bananas.

Stinkbugs

This morning Tetsu went to work a little irritated. Not really irritated at me, but irritated because he was late and in the long run I guess irritated because I didn't check his clothes. I should have checked his clothes for THIS. (picture from the Internet)

Do you know what this is? I never saw one when I lived in the States and I don't think I ever saw one until I lived next to the forest. This is a stinkbug and he and his fellow stinkbugs live up to their name! We all know when a stinkbug has gotten into the house and the cats will bat at one a couple times, wrinkle their noses and bound off in the opposite direction.

I have put on a shirt, 30 minutes later or so smelled the distinctive stinkbug smell, and suddenly feel something crawling up my arm. And other people will notice the smell too (but the bugs are so common everyone thinks one has gotten in the house) and I will innocently pretend that it is not me who is stinking.

Right now we are in the stinkbug season. They must live in the forest and come up to our veranda and sun themselves on my laundry. This morning Tetsu put on his shirt (remember I dry my laundry outside) and a few seconds later he had taken everything off and was doing an Indian dance and shaking his clothes out. About 7 stinkbugs plopped to the floor and I scurried around gathering them up and putting them back outside. They will probably make their way back to my laundry today.

So Tetsu was late for work and irritated. At the stinkbugs. Not at me. I "sthink".

Not a puppy!

A couple of days ago my neighbor telephoned me for some advice. This is the same neighbor that Mi was going back and forth to visit. The same neighbor whom I had spent some time discussing the care and training of cats, the same neighbor that in the end couldn't make the decision to adopt Mi.

"Tanya, I need some advice... My daughter brought home a puppy yesterday. I don't know how to take care of a puppy. What should I do?"

I spent some time talking with her and making suggestions (though I haven't raised a puppy since I was a child). And I said I'd come over the next morning to visit their new family member.

Yesterday I ran into the mother in front of their house and she told me a little about how it was going with the puppy. Not well. She was very frazzled but said that her daughter was so adamant about keeping the puppy that it was probably there to stay. Ah yes, the daughter. When Mi came back from being spayed, my neighbor and her daughter had come over to adopt the kitty and the girl had been so happy to cuddle Mi and listen to her purr. She REALLY wanted to take Mi home.

This is no storybook little girl with apple blossom skin. My neighbor's daughter is a lanky teenager with orange hair, sloppy clothing and heavy makeup. I have known her since she was a baby and she used to come for English. For all her bravado she is still fairly congenial to me and will smile and greet me on the street (more than some of my very serious students will do!) I like the girl very much and watching her with the kitty and seeing her eyes sparkle made me think that the girl needed the kitty as much as the kitty needed the girl. At one point the daughter got irritated with her mother's wishy-washiness and blurted out

"Are we going to adopt this cat or not? That's what we came for!"

But they ended up not adopting Mi.

Yesterday the neighbor invited me into her house to see the puppy and maybe give her some more advice. We went upstairs to the daughter's room. The whole room was COVERED with taped down newspaper! On top of the newspaper were maybe 20 potty training sheets flown here and there. The puppy had not figured out what potty training sheets were for and so we stepped around puddles and piles until we got to the sleeping teenager in the middle of it all (not really on the bed... sort of scrunched onto her futon on the floor) and of course the puppy was jumping on everybody and everything and making a real mess everywhere!

I don't know, but I don't think this is the correct way to potty train a puppy. I suggested buying a cage or fenced in area and focusing on praise for correct potty habits and confinement for misses. The mother was half holding her head and kept saying over and over

"I've never done this before... I had no idea puppies were like this!"

I went home half-smiling to myself. I think the teenage daughter took matters into her own hands when mom wouldn't make a decision about the kitty. I don't want to be mean but I think mom would have had an easier time adopting my kitty.

Oh well, good all around. The neighbor girl got a puppy. The puppy got a new home. And I got Mi.

Wordless Wednesdays (sort of)

Wordless Wednesdays.

Well, not completely. I can barely let a day go by with out rambling about something.

I did two more machine quilting patterns from Leah Day's 365 project. I'm not happy with either unfortunately.

The blue one is called Spirals (obviously) but I had trouble keeping my spirals even and I got lost a couple of times so the angles are cut off.

The gray one, called Pebbles in a Stream, I really like the texture (and the colors). I think this could make a wonderful fill in for a small quilt but I definitely need to make this larger! What I was thinking when I made this so small! Pebbles? Those aren't pebbles in there, those are grains of sand! I don't know what it is about machine quilting that makes me get smaller and smaller until my fingers are doing all the work rather than my arms and wrists.

Gotta go!

Hugs and Kisses Quilt

Many of you wanted to know about the embroidery that I've been doing so I thought I'd give a few details here.

In January, Lorraine in Australia visited Japan and showed my quilting group her beautiful quilt called Fairy something... by Hugs and Kisses (Sorry I forgot the name.) It was just stupendous work and as much detail as I've seen in any quilt in a long time. We were absolutely floored at the beauty and skill and more than a little surprised to hear how the technique is done... by using colored pencils. A few weeks later, Lorraine sent the group the whole set (fabric and all) of the Hugs and Kisses' series, Neenie's Garden.

Well now, this is a lot of work and maybe too much work for just one of us (though Lorraine could do it). So our group decided we would give this a try (not too confident about our ability) and if the combined efforts were good we would make this quilt as 2010's kindergarten bazaar quilt. At least we had enough time to ponder and consult each other.

During the summer a couple of us spent hot days iron transferring the designs and then we used the colored pencils that Lorraine had also sent (and the sealer and the threads). To be honest, the coloring wasn't that interesting, sort of a color by number sort of process with not too much room for individuality, but between 4 or 5 of us we had all the blocks colored in a few hours.

The next step was to seal the colors in with normal textile sealer (that my friends said could even be easily bought in Japan so I suppose you might find it in the tole painting section of the crafts shop). We were pretty liberal with the sealer and the colors ran a bit. We should have followed the directions to seal one color at a time, let dry and seal the next color (6 times? Sorry, we don't have THAT much time). A weave/web backing (also provided in the kit) was applied to the back of the blocks and the next step has been the embroidery. That's where I am now.

The threads used are very sturdy and silky and seem stronger than normal embroidery floss. Here again, I am just following the instructions so there isn't a lot of creativity but I do better with repetitive work than I do with inspiration and originality. This is just my cup of tea.

The next step is to sew the blocks together with a lot of added trim and frills. I'm not sure our group is up to that either. We are sort of playing it by ear...

The pencils that Lorraine sent are Derwent Studio pencils (from England?) And the thread is called Presencia Finca #16 (the instructions say that DMC can also be used.

There is still a lot of work to do on this quilt. For some reason Mrs. Furui handed me ALL the blocks that still need to be embroidered and ALL the thread! Do you think she is hinting that I should commit myself to embroidery for the next couple months?

Blog safety

When my kids were little we told them that in case of any disaster or confusion (we have earthquakes and typhoons) that they were supposed to go to the elementary school until Tetsu or I appeared. We never needed to use those precautions but the whole family knew that in case of emergency that was the place to meet.

Yesterday morning I posted and then went off for the rest of the day. When I got back home and turned on my computer the window flashed "Your blog has been deleted". Sigh, as opposed to Panic. Two days before the same thing had happened and I'd really been upset then (as some of you know because I g-mailed you). But again? I checked the g-mail box and sure enough Callie and Allie had noticed I had disappeared and were trying to help me. And within a few minutes Mrs. Ochiai my computer whiz friend was calling to say my blog was gone and WHAT HAD I DONE? (pushed the wrong button?) I hadn't done anything but Blogger is doing something...

Again within a matter of minutes my blog was back none the worse, but it did make me think...

Okay. What happens if I lose my blog, or any of us lose our blogs? I vaguely remember reading about one blogger who really did completely lose her blog (she called it hacking but I don't know what that means). Two main concerns arise. First, if I regularly visit a blog and it disappears, how do I find that person again? Maybe by g-mail (Callie and Allie's solution but they have my g-mail address because I've answered their comments. And that g-mail reply box gets emptied regularly.) If that doesn't work how do we get in touch with people? It's not like we can call up each other on the phone and ask "how are you?"

Does anyone have any idea about making a meeting point in case of emergencies? I mean I could say "You can contact me through so-and-so if I disappear." But if the blog is gone it does no good to post something like that on a sidebar. And we all have different blog friends so how is anyone going to know that one of us might be in touch with one blogger rather than another?

The other concern if a blog disappears is that one loses a lot of family or quilting history that has been organized with text and pictures. When it all adds up, that's a lot of work and effort that may go poof. My friend Mrs. Ochiai suggested last night that every month I hit the Save As button in Files and make a desk top folder (and then regularly transfer that to a CD). I'm already using Blurb's Booksmart to make blog books but I'm way behind on that project and have two years worth of blogging that are still floating around cyberspace. Still, after this week's twice scares I'm going to spend a bit more time protecting my blog...

So all is well again. Blogger is a free treat (Hi Meggie!) but it is not risk free.

Blogger, I don't want to visit the emergency room with a heart attack so please give me some notice!

Embroidering

I'm doing a very little sewing. Well, I'm doing back stitch embroidery which is taking up a lot of time but it is relaxing and enjoyable.

These are a couple blocks from the Hugs and Kisses pattern that Lorraine sent my quilting group earlier this year. Over the months we've colored in the design and sealed the colors in and now we are working on the embroidery part. The stitching around the design really adds a lot to the blocks and they are beginning to shine! (Oops. I see I missed a part.) I think we still have 8 to go or something but since this is for NEXT year's quilt I guess we are ahead of schedule.

The days are getting cold and the cats congregate in front of the heater and on my lap. Here is a rare picture of Velvet joining part of the group. (Let's see... Four cats there. Mi is in her cat enclosure. Where is Cleo?) Vel rarely can stand to be in the same room with Toi and Patora (he tolerates Chip and Cleo) but he must have been unusually cold or lonely yesterday to stay with the rest of the gang.

Don't I look grubby embroidering away surrounded by cats? Vel does not make for a sturdy sewing table. I hope my stitches are straight.

Cat names

I really let out an SOS yesterday didn't I? Between Meggie and myself we figured out Blogger was having issues. Being on the same side of the world we were both trying to and unable to use Blogger and somehow contacted each other. I think the rest of you were still in the middle of the night. Within about an hour Blogger was back and working.

I have a complicated story today. Now it is funny to me but at the time it wasn't.

Our new kitty, Mi was almost named Tama. Tama is another normal name for a Japanese cat and means ball, such as in a yarn ball or maybe a cat curled up in a ball. Everywhere you go, you meet Japanese cats called Tama.

When we picked up our kitty and took her to be spayed, my vet said she was about a year old and had already had a litter of kittens. We left the then un-named Mi at the vets and he said he would spay her that evening.

Around 7:30 I got a call from the vet. That alone made me wary. Something else has gone wrong (that morning we'd found out Mi was a Feline Aids carrier).

"Tanya, your kitty has kou-gan." A Japanese word I don't know.

"Oh no. Cancer?" (gan means cancer in Japanese).

"NO! Not gan. Kou-gan."

"Sensei, (Doctor) I don't know that word. I don't understand."

"Kou-gan! Kou-gan! You know. Balls! Like in boys' b-lls!" (My poor vet trying to be professional with a foreigner with a limited vocabulary.)

"Doctor, I don't think I understand. This morning you told us that the kitty had had kittens."

"Yes, she did. I'm doing surgery and I find she has kou-gan (test-cles) alongside the uterus."

"What?! I've never heard of such a thing. Does that happen often?"

"NO! That's what I'm saying! This cat is a hermaphrodite! (I didn't know that word either) I've never seen one before!"

"Oh dear... What should I do?"

"Do? DO? There's nothing to do! I'm in the middle of surgery. I just needed to let you know so that I can proceed."

And he hung up. Talk about my head spinning. What was he talking about?

When Tetsu got home I was still wringing my hands.

"Tetsu, Tetsu. The vet called and said that the kitty is a hermaphrodite. He... She... I don't know... It has b-lls!"

Tetsu, calmly hanging up his jacket says,

"Does it matter? I mean, the cat is in there to take all that stuff out anyway. So what."

Oh. That's right.

When I went to pick up the kitty the next day the vet very conscientiously showed me the uterus and the test-cles that he'd removed and was preserving in a jar. And pictures. He'd taken pictures during the operation for proof. Good thing I have a strong stomach.

So the kitty came home none the worse for having a little extra surgery. And then we started thinking about names. And Tetsu comes up with Tama. Balls.

"That's terrible! Poor kitty! She doesn't want to go through life being reminded of that." (We'd agreed that she is a she.)

So Tetsu relented and named her Mi.

Mi and Tetsu are very happy together. Don't you think my life has some interesting twists and turns?

I hope I don't get censored for this post.

Handywoman

I am not the handyman in our family but there are some times when I can't get Tetsu to do something and end up doing it myself. Yesterday was one of those days.

We have lived in our house for 17 years. Besides cat wear and tear, just living in this house for that long a time means that things are going downhill but Tetsu doesn't really want to get involved in repairs. In general, Japanese do not do a lot of do-it-yourself work around the house and Tetsu doesn't believe that one can really re-wallpaper or re-tile something etc.

"Sure you can! You just have to have the right tools and a little motivation."

Well, he doesn't have the right tools except for a hammer and saw, and Tetsu doesn't have a lot of motivation either. I have suggested hiring someone but he isn't too thrilled with that idea either. Too expensive. So we live in our house with holes and stuffing hanging out.

We have carpet going up the stairs and over the years everyone bounds up 9 steps, makes a sharp turn at the middle landing and bounds up another 3 steps. Same going back down. And everyone must make their turn at the SAME spot because the carpet wore out just there. The carpet wore out, the padding wore out, the lining wore out. We were down to bare wood!

"Tetsu, can't we fix this carpet somehow? Don't you think it is about time we re-carpeted the upstairs?"

"Do you know how much that would cost? Not while we're putting kids through school."

So the hole kept getting bigger and bigger. I threw a mat over the hole. I grumbled to friends (sorry Tetsu) that my husband didn't mind living in a threadbare house.

The other day one of my friends called to say that she was renovating her house and they had torn up the carpeting in her hallway. It still looked pretty good and she remembered my grumbling so did I want any of it.

Gulp. Well... I didn't think Tetsu would be too pleased with another job to do and one that didn't involve hammering and sawing. Could I do it myself? On Wednesday I went over to my friend's to look at the carpet pieces and had the carpenters there chop off a piece, along with the under padding, for me to take home. Yesterday I got to work.

What a breeze! Why have we been waiting 5 years to fix the carpet? Of course it was a small area but with an Exacto knife and hot bond I had a cushiony carpet on the landing and no hole! The carpet match wasn't bad either! Of course not many people see the landing but it makes me smile to have the hole gone.

This morning Tetsu noticed my handwork and was amazed at the results.

"Great work, Tanya! I didn't think it could be done!"

I have more carpet holes but since the cats are actively widening them I think they don't need my attention right away. But when they do, I'll know I can do it!