Some sewing in June

Have I been sewing?  Not much.  I seem to have stopped watching TV altogether and that means absolutely no hand sewing going on.  This may be because of the warm weather.  In the winter there is no place to be but in the living room, the only room that is warm, and I tend to keep Tetsu company and knit or sew or quilt etc.  Nowadays in the evening I escape to go read...

But I did finally put a fabric postcard together for my mother again.  This one was pretty slap-dash but definitely bright and cheery.  Just a bunch of bright fabrics on a psychedelic background.  Sort of "wake-up" postcard!

My friends have been doing their share of handwork...  Mrs. N finished a Hawaiian quilting block and made it into a cushion to give to a friend.

Mrs. I made another Stumpwork lady.  Isn't this absolutely fantastic?  She made a kimono clad lady!

Ah... I guess I never showed some handwork that I've been stumbling through... (So I HAVE been handsewing!)  This is a type of sashiko and I had thought I would make different patterns but so far I'm getting weighed down just marking the grid...

 A crosstitch type weave fabric would have made this an easier project but the instructions called for marking the grid and then putting in the stitches.  Horizontal stitches first...

 Vertical stitches next.

 The decorative stitches are added through the grid sewn stitches...

 Here are three more I did.  Starburst.

 What should I call this one?

 More of the added decorative stitches.  I wonder how long I will continue with this project...

And finally, though not a great photo, I put together all the blocks from the Thangles experiment.  (Actually I see that this photo was taken before the blocks got sewn together but this is one piece now.)  Now to figure out fabric for the border which I may or may not have.  That's okay!  I'm headed back to California in two weeks so I'll be able to buy fabric again!

And that's about the extent of sewing that's been going on around here...
 

Moonlit sky

Yuma-kun called me a couple of evenings ago.  He calls out of the blue especially in the evenings right after he has come home from high school.  He likes to take pictures of the sunset and send me photos.  I marvel at his attention to the beauty around him especially as he is not particularly sympathetic to people or social situations...  I don't know how many times he has sent me pictures of the scenery he has seen and he often suggests I go outside immediately with my camera before the sunset fades.

So this is the photo that Yuma-kun sent.  I don't know how he got the pretty purple color and I have to admit that the picture looks better on my iPhone screen than on the computer but I rushed outside with my camera to see if I could take pictures too.

I don't have too much better luck with the fancier camera as I have never figured out how to take low-light photos but for Yuma-kun I felt I needed to try...

 The clouds were certainly beautiful and interesting!

Changes

Tetsu has been retired for about a month now and our daily routine has changed somewhat...  I am still trying to get used to things...

I go off to crosswalk duty as usual and Tetsu cleans up the house, hangs out the laundry and washes the dishes as usual.  (I have it easy, don't I!?)  He has always been a stickler for keeping things clean and neat and now he takes housework responsibilities seriously...  I get back home, settle down for Bible study and Duolingo and Tetsu starts his own Duolingo study (me Spanish, Tetsu English).  But whereas before I used to then get on the computer to blog, now Tetsu is raring to whip something into shape, whether it be the yard or the house or whatever.  If he starts on the house then I really feel as if I should participate and so my blogging time gets set aside and often occurs in the evening (as tonight.)

Some of the jobs Tetsu has tackled...  He has...

• Cut back tree tops
• Weed whacked the yard and the forest
• Did major cleaning of the cat house (we had to move Toi and Patora to a cage for awhile out in the yard)
• Removed an old wardrobe and rearranged the furniture in the Japanese room
• Changed the quilts I have on the walls to summery quilts
• Rearranged my computer desk and printer layout
• Thrown away files and reams of papers brought home from the office over the years

And when he isn't doing all of that Tetsu is "skating" around the house with two dry rags under his feet to buff up the wood floors a bit.  I tell you, I get tired just watching him!  I am not complaining.  I have NEVER gotten so motivated in such a short time and if he is willing to do the brunt of the work I will adjust my schedule to fit his.

Here are Toi and Pato relegated to a cat cage while the cat house got hosed down from top to bottom.

The cat house also got a bamboo screen to give the felines a bit more shade and protect them somewhat from side blowing rain.

Toi checking out the CLEAN cat house.  "Mom...  It smells different."  (That was the reason for the major overhaul!)

Tetsu also bought us a new yard umbrella.

The old Japanese room (it is no longer a Japanese room as the tatami mats have been replaced with a wooden floor and the paper window coverings are curtains) has our old sofa in it now...  This was sort of a dispute between Tetsu and me as we found a nice, smaller sofa at the recycle shop to replace the old one in the living room and I wanted this one to go.  The cats had scratched up old one so it is tattered, and it is huge (bought originally so that Tetsu could stretch out when he watched TV) so I was really looking forward to saying goodbye to it.  But Tetsu moved it into the middle of the Japanese room blocking the closet.

"Let's get RID of this thing!"

BUT...  Just when I was winning the argument we realized that Chip needed medical care and needed to be separated from the other cats while she healed...  SOOOOooo...  The Japanese room got turned into a cat hospital room and in order to keep Chip happy I started sleeping on this sofa at night...

"See.  I TOLD you the sofa could still be used."

And actually with the sofa in the Japanese room it has become a very nice, quiet place to sit and as it looks out directly onto the forest it is a joy to listen to the birds and watch leaves flutter in a breeze.  When I still complained about the sofa being in the middle of the room, Tetsu sprang into action and took out the wardrobe, moved a book case, moved the sofa under the window and rearranged the computer area.

And now I have a very pleasant room that I am getting lots of use out of!  Thank you Tetsu, or Chip or whoever.

The computer area.

Chip is healing very well, thank you, and she has adjusted to the hated collar and now moves quite freely even with the cumbersome thing.  I should think that it will only be a few more days before we can remove it.  She likes to sit in the sewing room with me while I am upstairs sewing...  another place that looks out on trees and birds.

Hydrangea park

Tetsu and I took a quick jaunt over to the next city to visit a hydrangea festival at a small shrine.  It wasn't a very bit festival (one snow cone booth) but there were so many hydrangeas that we sort of went crazy taking photos.  We definitely don't need a bigger hydrangea park!

So many different colors and shapes of hydrangeas.  The common purple... and blue in the background.

The deep purple...

 I absolutely love the wreath effect of this species.

And this was an interesting species with small rounded petals.

Tiny, tiny pink petals on this stem!

There were lots of people at the festival and probably the paper lanterns make the place festive even at night.

I don't know if I was coming towards the shrine or leaving it but that is a fair photo of the shrine gate, the torii.

Being near the hydrangeas just makes a person feel cool.

But of course a hand cranked snow cone doesn't hurt!

More crowned hydrangeas...

But I guess these were my favorites...  A crown of star bursts!

What can you not live without?

Once every two months I help "teach" an English class of seniors at the local community center.  The teacher is a retired English high school teacher and he asked me to help by listening to the 6 students' English "speeches" and asking them questions or making comments.  It is a rather slow paced English class (to put it mildly!) and I get ants in my pants during the two hour class...

The first time I attended I was surprised when the teacher (he must be in his early 80's) announced that he had forgotten something at home (within walking distance) and he got up and left me with the 6 seniors all of us just looking at each other.  I sprang into action introducing myself and explaining where I was from, what my background is, what I am doing in Japan etc.  Everyone just smiled at me and didn't say anything and I finally realized that this was a very beginning class and no one had any idea of what I was talking about.  The teacher came back 15 minutes later, handed out his evening's schedule and then proceeded to call on the students one by one to give their "speech".

"Speech" means that each person has written out something about what they have done the past week and they read it word for word peering intently at their own handwriting.  No one ever looks up and the listeners never look at the person speaking (though I have suggested, to no avail, a bit more eye contact).  After a long pause at the end of the speech, the teacher asks if anyone has questions (no one does) at which point I spring into actions trying to gleam a bit more information from the presenter.  I tell you!  It takes two hours to get through 6 people with all the long pauses and umphing and hemming and pondering noises that everyone makes.

Friday night's class was devoted to a recount of a trip to England that 4 of the class members plus teacher had taken two weeks before.  Hmmm...  Let's say, that maybe after a certain age it is hard to make adjustments to different cultures and customs and I was rather disappointed that the majority of "speeches" made were about the inconvenience of traveling.  The plane flight was too long.  The food was too greasy...  The time spent in tourists spots (on a tour) was too short and everyone disliked being hurried along when they weren't used to hurrying.  And the biggest inconvenience to everyone was the lack of Washlet toilets!!!

"How is it possible that a modern country can not have a Washlet toilet?"

"The lack of a Washlet toilet made the trip very unpleasant."

Do people in other countries even know what a Washlet toilet is?

(Photo from the Internet)

I think a Japanese toilet company invented the Washlet toilets and they are the big thing in Japan these past 15 years or so.  The toilet seats are heated (I've already blogged about this feature of Japanese plumbing but a heated toilet seat doesn't make a toilet Washlet) and the toilets have a nozzle (nowadays self cleaning) that pops out into the middle of a lighted toilet bowl and squirts one's derriere with warm water.  Depending on the button pushed, the water can aim for female preferences (how else can I put it?) or for rear end maladies...  And the water even pulses!  How is that for ultimate washing up!  I hear that some toilets even have blow dryer functions so one hardly needs to have toilet paper on hand!  Washlet toilets also flush automatically with suds (no need for cleaning) and the lid goes up and down by sensor, not to mention bathroom lights going on and off when one enters or exits the room!  The space age has arrived in the Japanese bathroom!

So anyway, Friday's travelogue of England was punctuated by the distress of having to use bathrooms with no Washlets...  I defended British culture explaining that American's didn't use Washlets either and the 6 people looked at me aghast.  Barbaric!

Well, I don't have a Washlet toilet in my home either...  and though we have considered entering the space age, I think I would rather spend my hard earned money on something other than a toilet...

Closeups

It let up a bit this morning from all the rain of rainy season.  I think it is supposed to rain again tomorrow so we went out with our cameras when we could...  This morning's pictures are what we found in the closeup world...

I have no idea what this sprig of wildflower is but it was pretty in the morning light with all the sparkling dew around it...

Once I noticed the dew I got carried away with the droplets of dew decorating the leaves of some weed.   Like a jeweled necklace!

Me trying to hold still to take closeups... trying not to fall into the rice field.

Though most everything is green, I was trying to catch the drops of dew on the ridge of this leaf...

There...  cropped a bit closer...

 The flowers around the fields are starting to bloom.

 Back at home I found frogs sitting on our hydrangeas.

 I think this is from our Nanten bush.  The flowers before the berries.

Closeup, nothing weeds can turn into gem trees!

A neighborhood obaachan

We are in the middle of the rainy season and when it seems to clear for just a couple of hours we all try to make the best of it and go out walking.  A couple of days ago (today it is a rainy day so it wasn't today) Tetsu and I were taking a rather long walk and ran into an old friend/neighbor...  Well, not a close neighbor... one of the obaachans from beyond past the rice and vegetable fields.  Actually I don't know this obaachan's name but over the past 25 years Tetsu and I have talked with her regularly when we meet her out walking.  This week Tetsu took our picture together and I asked if I could introduce her on my blog.  That is somewhat cheating because this obaachan has no idea what a blog is but she laughed and said I could do what I wanted with the picture...  So I'm taking the opportunity to introduce her to you.

Twenty years ago this obaachan used to power walk a storm around the neighboring fields and I'd come upon her striding purposely down the country lane.  She was already retired back then and I'd sometimes see her working in the fields. 

Gradually the obaachan's pace became slower and she grew more and more bent at the waist.  I think she even was in the hospital for awhile with a bad back but pretty soon I'd see her walking slowly down the lane using a cane.  I'd stop my car a bit and lean out the window to chat a minute or two and she always has had a big smile.

Then she got this roller walker which is actually quite popular in Japan.  You often see very elderly people out walking the roads with their walkers.  They (the walkers) are quite sturdy and they roll along on four wheels (wait...  eight wheels) and have a compartment where groceries or a wallet or something can be put.  And the compartment doubles as a strong seat!  I often run across my neighborhood obaachan taking a breather on her walker and sitting in the sun! 

As you can see from the photos, this obaachan has been the subject of many of Tetsu's and my cameras.  Almost always after taking her photo I'll stop by her house to leave a copy of the picture and she often reciprocates by bringing me (or maybe it is her daughter who brings me) vegetables and leaving them at my front door.

On this day the obaachan was extremely stooped over the handle of her walker and said nowadays she has to rest all her weight on it just to move forward.  She slowly maneuvers herself to the seat and plops down for a rest and then gingerly grapples to get back behind the bar to continue with her walk.  Still, I admire her for her drive to get as many steps in as she can even though her legs no longer obey her very well.  The obaachan said that this is her third walker now and though they are sturdy, all her weight on the back tires cause the wheels to wear out...  She really gives walkers a hard workout!  A walk that used to take her 10 minutes now takes her over an hour...

I can imagine myself, great walker that I am, one day pushing my own walker down this same lane.  I hope I have as much determination to continue moving as this obaachan has.