Typhoon damage

We were warned this weekend of a major typhoon approaching Japan and Tetsu secured our house and yard as best as he could.  This year we have had more typhoons than usual but our area usually isn't hit very badly...

Typhoons can be dangerous because of either a lot of rain, or a lot of wind, or both.  We don't live near rivers or hillsides so rain and mud slides don't worry us too much.  We DO live next to a forest and so strong wind is a concern...  but what can one do?  Stay away from the windows I guess...

I went to bed before the typhoon hit and only woke up a couple of times to hear the wind roaring and the rain coming down like we lived next to a waterfall.  I remember thinking that I was glad I was so sleepy because otherwise I might be very worried about what could happen and I drifted off to sleep again.

This morning the rain and wind had moved on and the day looked as if it was going to be peaceful and warm...  Often after a typhoon the sky and scenery is just beautiful so I was ready to go out with my camera.  I opened the dining room curtains.

"Tetsu!  The tree next door to us fell down!"

The tree had been a very tall cedar and it toppled over crushing the fence and partially obstructing the road!  Tetsu and I headed out to see if there had been any other damage...

From our front door there was a pile of logs right across from us...  Did someone dispose of their tree in the forest in front of us?  It seemed an odd place to put a bunch of trees and we hadn't heard any workmen from the time the wind stopped at 3:00 to 5:30 when I opened the front door.  I looked up...  The tree at the edge of the forest had broken off right in the middle and fallen farther into the forest!  And all its branches landed next to the trunk stacking themselves as they hit the other forest trees...  At least that's the only way we can think of how these major pieces of tree got there!

The tree obstructing the road in front of our house...

"We'd better go rouse our farm neighbors and have them get in touch with the property owners (who live elsewhere)."

Branches were everywhere...

And our farmer friends were already up and inspecting their fields....  I guess no one is going to get past THIS obstruction!!!  The persimmon tree has fallen across the road!

We commiserated with Mr. Y, the farmer about his tree and discussed who should be called first about tree removal and road safety when the farmer's wife called him on his phone and said someone in the neighborhood couldn't get out of her house because a tree had fallen across their driveway.  Mr. Y went off to check on what he could do about the neighborhood tree and we wandered around his grounds with his wife.

One of their trees had fallen across the rice field and would have to be cleared and the rice farmer reimbursed for his destroyed rice...

Our friends' shed collapsed making it difficult for them to get their tractor out of their workplace.

Across the street at the lumber yard a tall tree broke off in the middle and landed on two cars left in the parking lot.

The fire department had been called about the neighbor who couldn't get out of his driveway and when we walked over they were busy cutting out chunks of the tree trunk so that at least the house would be accessible.

 Another neighbor's storage shed blew over.

 And someone else's tree broke off in the middle and landed in the road.

I went to crosswalk duty as usual but heard from the jr. high kids on their bicycles that the bike path was blocked and they'd had to make a detour.  The school principal was already dragging tree branches from the sidewalk so that the children could pass without walking into the street (but no kids came from that direction this morning.  Their parents probably figured it would be too treacherous through the forests.)  There was a steady stream of cars going past the school which is very unusual in our country town but it turns out that many of the streets in our area have been blocked by fallen trees and so traffic was getting funneled into the few cleared roads.  Adding to the confusion, cars would start up a road thinking they could cut back to the road they'd been detoured away from only to find another tree (like the persimmon tree) blocking the road farther up the country lane.  NO PLACE FOR CARS TO TURN AROUND!

Tetsu and a few neighbors were out cutting and clearing even before I left for crosswalk duty and even now I can hear the sound of chain saws coming from many different directions.  It is amazing that in our immediate area there seems to have been no structural damage and no injuries...  And I actually feel divinely protected as so many of the fallen trees fell AWAY from homes and into the fields or forests.  Houses could have been damaged...  I would have been showered with glass if the tree had fallen in our direction!

Typhoons are dangerous but they do make the countryside sparkle...  Oh dear...  I will really miss that persimmon tree lying there on its side.  I've taken photos of quilts under that tree!

Tetsu just walked in the house asking if I wanted to dry persimmons this winter...  The tree was full and if we do the task while they are fresh, the persimmons could be peeled and strung up to dry...  It looks like an awful lot of persimmons!  I've never dried persimmons...  That load is a bit too much to start with, don't you think?

Patora and Toi

A couple of months ago we bought a new sofa because the cats had scratched up the other one so badly.  I was all set to have this old one taken to the dump (I am still promoting that idea) but Tetsu moved it to the Japanese room and it takes up most of the room.  But we don't much use the Japanese room...  Which is no longer a Japanese room anyway because it has flooring now instead of tatami mats...

ANYWAY...  The Japanese room hasn't gotten much use since I stopped teaching English to neighborhood children a few years ago.  (I made them all sit on the floor).  We've tried to think of ways to utilize the room...  Move my sewing machine and stuff down here?  TOO MUCH STUFF!  Move our beds to the room?  Nah.... I don't want to have beds right next to the living room and besides there would be no closet space.  So the sofa has stayed until I can find a better use for the room.

And I find now that with a sofa in the room I can flop down away from the TV and get in some private time....  Bible reading (on the iPhone) and Duolingo for Spanish.  The room is quite pleasant though a bit dark because cat house takes up window space.  The cats peer in at me through the window and I decided that for the hour that I am using the Japanese room (must find a new name for the room) I can invite Patora and Toi to join me.

These two cats are banned to the cat house, and in the winter to the upstairs, because they cannot get along with the other cats.  They are very lacking in human contact and don't get the love and attention the other three cats get.  It has taken a bit of coaxing but gradually Toi and Patora are warming up to me and will even come and sit on my lap.

They are rather cute when they have a mind to be.  And Tetsu felt quite honored to be chosen by Patora as a sitting place!

 Chip is not happy.

"Those two mean cats on the other side of the door are just too close for comfort!"
 

IPhones

I managed to avert what I thought was going to be a flammable domestic dispute with Tetsu yesterday... 

Tetsu and I own iPhones since February.  He has a silver one, I have a rose gold one.  Not long after becoming iPhone owners I bought us waterproof/shockproof iPhone cases that are clear on the back.  Our iPhones are visibly different when looking at them from the back side... 

Not so on the front side when the phones are in resting mode.

Yesterday we went to church and then Tetsu wanted to try out a new ramen shop for lunch on our way home.  We had ramen and then went to the pool for an afternoon swim.  I got out of the car, grabbed my iPhone and headed towards the ladies' locker room.  Tetsu was still getting his things out of the car when I left the parking lot.

At the entrance to the locker room I remembered that I had been expecting a message from Takumi so I took my phone out of my back pocket and pushed the home button to access it.  A black password page...  That's odd...  My password page has flowers on it.  The iPhone must have crashed and needed to be reset...  I THOUGHT.  Then I typed in my password.

"Your password is incorrect.  Please try again."

I tried again... same result.  I flipped over the iPhone in my hand AND IT WAS SILVER!!!  I had Tetsu's iPhone.

I went across to the men's locker room to see if I could catch him before he went inside but he wasn't there...  Still in the parking lot?  Already changing clothes?  I considered waiting by the glass to catch his attention when he came into the pool or even changing myself and telling him I had his iPhone when we both got in the pool.  But maybe he was LOOKING for the iPhone in the parking lot still.  In which case he would sure be irritated with me if I left him looking.

I went past the reception desk and asked the girls if they'd noticed if my husband had already walked past and gone into the men's locker room.  They apologized for not being observant enough to know.

I walked back to the parking lot thinking that by now Tetsu was either unaware that his iPhone was in my possession and he was changing clothes, or that he was unaware that his iPhone was in my possession and was looking for it in the car.  And I tried to call MY iPhone thinking that if he heard that then he would see that HE was calling me (got that?  I was calling from HIS phone so the caller would come up as Tetsu.)   And yes, we know each other's passwords.  Unfortunately, MY iPhone buzzed from my purse so there was no way to alert Tetsu that I had his iPhone... and when I got to the parking lot, TETSU'S CAR WAS GONE!!!

This meant that Tetsu was aware that he was missing his iPhone and had assumed that he had left it at the ramen shop and had taken off to go back 20 minutes to where we had eaten earlier!  I panicked!  I was going to be in SUCH HOT WATER when he found out I had taken his phone!!!  WHY hadn't he checked with me before heading off on his quest?!  Why hadn't he just asked someone to get me from the locker room and use MY iPhone to call the ramen shop?!  There were all sorts of ways I could blame him for the mistake...  But the bottom line was that I had grabbed the wrong phone and I was to blame.

I imagined Tetsu speeding to the ramen shop.  And if he didn't find the phone there?  Well, he'd be even more upset and he'd have another 20 minutes to fret about losing his phone and I was in danger of a volcanic blast of anger when he found out I had had it the whole time!  I had to at least let him know when he got to the ramen shop that I had his phone!

Ramen shop...  ramen shop...  What was the name of that place?  I remembered the name.  How could I look it up?  I tried Google but let me tell you, it wasn't an unusual name and I had fifty ramen shops all over Japan with the same name.  Even narrowing it down to the town got me four or five ramen shops with the same name and I didn't know the address of the area we had been in...

I switched to the Maps app and tried again.  This got me to the city's ramen shops and I figured out what route we'd traveled from church to the right area and which street AND THERE IT WAS!!!!  I called the ramen shop.

"My husband and I just had lunch at your shop.  He is on his way back because he thinks he left his iPhone there..."

"A lost iPhone?  I don't think so...  Let me check..."

"No!  No!  My husband THINKS he left his iPhone but I have his iPhone.  It isn't at your shop.  He will come looking for it but could you please tell him that his wife has his iPhone."

The girl took my name and promised to give him the message...  and I went and sat and waited 40 minutes in the pool's parking lot...  I couldn't see doing my own thing at the swimming pool when Tetsu was wasting his time because of my error.  I expected him to be in a very bad temper when he finally got back to me...  And when he did pull up, I apologized profusely and we drove on home in silence.

But evening came and gradually we pieced together the events of the missing iPhone and what each of us were thinking during the hour of looking for it.  And guess what!  Tetsu has complimented me numerous times over my sleuthing abilities.

"That is really amazing Tani, that you could figure out how to contact the ramen shop to let me know about the phone.  I didn't think you could work your way around the Internet so well and all in Japanese even.  I guess I won't worry about you not being able to take care of yourself in Japan.  I couldn't even figure out on the fly how to call that ramen shop, (especially without my phone) and it was just easier to make the run there to look.  I'm proud of you!"

Well...  what do you know...  I expected a battle and I get praised instead.

I think we are going to go look for different colored iPhone straps this week...

My favorite disaster

Finally a quilting post!  I almost forget that I am a quilter!

I've had a flimsy up on the design board for months and months.  I just did not like how this project was turning out and I lost interest in it.  I had thought that a nice quilt of New York Beauty blocks would be fun to make but as it turned out the paper piecing of tight curves about did me in and I was ready to give up half way through the endeavor...  With each new block I had more wrinkles and pleats that were getting sewn in and I was very unhappy with my paper piecing skills.  I also very foolishly tried to save background fabric and cut it any which way making the background sometimes on the bias.  Each and every block I was ready to declare a disaster!

I pushed myself to make at least twelve blocks so that I had a decent size quilt and then I sewed them together (they were different sizes even!  How did that happen?!) and added a border.  The flimsy was warped...  Sigh...

But as I haven't got many quilts to my year's finishes' list I really needed to get the flimsy off the design board and quilt it whichever way possible.  And you know what...  Quilting does wonders for a quilt.  Especially if the quilter could care less at this point and lets go all her inhibitions and just quilts for the fun of it!

I decided to try for feathers on the background...  That was a space that wasn't too daunting... And I stitched-in-the-ditched everything else.   After that I just played around and quilted here and there adding what I liked, leaving what didn't inspire me.  Hey, I already was declaring the quilt a disaster, how much worse could it get!

Here are my 12 blocks with the random quilting.  I really LIKE how they turned out and I photographed them in detail so that I can look back and get some ideas again.

 I only did some swirls in the pink arc.

Here I tried feathers in the triangular arcs...  and I went over the flower in the small arc.

Some squiggles in the background arc, some loops in the smaller backgrounds and a feather flower in the smallest arc.

 Hmmm...  Nothing exciting going on here.  Some petals in the smallest arc.

I felt I had to do something in that blue...  And I guess I was trying for rows in the smallest arc.

I got fancy with this block...  Some loop-di-loops in the outer arc.  Some curlique feathers and then some squiggles.

I guess I was trying for glorified feathers in the main part of the arc and star petals in the smaller arc.

 This wasn't inspiring either.  Circles in the narrow arc, meandering in the center arc.

Tree branch marks on one side of the points, loops in the narrow arc and I don't know what in the smaller center.

Loops and swirls and loops again and then a center of pebbles.

 Cyclone swirls and then radius points.

 Zig-zags, glorified feathers, MORE feathers and petals.

For the border I got carried away and made double feathers along the inside, then a spine of mini-circle pearls and then a mis-matched design of feathers and swirls on the outer side of the spine.

I guess I was willing to try just about anything in this quilt.  It became a learning tool.  I'm not sure I like that circled spine....  The repeated stitching really makes it stand out....  It looks sort of snakey...

I tried another technique of sewing the binding down all by machine (rather than hemming it by hand after it is sewn down.)  I sewed the binding down on the front (as usual), I glued it to the back of the quilt and ironed it down to hold the glue and then I used the sewing machine foot for hemming to be the stitch-in-the-ditch guide and thus catching the back of the binding.

It works...  It won't win any prizes in a quilt show for neatness but as a practice piece I learned it can be done in a pinch.

Of course when the quilt is up on the wall the quilting is hardly noticeable...  But it is a FINISHED quilt now.  And I don't even think of it as a disaster anymore!

Red

Saturday morning before I'd even opened my eyes, Tetsu was bounding out of bed and saying "Rise and shine!  Let's go to the Higanbana park today!"

A couple of years ago Tetsu had also made this suggestion and with no idea what we were going to find we headed off for this park that was HOURS away.   But it was worth the trip!  We were amazed at the sea of flowers in the park.  Tetsu, remembering our successful outing a few years back, decided that as it was Higanbana season, then we should go check it out again.  And we had the added advantage that we knew where we were heading and what to expect!  Off we went not long after 6:00 AM.

Four hours later we arrived at the park which was already full of people!  Three years ago it had been a rainy day and not many people had braved the weather, but this day was hot and sunny.  Even so, the flowers were blooming in the shady parts of the park and it was very pleasant to walk around taking pictures.

The flowers are all the same shade red but depending on where the sunlight hit, places in the park looked pink.

We befriended an elderly lady who sort of latched onto us saying that she had come to the park by bus and that she liked wandering around different places making new friends.  We strolled around with her for awhile though she wasn't interested in taking pictures and after about 30 minutes she said she was heading back home and wanted directions to the bus stop.  She's right... It was nice making a new friend!

Tetsu and I wandered around separately taking photos, occasionally coming across each other.

Hmmm.  It is better to take a close up of a flower?  They all look the same...  Or try for a scenery view...  And then the whole picture frame is red!

I did find one WHITE flower.  Actually, I felt like a paparazzi pushing my way into a crowd to take a photo of a celebrity.  There were at least 10 people with cameras trying to take this one white flower's picture just in the couple of minutes I was focusing my shot.

Three years ago in the rain, the tree trunks were all black and rain drenched.  This day the trees weren't so dramatic.

I suppose because of all the people wandering the paths, the park officials had had to put up signs saying no tripods allowed, and I'm sure some photographers were not happy about that.  The time before, there had been quite a few people in ANIME costumes posing amongst the flowers with their tripods set up and their own personal photographers but this time around there were no cos-play people there at all...  (which was actually a bit disappointing).

 I did spot one man who was photographing his ANIME figurine... 

I sort of slyly took my own photo of his figurine.  She looks very pretty against the red sea!

As I say, it turned out to be a very hot day and I stuffed my hair up under my cap.

We had another four hour drive home... actually quite a bit longer because we went looking for a cemetery where one of Tetsu's friends is buried...  When we make the trip to this area Tetsu always wants to go visit the friend's grave... And we got stuck in traffic coming home.

"Tetsu... Why do you insist on taking the slow route, the roads through city centers and commuters' routes.  Why won't you take the expressway?  Are we trying to save toll fees?  Wouldn't it make better sense to save time and driving stress?  The scenery on these roads are all the same city after city.  MacDonalds on one corner, Seven-eleven on another...  There are bicycles and stop lights.  Cats run across the road... I'd really prefer to take the tollways!"

Well, since Tetsu is the driver and he doesn't like driving tollways, then I guess I have to leave it to him...  I should have taken my tatting along with me so that I could be doing something as I watched us inch home...  I also passed the time looking at the red photos in our cameras!