Family pictures etc.

At the end of the month, I've made it a habit to post Luka and other family member pictures...  Let's see what my kids have sent me this month...

This photo and the following was actually taken back in April while Tony and Leiya and Luka were in California after my niece's wedding.  Luka loved the beach!  He was dressed for it in his shark suit!

It was from this photo that I tried water coloring it...

Luka is beginning to develop an imagination and Leiya said he wanted to have his bunny wear his bib and join him for lunch.

Luka playing with his cousin.

Takumi celebrated a birthday in June and Julieta sent me pictures.

Takumi and Hazy.

And Takumi and Pollo on a hike.

We visited M-san's house this week and I was so pleased to see M-san's beautiful quilt in the entryway of their lovely Japanese farm house.  It seems to match the surroundings which is interesting!  M-san's father was so pleased to be able to display this quilt and he said many people who visit comment on how beautiful it is.  M-san's hand quilting is exquisite!

Our friendship with M-san's family is interesting...  M-san's father and Tetsu first met at some community meeting and I guess Tetsu told him that I was American and I did patchwork.  M-san's father later came visiting, bringing M-san along with him, and ever since then she and I do patchwork and tatting together.  Tetsu and M-san's father get along very well and they often chat together and Tetsu gets advice about his garden.  We've known M-san's family for about 3 years...  

On this day, M-san's father directed the conversation around to where Tetsu had gone to college and it turns out M-san's father and Tetsu went to the same college and were there at the same time!!!  What a surprise!  I think Tetsu had mentioned the college name at some point to M-san and she had told her father who had been surprised and he was checking to see if the story was correct.  Oh, how the conversation bloomed.  Tetsu and M-san's father related stories of how bad the college cafeteria had been, about the delicious katsudon (pork cutlet) was at the hole-in-the-wall restaurant across the street from the college, how they both lived at the bare minimum from month to month until their parents wired them money.   Isn't it amazing how our lives connect!

I guess I'll end the month on a pretty photo or two...  

The sunsets around here lately have been just beautiful!

June is coming to an end

The month is winding up but I still had posts but not enough days...  It's funny how some weeks nothing happens at all but other weeks are so jumbled together.

After my disasterous day of losing my Kindle (it did not turn up), a couple of days later I went to complete my task list of getting a blood test...  only to find after skipping breakfast that morning that I wasn't scheduled for one til July.  My head seems to be screwed on backwards.  On the way to the doctor's I thought about what I needed to tell him...  Japanese humid summers are hard for me and I had a variety of ailments that I'm not worried about but I might as well tell him about...  Dare I mention that I've given up going to the pool?  No.  What else can a doctor tell you than to get more exercise and I didn't want to be told that!  

"So, how are you Mrs. Watanabe?"

"Actually not as great as usual.  The heat gives me headaches, and every summer I get stomachaches.  My hip hurts and I've had a specialist check it out.  I'm going for acupuncture treatment now."

My doctor sort of raised his eyebrows.  I don't think he has a positive view of acupuncture.  He politely asked if I thought it was helping any.  It's hard to tell...

"Pool!  The best thing for hip pain is the pool!"

"!!!... yeah... I knew you'd say that."  

and I burst into tears!

My poor doctor was flummoxed as I laugh/cried hysterically with my forehead on his desk.  

"What?!  What's wrong with that?"

"My husband keeps telling me, asking me, hinting, advising, suggesting that I should come back to the pool but I don't like exercise and I'd vowed that chapter of my life is finished.  But if you say so..."

My doctor sympathised and said he didn't like exercise either but to think of it is preventative medicine.  He pointed out that I've had hip pain, headaches, stomachaches and more since I stoppped going to the pool.  

"A long hot bath after the pool will be good for your hip AND your stomach!  It will be good for you."

I embarrassedly thanked him and while waiting to pay, texted Tetsu I'd be renewing my pool membership.  His response.

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As for needle work around here, I got pulled into the crossstitch I was making and couldn't stop so machine quilting has been put aside.  I was telling M-san the quote/philosophy of the front and back side of a piece of embroidery...  I'd written it down in my Bible.

Our life is like a piece of embroidery and we can only see the back side, full of loose ends, knots, a tangle of colors.  But God has made a gorgeous picture on the other side that we will only see when we get to heaven.  We don't understand now, but He will show us someday.

Not "gorgeous" but completed.

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 I had a lot of fun with artwork this month...  

The crosswalk and sweet shop in front of the school.

My neighbor's farmhouse.

Luka at the beach.

I actually did it twice to keep one in my bullet journal.

I'm taking another online class from Sandy Allnock and this one is called Travel Sketching.  On the left, an attempt from her lesson, on the right a paiting from a picture I pulled from a few years ago in Matsushima.

The second lesson on grasses didn't come out as I'd hoped but I translated "grass" into "rice fields" for my Nikko painting.

And so it goes...

Lost and found

In other chattiness...

Last week did not go well for me in a number of ways.  Nothing BAD, but just a bunch of irritations.  But there are always silver linings right?

On Wednesday, my PLAN was to 1) take John to the vets and leave him to get trimmed.  2)  go get a blood test and pick up my regular medicine.  3)  go to the dermatologist and get some warts removed.  Then I planned to come home and do some quilting or some drawing or some embroidery until afternoon when my vet would bring John back and we'd visit in English for about an hour.

Tetsu had his own plans too which included a doctor's visit (different doctor) and so he was out of the house early.  As I was getting ready to leave I remembered that today was can and bottle recycling day and as we had two bags of recycling, I picked those up on my way out.  

Ready to go!  Pet wallet with pet books and money?  Check.  Handbag with wallet and insurance card and medication booklet?  Check.  Cellphone?  Check.  Kindle to read in the waiting rooms?  Check.  Recycling bags?  Check.  John?  Check.  

I was ready to get all my stuff in the car but with a leash and bags and things wedged into my armpits I put my pet wallet and Kindle on top of the car roof and packed up the rest in the car.  You know how this is going to go...

I backed out of the driveway, turned three corners to get to the recycling station, opened the hatchback and sorted the garbage, and drove out of the neighborhood and did the 30 minute trip to the vet clinic going past rice fields, through mountain tunnels, past fishing ponds and crossing highways, wove through traffic and stop lights and parked at the clinic.  I took my handbag and John out of the car and thought...

"Where is my pet clutch?  Oh NO!!!!!!!  I've left the pet wallet on the car roof!!!!!!!"  

I don't need to mention that it was no longer there...

I gave John to the vet and managed to pay her from what I had in my handbag and then I forewent the rest of my plans to go back and look for the pet wallet and, I now realized, my Kindle.  Stomach sinking...

I imagined all sorts of scenerios at finding my stuff.  Maybe when I backed out of the driveway it all slipped off...  Maybe on one of the turns to the recycling area.  I certainly hadn't seen anything on top of the car when I'd opened the hatchback.  I wouldn't be that blind to my surroundings to not notice them then would I?  They must have fallen off between my house and two streets away.

I am reporting that I AM that blind to my surroundings.  The pet wallet and the Kindle were not anywhere between the house and the recycling area.  On foot I went walking around the neighborhood checking gutters and looking for debris but nothing.  A neighbor even came out to ask what I was looking for and she got on her bicycle and checked the main street but no go.  Okay... I'd have to go to the police box and see if anything had been turned in.

At the police box I got in touch with the police station and reported my lost items and told them the route I'd taken so that they could get the information into their computers.  The policeman at the police box also jotted down the information.  He asked me about lost credit cards (none) and money (maybe $150 dollars?  I put aside money monthly into the wallet just for the animals' vet bills and I wasn't sure how much was still in the wallet.)

I went home to wait, giving another walk around the neighborhood for good measure and told Tetsu of the mishap.

About two hours later a phone call from the policeman at the police box!  

"Someone has turned in a wallet like you described.  Could you please come in to verify?"

The policeman asked me the names of my animals that were written in their pet booklets (like anyone else has lost a wallet with pet booklets recently) and showed me everything that had been inside to confirm nothing was missing.  6 pet booklets, a bunch of receipts and $340 dollars.  Wow!  I had a lot more money in there than I'd thought!  The person who returned the wallet had seen it fly off the top of my car and stopped to pick it up and after running his/her errands, took it to the policebox.  The person did not leave a name nor want to be rewarded and the only other information was that it was found near the 7/eleven...  about a mile away.

So!  I got my pet wallet back with all the money!  But alas no Kindle reported.  

I went to 7/eleven and then walked along the road looking for the Kindle and Tetsu spotted me and came looking too.  We scoured the street in the hot sun and Tetsu told me to go home and eat something (I'd fasted for the blood test that day) before I fainted and made more problems.  (He can be so "loving" sometimes.)  

Two hours later, Tetsu still wasn't home and I went looking for him and found him WALKING from the next city over, about 3 miles away!!!  Through the rice fields, through the mountain tunnel, near the fishing pond!!!  He looked like he'd traversed the Mohave Desert!  And no Kindle.  That is being "loving"!

We collapsed for the rest of the afternoon... John came back...  And in the evening John and I walked to beyond the school checking the last leg of the area I had traveled.  So now, between Tetsu and me, 7 miles have been walked and searched but the Kindle didn't turn up.  I will have to accept it is gone for good and probably broken as well.

The good news is the wallet is back and all the money that I hadn't even realized was in it will be enough for a new Kindle! 

John "Samson"

I guess I have a lot to say but none of it pertains to each other and I'm not sure if any of my ramblings are worthy of a full post...  I guess I'll just get started.

John and Tetsu and I take a walk every morning around 6:00 AM at the cemetery across the street.  I should really apply for a job there because I walk there at least twice a day, sometimes three times!  I like the cemetery because, it is close, there are no cars, very few people, and though we walk down rows of graves, it is in a natural setting.  If someone has visited a grave in the past few minutes, often there will be a lovely aroma of incense too.  

On Saturdays, our morning walks may start a little later but we are still there before anyone else, and Tetsu and John and I enjoy playing Hide and Seek!  The game goes like this...  We walk into the main part of the cemetery and let go of the John's leash.  Tetsu and I walk on as John sniffs at plants and marks what he wants to mark that day.  While he is occupied, Tetsu will make a zig down one row while I make a zag down a different row and we are out of John's view.  He will then look up and cock his ear listening for footsteps and then he'll come trotting along looking down rows until he chooses one or another.  By that time Tetsu and I will make more zig-zags, listening for the jangling of John's tags, and like in a maze, we all wander down rows and turn corners etc.  John can usually find Tetsu just because Tetsu's hearing isn't that great, and when he finds one of us he gets rewarded with a treat (John, that is) and then he'll head off on his own looking for me (usually).  If he absolutely has no idea where to go, John will just sit down in the middle of a row and wait...  He is rather clever that way, so we don't worry about him getting lost.  There is only one way in and out of the cemetery so we keep an eye on the far away entrance if he's out of ear and eye shot for very long.  John is very cute when he comes running to whoever it is that he has found!

This is John last week...  He is getting shaggy and as he won't let us brush him, grass and burrs get stuck in his coat.  And it is also getting hot and humid around here so I asked the vet to have him trimmed.

"Please shave it all off!  He is hot and besides, there is fur everywhere because he is shedding!"

"Everything?  Even the charm point light whisps around his ears?  Even his chest of blond?" 

"Yes, everything!"

"Shall I leave a plumed tail?  Fluffy ears?"

"No.  All of it can come off!"

John came home that afternoon looking like this!

He looks like a new dog!  

John just looks smaller, cuter, more lovable.  I find myself reaching down to pat his head or his back much more than when he was fat and furry.  And John lets me!  Like Samson, when his tresses are cut, he loses some of his power (or reacts to the skinship I offer) and seems more docile.

Of course, when dinner is served he is back to growling snapping and practically sitting on his kibble to keep it all to himself.  John is such a character!  

 

Random topics

I'm not getting too much done recently and what I do get done isn't worth taking pictures.  Let's see...

I bought some backing for the Songbird's Garden quilt and then spent a day crawling around the floor getting it basted.  It is such a job when it can't even be spread completely out and I have to baste in sections.  But the job is now done and after letting the project simmer for a few days I've decided to machine quilt it and this morning jumped into the center square.  So far just some stitch-in-the-ditch quilting as I'm not confident I can do stippling evenly or not.  I will wait to make that decision and hope that the quilt speaks to me.

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The crawling around the floor convinced me that I needed to go to the acupunturist and see if he has any solutions for a sore hip I've had since April...  Actually I went to an orthopedist two weeks ago and that doctor took X-rays and even an MRI but could find nothing wrong and sent me home with pain killers.  That worked for awhile but I could either go back for more medicine or see if the acupunturist had any better tricks up his sleeve.  Not really...  Sigh...  But the actupuncturist did spend more time talking with me than the doctor did so that was nice.  Bunions are probably the culprit, and the problem was exacerbated by the long airplane rides and the carrying around of my adorable grandson.  I feel old!

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Why oh why, I don't know but I've become engrossed in a small cross stitch kit that I've had in my drawers for years and years and years!  The Aida cloth is yellowing so I know it's been awhile since the kit saw the light of day.  It is very satisfying to sit in my sewing room and count stitches and sew as I listen to audio books.  Has anyone ever read the Thursday Murder Club books?  I've enjoyed both books tremendously!

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I considered jumping over this topic but decided to blog a bit about gun control in Japan.  I'm anti-gun though I know most of my friends in America seem to own them for sport and hunting, and maybe even for protection.  Anyway, a few days after I returned from the States I got a phone call from our local policeman, who lives near us with his family at the police box down the street.  (That alone is very Japanese.)  I think he wanted to talk to me because I am the community crosswalk guard...  Anyway, he was calling to ask about a neighbor who owns a gun.  The call wasn't a surprise because every three years, the policeman (or his predecessor, they are transferred every four or five years) calls to ask about the same neighbor as the neighbor's gun license comes up for renewal every three years.  

So the questions I was asked were things like, how stable is the neighbor?  Do I know how the neighbor uses his gun?  (He used to go hunting pheasants and ducks.)  Have I ever seen him angry?  Have I ever seen him drunk?  Have I ever seen his gun at all?  (no, I haven't).  Did he and his wife have a good relationship?  Have I ever been in his home?  How would I describe the neighbor?  And after maybe 5 minutes of that sort of questioning, we went through the same routine about the neighbor's wife...  I also know that I am not the only neighbor who gets questioned by the policeman and that two or three others have had similar phone conversations.  It is all part of the very strict licensing laws for gun control in Japan...  It is almost funny to call it gun control because there are very few guns in Japan...  maybe 1% of the population?  The same stringency is applied to sword owners and there might be more of them just because I've heard samurai swords are considered heirlooms...  

(From the Internet)

After hearing about the school shooting in Texas, I got to thinking about our local elementary school.  There is a front "gate" that closes but doesn't lock.  There is no back gate at all.  I don't even think the school is locked up when there are people there, though visitors are asked to let someone in the teachers' room know when entering the building.  I have seen a long tool in the corridor called a sasumata, that looks like a cow prod, and I've heard that teachers know how to pin an assailant against the wall with it if the need arises.  

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Unfortunately, the crime rate even in Japan, is rising, but at least we don't have to worry about guns.

To end on a happier note.  M-san is hard at work making a new quilt!  This one is called Square Doubled and as I'd bought her a pretty batik jellyroll when I was in the States, we are putting it to good use!

Tooting my own horn

I've gotten quite a lot done on the Songbird's Garden quilt the past few days and I am happy to report that it is officially a flimsy!  

And it has turned out to be much larger than I'd expected so now I will have to decide how I'm going to quilt it...  by hand or by machine...  Decisions, decisions.  It is larger than even my design wall so the only way I could take photos is by laying it out on our bed, but maybe you can get the idea...  (or not as there is nothing there to compare it with).

Can you spot my fabric additions to make the borders fit?  

Those borders of triangles turned out 1 1/2 inches too small so I ended up adding 3/4 of an inch to each side of them...  and then they sort of blend into the corner squares...  It took a lot of scribbling on scrap paper but once on the sewing machine, the borders matched up nicely and that's as good as I can do.  Yeah! 

This week I also got two text messages, one from Mrs. Furui and one from Julieta.

Last week, Mrs. Furui and I had met for tea and chatting for the first time in over two years.  We've had brief meetings where we've exchanged quilt patterns and picked up batting and held up finished quilts for each other to admire, but we haven't had a sit down, spend time together chat because of Corona.  I wanted to tell Mrs. Furui about our visit with Luka and to show her the blog/album of photos I'd made, and I also rather boldly asked if she wouldn't like to display one of my quilts at the hospital where she does volunteer work.  

For years, Mrs. Furui and I and our patchwork group had made quilts to be displayed in the children's ward waiting room and I know that Mrs. Furui still regularly changes over the quilts with the seasons.  I had recently taken down the McKenna Farm quilt that I'd had up on my wall and I thought it was a shame for it to be put into the closet for who knows how long especially as there hadn't been many people visiting my house to even see it.  There are not many walls large enough for it to be displayed (it barely fit in my house) but the hospital has a big wall... wouldn't they like to hang it there for the summer months?  Nothing like being forward!

Mrs. Furui hadn't seen the finished quilt and she rewarded me with oohs and ahhs and said that, yes, she'd love to take it to the hospital and hang it in the waiting room so I left it with her.  This week she and some other volunteers got the quilt mounted on the wall and she sent me a picture.  I'm very happy that for the next month or so, my quilt will be enjoyed by patients and their parents who stream in and out of the waiting room!

The text message from Julieta also gave me a twinkle because she wrote to say that she'd given one of my quilts to her aunt.  Oh good!  We'd taken so many quilts to the States this time, so I just told Julieta that she could give them to people if she thought they'd like one.  I was surprised that her brother wanted one, and a couple of weeks ago she gave a quilt to her aunt who lives in Mexico.  

Well!  The aunt had it FRAMED!!!!  FRAMED, I tell you!  FRAMED!!!  Oh my gosh!  Think of the cost!  

There are people installing it on her wall!  Can you believe!  I don't even know when I made that quilt, so it's been around awhile.  I remember I just wanted to make all the different colored blocks that I could with the curved seams and I'm pretty sure I spent one summer in California making blocks while I chatted with my mother.  It must have taken a long time to make but I didn't really have a plan once all the blocks were made and because I hadn't thought about color, there were light blocks and dark blocks that didn't really go together.  I must say though, flat and framed it's an eye catcher!  I'm so glad it is out of the closet and has a good home!!!   I feel so honored!

 

Sewing and painting

It was a rainy day today and it looks like it will be that way for a few weeks...  We have "welcomed" in the rainy season...  Tetsu couldn't work in his yard but rain doesn't interfere with my routine of sewing and painting.  I got quite a lot done today!

My Songbird's Garden quilt is coming along much more quickly than I thought it would!  I think the easy part is done now and tomorrow (or whenever I get back to this) will be a dilly of a job as I try to fit another border on the center piece I have so far.  I tell you!  I know I've been saying this a lot lately but I really think the instructions are wrong on some of these quilt patterns I use!  There is no way one set of blocks was going to turn out the size the pattern said they are supposed to be and as I did no resizing with the printer for the template I claim the original pattern is off by a quarter of an inch...  

And with 20 blocks missing those quarter inches each seam... that's going to be a big difference when I try to fit the border on!  I foresee headaches ahead!   See!  My pieces just fit the templates.

And my piece made is supposed to be 7" by 3 3/4" but obviously the white pieces didn't turn out that big...  And those were just cut so it's not my seam allowance.

BUT I do realize I lack math skills and I do realize that not all patterns I work on have misprints so it must be something I do wrong...  still, that is where I am at the moment.

I've started another Sandy Allnock class on Ink and Wash and I am enjoying that immensely this week.

Lilacs.

Jelly Fish.

Trees.

On my own, I tried an ink, colored pencil and wash of Takumi's house...

... using this photo.

And of Leiya's house...

...not using this photo but I couldn't find the one I was using...

And of Tetsu's backyard...

...using this photo.

I also painted the rice field next to the school...

...from this.

And after learning how to make trees this week in Sandy's class, today I painted Lake Chuzenji from last week's outing...

... from this photo.

I'm having fun!