Obon week in Japan

So, what has been going on this week?  Not too much because it is still too hot and our energy is being zapped.  Tetsu has been happy with a lot of high school baseball on TV, always a favorite during the summers for sports lovers.  I stay downstairs in the cool room and sew while he watches TV but usually I'm hooked into audiobooks as I don't have much interest in high school baseball...

I guess I've been keeping my handwork pretty much under wraps but I've been working on my Mola piece since just before I went into the hospital and since coming home.  I knew it would be too hot to do any sewing upstairs and I'd prepped this piece for cool air-conditioning time.  It is nearly done but I've got a bit of running stitch embroidery to add here and there and then I'll decide what I'm going to do with this small piece...

I had a fun hour's zoom chat with a friend who lives in another part of Japan and whom I haven't talked to in over 4 years.  Our kids all grew up together and until she moved away we were quite close, but time apart neither of us has been good about communication except for New Year's cards.  That didn't change the fun we had online sharing our recent lives.  It turns out she has been painting also and we laughed to think that in our old age we've both developed completely new hobbies.  (She also started writing poetry but I don't think I'm going to go that route...)

This week was Obon in Japan which is a four day holiday of welcoming ancestors back for a visit, and the cemetery across the street was a busy place with loads of families coming to scrub down headstones and decorate the graves.

Some people bring lanterns as well as flowers and incense and our usually quiet morning walk felt like we'd joined a parade with all the people walking between the rows and carrying water and offerings etc.

Marlene invited us to their neighborhood summer festival which her husband was in charge of and we braved the heat and joined the fun eating grilled corn and pot stickers and baked potatoes.  Oh did I feel sorry for all the people manning the grilling booths!  Marlene had worked in her hot kitchen all week last week making cookies to sell at the event and of course I supported her booth too.

Some snippits from yesterday's festival.

Besides the heat, we also had a typhoon last week and I tried to think of the high winds and rain as something positive rather than just being stuck inside a hot and humid house with the air-conditioning turned off because of the lightning and thunder!

The cats and John are doing well despite the heat.  John suffers through 15 seconds of being held and then he's done with Tetsu for the day...

I've continued taking Skillshare classes, this one with Samantha Dion Baker on making a full journal spread.  My day on this day, included my Mola, painting, doing Yes2Next online, making potato salad, snacking on nuts and walking! 

I saw this saying on the Internet and just had to include it in my journal!  Very appropriate for me don't you think?  And by the way, it is getting easier and easier to move around these days.  I'm nearly at the one month mark since surgery!

Stay cool my friends in the Northern Hemisphere!