October days

For a change I can say that I've had a busy two weeks.  The weather has turned almost cold but there are still more sunny days than rainy.  Typhoon season is supposed to be over and the countryside is changing to fall colors.  We get some beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Early morning with the moon over the mountains.

Evening skies from our bedroom window.

October is the month for cultural and sports activities and I've been busy with both.

Early this month I took part in a kimchi making class with Nikko City's International Association.  Each fall one of the participants, this year a friend from Korea, teaches a class on cooking from the country featured.  The actual event this year will be next month with a group of children and their parents, but since we will be helping out with the event, most of the members of the association joined in a trial run and we made two types of kimchi.  The afternoon was a great success though the community center where we were having our class asked us to keep our doors closed the next time around as kimchi can really stink up a building!  Tetsu was overjoyed with the delicious kimchi that I brought home and we finished it off quickly.  

I had to attend a meeting with Nikko's mayor because I'm the vice president of the Traffic Safety Committee.  I never really know what I'm doing at these meetings (I had to give a short speech in an official capacity this week) but I stay very close to the president and try to look serious.  (You don't know how much I pray for the president's continued good health.  I certainly don't want to ever step into his shoes!!!)

Taiga-kun's robot quilt has gotten to the flimsy stage!  Yeah!  I sewed the 30 robots together and then spent all day sandwiching and basting to get this ready for quilting.  Originally I had thought I'd hand quilt (stitch-in-the-ditch) this over the winter months but after struggling with it on another day I gave up that idea and ripped out all the quilting I'd done around one robot and put the quilt on the sewing machine.  I have a feeling that maybe the background fabric (the black) is a bit too heavy and I was having difficulty pushing my needle through all the layers.  Even Tetsu commented as he watched me take a stitch at a time, that I didn't look like I was enjoying the process...  I decided that rather than risk getting tendonitis I'd use the sewing machine...  Things don't go perfectly with machine quilting either but I doubt that Taiga-kun will notice or mind.

Marlene and I went out to lunch together and did some shopping at a department store though I only came home with Mister Donuts...

Apple season has started and we go to the neighborhood orchard to buy bags of apples every couple of weeks.  Japanese apples are so sweet and crisp!

On Saturday the elementary school had their Sports Day and because I'm the crosswalk guard, I was invited to that event.  The kids really get into all the relay races and the cheerleaders squad (which is NOTHING like cheerleaders in America.  It is all very strict with slow deliberate movements...  They did have pom-poms though...)  Red Team (Aka-gumi) and White Team (Shiro-gumi) and each side roots for the opposing team as well as their own. 

Tug-o-war was much the same as in the States though this event was children against parents with teachers and custodian coming to help the children's team at the end.

Yesterday I was back at the City Hall to attend a three hour seminar of CPR.  This is required of all the crosswalk guards every two years and we were given instruction and did hands-on work with the fire department.  It was very interesting though I do hope that I'll never have to use any of the skills I've gained.

Today I spent ALL DAY making cookies for an elementary school fair that we are having on Saturday.  I made nearly 300 cookies in my little oven that bakes only 24 cookies at a time (these are rather small cookies).  

They are nothing fancy but everyone likes "real American cookies".  (Japanese don't do much baking at home so baked goods are few and far between.)

Leiya seems to be busy too.  She said she took the boys to Ohio for a couple of days early this month and got to visit with old high school and college friends.

And that's about it for the past two weeks.  Stay healthy!

 

Cool weather finally!

La-ti-da-!  I'm so happy that the weather has cooled off.  I'll never complain about cold weather again (says I who also hates cold weather.  Remind me again in the middle of winter!)

During September, even though the days were still hot till about the middle of the month, we could see the season changing with the chestnut trees giving up their nuts over a few days.  The chestnut balls always look "cute" on the trees but once they fall, they are prickly and stab when harvesters try to get the nuts from them.  Even children know that one steps on a chestnut ball with both feet in order not to get stabbed, and pull the prickly outer coverings apart with the feet to reveal the three nuts inside each ball.  For the past couple of weeks the children coming to the crosswalk hand me the chestnuts that they have picked up along their walk to school.

I also get chestnuts from English students and last week was handed two bags of chestnuts from two different students.  In some ways getting chestnuts is a real blessing as they can be delicious when cooked right, but in other ways, I grimace when handed a bag of chestnuts because I know it means a couple of hours of peeling and cooking.

The chestnuts have to be soaked overnight and then boiled to soften the outer peel.  Next they must be  carefully peeled (without cutting into the meat of the nut) and then boiled again to get the bitterness out of the inner skin of the nut.  At about this point, Tetsu heard me grumbling about the job in front of me still after already spending two hours peeling nuts and he joined me for another hour of peeling.  After the second boil I was supposed to throw out the water, wash the nuts again and boil them a second time but I rushed through and added sugar to this third boil.  After an hour of simmering I was supposed to have sweet soft chestnuts but actually they were still hard, and still bitter!  

"This is sure a lot of work for something that doesn't taste so great."  

In the end I continued another hour of simmering and my chestnuts were edible if not the sweet goodness that I'd hoped for.  I made applesauce the next day and the combination was rather good so I guess my chestnut cooking this year was successful.

The bulldozers have been busy behind our house and Tetsu prefers to tear down his garden himself than let the bulldozers do it.  He works a little everyday digging up plants that he'd like to move elsewhere (actually not much of a yard though to move them to) and then watches the bulldozers getting closer and closer.  He looks a little sad even from behind.

As for me, as the bulldozers roar, I stay upstairs in my sewing room sewing robots...

Robot group One.

Robot group Two.

Robot group Three.

Robot group Four.

Robot group Five.

So yeah!  I have 30 robots made!  That's pretty good work for the past month.  The next step is to put these all together into mixed groups and then sew them into a flimsy.  Whew!  I feel like I've gotten a lot done in the sewing department!

The other major project that got completed was the kimono coat I've been working on for at least the past 6 months.  My friend took the coat home to put in button holes for me (my sewing machine doesn't do button holes) and I bought some buttons to be covered in the yellow fabric and pulled out some old buttons that I had bought years ago for the brown side of the coat (actually vice-versa.  I put the yellow buttons on the brown side and the brown buttons on the yellow side).  

Voila!  My reversible kimono coat!  Yellow side out.

Brown side out.  

What do you think?  Tetsu suggests I wear the yellow side out when the weather is rainy or at night as I will sure be visible!

I guess I prefer the brown side though the yellow kimono really shows that this is kimono fabric.  My friend/student let me keep the pattern she made for this coat saying, 

"Now you can make another one by yourself!"  

Hmmm...  Probably not but I know it can be done!

M-san and I have decided that she will make a pretty batik quilt with some jelly rolls of fabric I had in my stash.  She picked out a pattern THAT I HAVE MADE BEFORE and I assured her that she will have a beautiful quilt when it is finished.  I read aloud the instructions THAT I HAVE READ BEFORE and question marks bloom above our heads.  

"Don't panic.  We can do this.  I've made the same quilt before.  We just have to dive in and then it will all become clear."

I guess that is my philosophy about a lot of things.  Just start doing it and it will probably work out in the end...

And that's about it for the past few weeks.  Sewing, and sewing and, as you can see, sketching.