Pictures shared from California

I got a follow-up on Leiya's and Tony's trip to California.  And finally some pictures.

According to Marcy (whom I chatted with this morning) Grandma remembered that Tony is Leiya's boyfriend.  He had been to visit the family in California maybe 6 years ago when Grandma was still up and around.  Marcy said that Grandma even seemed to understand that her engagement ring has been passed on so that makes it special for everyone to have her blessing.

 Lots of romantic photos here... 

Tetsu and I love seeing Leiya so happy.

This must be a sunset photo as I don't think one can take sunrise photos over the ocean in Southern California.

I don't know where these photos were taken but I guess Takumi and Julieta-san joined Leiya and Tony somewhere near the beach.

 This was the first time for Julieta-san and Tony to meet.

Another day Takumi and Colin and Kiana joined Leiya and Tony.  (All these selfies these days...  I guess that's the way to take photos now.  No asking a passerby for assistance.)

I LOVE this photo of Takumi and Colin.  This is the first time I've ever thought the cousins looked alike.  Colin has always been a skinny little blond boy but now he's got a beard and does body building.  I wonder if they realize how much they mirror each other...

 Leiya and Tony went off to some art section of Los Angeles.

And these are my two sons.  Well, Tony is my soon-to-be-son.

 A memorable California trip for Leiya and Tony!

News!

Finally some news!  We've been waiting for it!

A month ago Leiya's boyfriend, Tony, Facetimed me.  Well, well... this was a first as Leiya lives in Ohio and Tony lives in Michigan and the only times we get to talk with Tony is when Leiya is visiting him or vice versa.  In this case he was alone in Michigan.  He wanted to know if Tetsu was around.  Hmm...  This is leading up to something...  Unfortunately Tetsu was at work so I got to chat with Tony alone.  I asked him how his residency was going and how his mom was.  The conversation got around to plans for the future...  what he and Leiya talked about, the things they thought were important and not important...  Finances, lifestyles, God, weddings...  I let Tony know that Tetsu and I were completely happy about where things seemed to be headed and he said he'd call us again when Tetsu was home.

"If you want to be official, Tetsu will be home tomorrow morning our time."  I said with a grin and we signed off.

The next morning Tony Facetimed us again.

"Okay.  I'm nervous here...  Well, it's like this.  I'd like your permission to ask for Leiya's hand in marriage."

Formal!

"You've got it!  And we are both so happy!"

A few tears were even shed on the Japan side of the world.  Tetsu was surprised at Tony's request for our permission as in Japan the young couple might call on the parents together to make their announcement but I explained that this was the traditional custom in the States.  Tony laid everything out again for Tetsu, his future dreams, challenges to be worked through, priorities.  We repeated how happy we were at Tony and Leiya's match and that we've been hoping for this announcement for a long time (they've dated 7 years!)

We knew that Leiya was visiting Michigan that weekend and so Tetsu and I waited excitedly for the communication that Tony had proposed!...  No communication.  Not that day, not the next, nor the next and Tetsu kept pestering me.

"What could have gone wrong?  Did Tony propose or not?  Did she accept or not?"

Finally nearly 5 days later I Messaged Leiya with a blase,

"What's up?"

And Leiya wrote back,

"I heard Tony Facetimed you."

"Yes!  And what happened?  Give me details!"

So we Facetimed.  She said she knew by the expression on his face and his silly mood that something was up and she guessed right off the bat.

"You talked to my parents."

"Yep."

"So...  Are you proposing?"

 "Not yet.  I've got to get it right." (Or something along those lines)

So no proposal after-all...  And Leiya didn't understand why Tetsu and I were waiting with bated breath.

"You've always known Tony and I were planning to get married.  There's no reason to get so excited about it."

So a month has passed with no news.  Oh well, Leiya and Tony don't get to be together but once every couple of months anyway.  Tetsu and I put our excitement on hold...  Leiya and I talked about how they aren't planning to spend a lot of money on a wedding or an engagement ring.  As for an engagement ring, when Tetsu and I got engaged we didn't have any money either and I insisted I didn't need an engagement ring but at some point my mother sent us HER mother's engagement ring and told Tetsu to consider it Tani's engagement ring and that's what we did.  So I told Leiya I could send Tony the same ring for him to give to her.

"No.  That's too much responsibility."  (which I thought a funny comment.  The ring is responsibility?  Getting married is the responsibility!)  "I'd rather have Grandma's engagement ring."

One summer when Leiya was with me in California, Marcy, Leiya, Kiana and I went through Grandma's jewelry box seeing what anyone might want or use in the jumble of costume jewelry.  There was actually a pearl set I wanted and brooches of my grandmother's that I brought back to Japan but the engagement ring was set aside for Leiya or Kiana someday.  Kiana didn't really want it because she had Marcy's mother's rings coming to her so we agreed that Grandma's ring could someday be handed down to Leiya.

"I hate to be accused as being superstitious but you don't mind that Grandma and Papa-Dad (my father) got divorced at the end of their long marriage?"

"No.  I have memories of Papa-Dad.  You've always told me good stories about Grandma and Papa-Dad and the good times they did have.  I don't know YOUR grandmother.  I'd like to use Grandma's ring."

So this past week when Tony finally got his first vacation after becoming a resident, the two of them flew to California to relax, to be with my brother and Marcy, to visit with Takumi and Julieta, and to spend time with Grandma.  AND to get Grandma's engagement ring.

I gather that Tony proposed to Leiya at sunrise on the beach.  Tetsu and I were sitting under a tree at a park when we got dual text messages from them on our iPhones.

"We are engaged!  I know we're slow in making the announcement but I'm letting you two know first!

Tetsu jumped to his feet (he was on his phone when the message came in).

"What?  Did you get that?  Did you read that?!  Leiya says she and Tony are engaged!"

We texted back immediately and got the details of the beach proposal.

Finally!  The news we've been waiting for!
 

The countryside

I have an evening class in a few minutes, something that I'm helping one of Tetsu's friend's with.  The man is in his eighties and as a former English teacher, he began teaching an English class to seniors at the local community center.  He asked me to help and so I go every couple of months for a couple of hours.  Everyone is rather slow paced and deliberate in their English but they are keeping themselves active and young by stretching their minds.  And all of them are going off to England for a trip in June so they all have even more incentive to speak English!  I'm in the room just to give them listening practice...  (though I'm not going to be able to imitate a British accent...)  Today I baked a batch of cookies for them to have at their break time.

Most of what is in my camera are pictures from my neighborhood walks...  Japan is turning green and the flowers are coming out!

Just a green field with a farmhouse in back. I don't think this is a crop of anything.  It may just be a resting field for this season.

This is our good farmer friend Mr. Y who supplies us with greens a couple of times a week.  Looks like back breaking work doesn't it?  Mr. Y got into farming AFTER he retired from an office job and when he was in an office and driving around the countryside (something to do with agriculture) he had a bad back.  But once he got into the rhythm of farming, his back strengthened up and he has no complaints any more!  Go figure!

Flowers....  The rape blossoms are edible but maybe not at this stage...  I think they are too long and stringy now.  They make the countryside so cheerful!

Some variety of plum is blooming not far from us.

And this is another variety of plum (I think.)  Look at all those petals!

Near a farmer's shed was this profusion of daffodils!

And this colorful display and three or four other planters like it are now decorating the construction site where a new bridge is coming in over our little stream.  The flowers are silk and rather garish but I thought it interesting that the construction company would go to the bother of decorating the little detour that cars and pedestrians must be inconvenienced to use while the building is underway.

I often take my camera with me trying to catch a photo of the wild pheasants but they are extremely skittish and won't let me get close to them.  This wasn't a great picture but I spotted this handsome fellow and crept up on him taking a picture every few steps.  This was the closest I could get and still stay in focus (walking on tiptoes is not conducive to great photography....)  I will try to do better.

And that has been my week of walking! 

Dinner, Japanese style

Oh dear.  The days are quiet around here...  I have sewing up in the sewing room but very little handwork which makes for rather boring evenings.   The lack of handwork is because I am being treated for WARTS on my left forefinger and left thumb and with them both bandaged up it makes working with needles and pins rather clumsy.   (And typing on the computer too!)

My food posts are not very exciting nor inspiring but as I do cook every night, I took some photos of what was going on in the kitchen just because I felt rather smug that our meal was so ultra Japanese one night.

I started out with a slab of salted fish.  Half a fish.  The other half Tetsu was eating.  The fish came split down the middle and already slightly dried and all I had to do was cut it in half all the way and grill it.  No seasonings.  We are not big fish eaters mainly because I don't know how to cook but one or two things...  And you can't really go wrong with grilled fish but it does get boring.  Also, once the fish is grilling in the kitchen the cats go wild over the aroma and it is difficult to fight them off when eating dinner!  (Not really... They are good about waiting but they start meowing the minute we stand up from the table...  They want to bones!)  I aim for fish once a week...

These were marinated green onions.  I sliced up two or three thin green onions (maybe they were leeks) and let them sit in water for an hour to get rid of the bitterness.  I served them with Ponzu, a type of citrus vinegar and just because I had left over ham slices in the refrigerator I cut up some ham.  Tetsu loves this dish and raw onions and raw green onions are supposed to help the circulation...

One of my favorite dishes, but a lot of work, is Shirae which is sesame tofu.  I drain the tofu for about an hour (soaking the green onions for an hour on one side of the counter, draining the tofu on the other side of the counter) and in the meantime I boil up greens (handed to me again that morning from the farmer a couple of fields away) and simmer dried mushrooms and carrots.  When all is ready I use a mortar and pestle to grind a lot of sesame seeds (like a cup worth) and then add soy sauce, salt, and honey and then smash in the tofu until all is smooth.  At the end I dump in all the vegetables and mix it all up.  It is served icy cold and is delicious!
And glory be!  If I'm not making pickles again this year!  My pool friend gave me instructions on how to make my own pickles...  The mash there in the container is made from rice hulls and salt.  I bought that mixture in the supermarket for just this purpose.  But to make pickles my own I added seaweed and chili peppers and even a clove of garlic.  The container will hold three or four cucumbers at a time and I have even thrown in a couple of turnips there.   If I regularly make pickles (like every couple of days) then the mash will last all summer with an occasional addition of salt or seaweed.  The cucumbers only have to be in the mash over night so it is a great way to use cucumbers and other leftover vegetables!

Pickles.

I think I also made miso soup which I forgot to photograph...  It was a pretty simple dinner and rather on the healthy side.

Patio chairs

I started out with one picture I wanted to show you this morning...

It is warming up around here and we would like to think about eating breakfast out on the patio on the weekends.  But this winter took a toll on our patio chairs and the seat webbing on both of them disintegrated.  One sit down and I fell through the chair seat!  So we've been looking around for new patio chairs.  These had originally been a second hand shop find anyway and so we weren't really planning to fork out a lot of money.  There are not THAT many Saturday morning breakfasts outside what with the rainy season and the mosquito season etc.  But without chairs we weren't going to make any use of the patio at all.

And the frames of the chairs were still good so it seemed a shame to buy new chairs and have to make another trip to the dump to get rid of the broken ones...  Tetsu contemplated buying lumber and building seat platforms to lay over the frames but that ran into money too...

Sooo...  Yesterday when we were at the hardware store we got the idea of using packing tape and weaving a seat.  Was it possible?  With no instructions to follow could something be made from the chair frames?  Oh well, for 5 dollars a roll of tape, Tetsu decided to give it a try and quickly determined that strength was needed to pull the straps tight and that I was out of the running for this project.  He got tired of it pretty quickly too and when I went to bed at 10:00 the seatless frame was sitting in the corner of the living room and Tetsu was again asleep on the sofa.

BUT!  This morning I wake up and come downstairs to find a perfectly good chair ready to be sat upon!  Tetsu stayed up til 2:00am weaving a seat bottom and the chair was now usable again!

This is the photo I took this morning to show you...  One very nice patio chair...  Maybe not what you would call natural coloring but this is what was offered at the hardware shop.  I love it!!!

I went to church this morning but Tetsu had to be at the office for a few hours and so our paths didn't cross again until I got home around 3:00 this afternoon after grocery shopping, an hour at the pool etc.  Tetsu sent me a photo saying to expect this...

TWO CHAIRS!  Tetsu stopped by a different hardware store on his way home from work and bought more packing tape and he spent the next couple hours weaving another chair seat!  We are set for breakfasts on the patio!

Pretty great!  I am ultra satisfied!!!
 

A group project

My patchwork group had such a day of hilarity yesterday.  It is so nice to have a bunch of friends where we can just laugh and tease and let down our hair and talk about everything and anything.  Family cares, spiritual questions, fumbles and bumbles of daily life, news from different friends that we keep in touch with privately.

Our most recent project has been putting together a quilt for one of our member's (Our LCM...  Least Confident Member) 60th birthday.  She is the friend who doesn't much like to sew but loves to chat.  For this secret project, we are grateful that she only could make a brief appearance yesterday giving the rest of us time to work on our blocks and consult with each other.  

With everything out on the table and spread out in the tatami room and with the sewing machine buzzing, we decided to lock the front door as we all just come barging into Mrs. Furui's house as if it was our own.  We didn't want our LCM to catch us at work when and if she did show up.  And she did! 

We heard the unsuccessful try to open the front door and then the rarely heard doorbell. 

"It's her!" 

We grabbed our sewing and stuffed all of it in bags and in closets and I bundled up the half sewn seams from the sewing machine and stuffed them in a box.  Mrs. Furui went to the front door and stalled blaming her husband for locking the front door on his way out.  (Sorry Mr. Furui.)  Our LCM never had a clue and we all sat around the table and tried to look busy with nothing in front of us...

After a bit of a chat she was off again to work and everything came out of their hiding places.

And this is what we were up to!  These are the blocks made for our LCM's songs that she has written for the kindergarten children.  Trust me, the blocks are a good representation of each of the songs lyrics.

"When you wake in the morning"

 "Mountain lullaby"

 "Circles"

 "The rooster march"

 "The earth is green in me"

 "Light and darkness"

 "Slowly, slowly"

 "Going on"

 "After the rain"

There was major mess up by someone, a person who NEVER makes mistakes!  Who is our mentor!  Who takes pride in her craftsmanship!  Whom we love and admire to bits!  And who will probably never live it down...  Mrs. F.... but wait you don't need to know that do you....?  And when I pointed out the mistake she about swooned but spent the next hour redoing that part of her block grumbling and mumbling all the way about future senility and why hadn't one of us noticed the mistake before etc. etc.  We all kept our grins under our collars as we laid out the rest of the blocks and waited for Mrs. F to finish...  If it had been me, I would have wanted to know and do my block over rather than have it as is for eternity...  And that was why I pointed out the mistake, knowing that my mentor has the same spirit.  A good lesson!  We ALL make these dumb mistakes!

The blocks are laid out and will be sewn together at our next gathering.  We are so pleased!

More flowers on the porch

Me, with the not green thumb, has been planting flowers again.

Tetsu and I went looking for something at the hardware store, and there was a wonderful display of planted flowers with cute decorations for $10 each.  So pretty.

"I think I want that one." I said pointing to a pot and calling a worker over.

"Oh no, ma'am.  These are for display.  You MAKE your own pot of flowers at this corner..."

"Do you mean the planter is included?  And the soil?  And the flowers?  AND the cute decorations?"

"Yes, everything is included.  You get to pick out five flowers from our flats here."

Well, this seemed like a bargain to me as the worker was also going to stand next to me and explain how to plant my flowers.  So I paid my $10 and was handed a pair of plastic gloves and given a choice of a brown planter or a white planter.  And then I was instructed in shoveling a layer of stones at the bottom of the planter and then a layer of soil.  I picked out my five flowers (which took a long time and Tetsu went off to other parts of the hardware store) and the worker gave me instructions for trimming the overgrown roots and opening up the root bundles a bit.

After I was satisfied with my flower placement I was given a bowl of gardening decorations of which I could choose two.  Of course I chose cats.

My new pot of flowers at the front door!  I am so pleased with it I want to go back and make more... even though I now know the basics of planting flowers on my own. 

The colorful flowers make me smile, and the added decorations give me a chuckle!