a nordic dream

*

*

are you on vacation or stay-cation?

there’s no hot news this week either,

but temperature-wise,

it’s just way too hot.

japan is sizzling.

i’m not lying!

when air-conditioners can’t beat the heat,

i always start a home-decorating project.

as a matter of fact,

i am in the thick of it.

i know i sound like a crazy ant.

i’ve been painting my living room floor nordic white.

it’s more like taking a swedish-style sauna than decorating, though.

the living room looks almost done,

so i can make a move on my bed room, then.

my dream will be drifting around the norwegian wood?

looking at summer flowers,
the bog sages, in the park as well as on my balcony, are blooming,

they are as blue as the summer sky.

white geranium is among my all-time favourites, by the way.

their petals resemble white butterfly wings, don’t you think?

enjoy your hot (or cool?) summer weekend, my friends!

*

*

*

waxing gibbous moon + last goodbye to the summer visitors

our japanese custom of autumn moon-viewing came from ancient china as i posted on october 3rd. and, i've just learned, for the ancient japanese, the annual moon-viewing must take place for not only the full moon but also the waxing gibbous moon, which was believed to be the second most beautiful moon. i've found that it falls tonight. luckily, the sky looks clear enough.

meanwhile, the temperature rose as high as 24 degrees c yesterday. the indian summer seems to stay on for one more day or two. obviously, this warm weather, due to the global warming, has prolonged my local butterfly season so that i can see tiny butterflies like pale grass blues in the park. as long as a butterfly is seen the season is summer to me.

*

however, according to the recent weather forecast, we will eventually need to prepare for chilly mornings. no wonder, october is ending! it must be the time i to bid last goodbye to the summer visitors in the park. so here, i wanted to show you who i ran into there this season. plus, the last night's moon.

*

oh, are you going to a halloween party tomorrow night?

happy halloween!

*

*

cornwall where colin and joy live

i learned that irving penn passed away on thursday, aged 92. he was one of my favourite photographers. and i am very fond of black and white photos like his and henri cartier-bresson’s, although i don’t take any black and white photos myself any longer. i only rely on digital camera now and my old canon eos has been laid to rest in my closet for years. i’m not good at portraits, but i used to take a few black and white ones, of colin wilson for example. he is an english author who is actually better known in japan and the usa than england.
*

cool and fresh air of this glorious autumn morning brought me memories of my october trip to scenic cornwall where colin and joy wilson lived. i sort of befriended them when i made colin fly to tokyo for a special lecture as part of a symposium i organised along with my girl-colleagues. they were kindly saying to me i should visit them home in cornwall some time. so some months later, when i started my ma art course in london, i took a train from paddington. in advance of that, joy reminded me not to forget to bring a raincoat with me because the weather could be whimsical there.

*

joy picked me up from the st. austell station. after a heavy shower, the sun appeared on the way to gorran haven. the day turned out to be a beautiful indian summer day, which seemed as if it’d last forever in cornwall. fuchsias were still in full bloom here and there in the village. in their big garden, there were a bungalow and several sheds that all stored some 30, 000 titles of books. i stayed at the bungalow comfortably but in fact i slept being surrounded by their bookshelves. during my stay, between sightseeing, joy took me to various places such as an archaeology workshop and a local library for her research, namely, to help colin out.

colin would work on a book in his basement study from early in the morning to 5pm every day. supper would start around 6pm when colin opened a bottle of wine. they had no dinning table. we gathered in the lounge instead, using a tray on our each lap. colin kept talking (almost nonsense) to rowan, his younger son who lived with them, while joy kept just smiling quietly. although i forgot why, i happened, and sure was certainly honoured, to meet all his family members at the weekend as his daughter came back home from south africa for some reason where she lived at the time and his elder son drove home from london to join.

*

as time went by, i lost contact with them. but i am glad to find via some net news they are both well. especially these black and white photographs make me feel appreciative of the precious time in cornwall colin and joy offered me.

pic 1.
his house is built on the hill overlooking the sea, while the parrot perching on a branch overlooking me in his lounge.
pic 2.
small room next to the entrance hall. i found the young colin on an old poster quite cute.
pic 3.
idylic view out of the bungalow window where i stayed. there were flocks of sheep and goats behind the wire fence.
pic 4.
bungalow interior.
pic 5.

lounge with colin’s creative clutter.
pic 6.
their cat fell asleep on joy’s lap while their dog yawning. i often walked the dog down to the nearby shore during the stay.
pic 7.
joy told me that all the animals in the house belonged to her daughter. whenever she came home she left joy and colin her pets one by one.
pic 8.
entrance hall. no cornish country life could exist with no wellingtons!
pic 9.
in the bungalow. i picked nasturtium from the garden and placed on the windowsill.
pic 10.
mr colin wilson, smiling.
*
*
how are you enjoying this sunday?
*

culture or nature?

it rained, all in all, until this morning. i’d enjoyed having a daily walk in the park adjacent to the premise of my flat pretending there was no rainy season this year until today. but, as i certainly noticed that some flowers in the park almost blighted, i knew they needed that. so, i felt happy about the rain for them, even though i usually hate rain.
* i was thinking about my present environment when i was walking in my park yesterday: if i had to choose between culture and nature, which would it be? i didn’t think i’d bear to live a life without cultural inspirations. until i moved to this suburb in osaka, i had an urban life (mostly in london) with galleries, museums, cinemas, opera houses, concerts, bohemian cafés and glamorous restaurants, street markets and multi-ethnicity of people from all over the world. now, there are no such things; culture-wise, people are less adventurous here.

*

however, i have my park -- a huge, by japanese standards, and beautiful park where a dazzling variety of fauna and flora live. it amuses me throughout the year. i am not saying i no longer need cultures, though. in fact, i am dying to have a local art centre like camden arts centre or whitechapel gallery in town. but, there are very few who fancy a city-run contemporary art gallery to use our tax, i suppose. so, instead, i have a prefectural-owned park that is situated so close to me. how lucky i am?
*
in retrospect, i seem i always tended and tried to live near a park in my life. while living in london, i could get both: culture and nature. london parks are gorgeous; actually living near one of them was a dream-come-true experience. but when i lived in new cross (a hip town now? according to the new york times) because of goldsmiths college where i was then studying art, i couldn’t help feeling restless, owing to the environment that there were no parks nearby. greenwich park and blackhearth are not an easy walking distance from new cross, you know.

*

i wanted a green retreat as much as i wanted a daily debate on art back then. now that i have no choice, i am happily live up to only one of my ideals. in my park, i have my favourite spots where green looks magical. and, i encounter little creatures like a kingfisher in a secluded spot, while i am relieved to see honeybees hovering over the lavenders, since i know their recent mysterious disappearing has become a big issue not only in the usa and uk but in japan as well. small coppers (butterfly) and carpenter bees are also busy working at the moment.

*
the purple of the stream-like lavender fields gets deeper and deeper day by day. what a joy – the reason why i feel now this way probably came from my experience of recovering from serious illness. i was hospitalized two years ago today. since i got back home, i don’t take anything for granted anymore. meanwhile, i greatly regret that i treated my father as if he would be around forever. he did not, quite the contrary, he died much earlier than average japanese guys. while he was alive, we never had a walk together in the park he too loved. yes, it’s father’s day, today. treat your daddy good. happy father’s day, everyone!

bluebell report

in japan right now, we are in the middle of spring break. people have gone on holiday somewhere. me? i do love spending this pleasant season staying at home (no, not because of the swine flu pandemic), because, you know, i have a beautiful park adjacent to the premise of my flat. so i couldn’t be happier to find spring flowers, especially bluebells, in my park than going anyplace crowded. for me, bluebells associates with springtime in london. many english people associate magnolias or rhododendrons with spring, maybe. the bluebells took my breath away when i had a walk in the park between sprinkles of rain last sunday.

*

in retrospect, i was a big fan of cocteau twins who sang “blue bell knoll” in the late 80’s when i lived in london. over there, bluebells could be seen anywhere. but sadly, i lost my own favourite photos of a bluebell wood of newbury. i can get identical images from here or blogs like vanya’s, though. also, i once had an opportunity of working on a magazine assignment with a renowned japanese photographer ages ago. we had a photo-shoot at kew gardens. that image of the bluebells seems to remain in my mind for good. by the way, i believed those ones were common bluebells. perhaps, the ones i now see in my park are spanish bluebells, which, i’ve just learned, invade areas of native common bluebells in england. so they are precious now.

the bluebell season looked nearly over when i had a walk yesterday. still, i could enjoy sort of a residue of the english spring image. i sometimes spotted a white variant in london. in fact, i’m always attracted to white or greenish flowers. along with bluebells, clearly green hellebore also passed their prime, however. now that white lace flowers (orlaya grandiflora) must be the queens of the garden in my park. there were other whites such as tulips and 姫空木 hime-utsugi (deutzia gracilis). if you took a closer look at flowers, you would find tiny green creatures like a spider and a grasshopper busy working on them. despite the fact that i have a terrible arachno-phobia, that was another lovely discovery!

*

trees were beautiful, too. 花水木 hanamizuki (dogwood) can never be an eye-opener, but it brightened up the path in woodlands. do you remember my post on 梅 woo-may (prunus mume) blossom back in february? when i walked through the 梅 orchard, i saw swelling green fruits on the branches already rounding. and, what about the post on burning 紅葉momiji? lacy soft green leaves, trembling to the breeze, now made me a green canopy while walking up to the main path. then, on my way home, i found that each 柊南天 hiiragi-nannten (mahonia japonica) in the shrub near my flat had dozens of fruits, which exactly look like gems of jade.

back in my living room, a couple of white bawls of lace-up hydrangea, a new face among my pot-plants, looked just serene. for me, it was heaven on earth, for a moment or two.

somewhere between...

winter and spring. maybe, both seasons are here, sharing, fighting otherwise, at the moment. people in the western part of japan recognised 春一番 haru ichiban (the first gale of spring) last weekend. i was right in not holding my breath, however. we’ve had chilly days and only a few sunny days lately. according to the weather forecast, there seem to be more rainy or cloudy days this week as well. on friday, i went out to my park as soon as the rain stopped. the wind was wintry while the light was somewhat different from the one i felt a week ago or so. naturally, the flora and fauna of the park did know of its difference better than i did.

*

there is a 梅 woomei (prunus mume known as japanese apricot or chinese plum) orchard in the park. it’s been getting popular and popular for locals as a 梅見 woomei-mi (梅 blossom-viewing picnic) spot over the last couple of years. 梅見 is in fact much less familiar than 花見 hana-mi (桜 cherry blossom-viewing picnic). but, 梅 blossom is more fragrant than 桜 blossom indeed, so you might swoon. i was planning, or hoping, to picnic some time between late this month and early march just like i did twice last year: one with my mother and another with daughter during her stay. we enjoyed our packed lunch and a tiny glass of 梅酒 woomei-shu (ume liquor) under the 梅 blossoms.

it was quite 風流 hooryu (sort of -- characteristically japanese taste and a traditionally poetic manner for appreciating the nature) and i liked it. 梅 blossom is a symbol of spring for 俳句 haiku & 和歌 waka (japanese poetry). it is not just a pretty face, though. it’s a tough beauty since it blooms even in the snow; it bears a versatile fruit for cooking. but, then again, i’ve already realised the 梅 blossoms in my park came out much earlier than last year. this year’s best 梅 season is going. it’s been too chilly to take a picnic there. apparently, i am missing an opportunity to go on a 梅見 this year. however, there were a party who immersed themselves in feasting among the 梅 trees in the orchard.

they were intoxicated メジロ mejiro (japanese white-eyes). they were flying from tree to tree sucking 梅 nectar frantically even though i stood pretty close to them. they’d escape me, stay away from noisy people, usually. when it came to 梅 season, they appeared to get carried away, no time for caution, which looked funny to me and made me smile -- alright then, little birds, i’d willingly give up my picnic for you all! even so, i had great fun just viewing the blossoms. i left the orchard and walked along the path. then i stopped to check with the place where hellebores (known as christmas roses) were planted. they also came into bloom at once.


i noticed many bird-watchers holding their digital cameras with “grand and long” telephoto lens. i was jealous. i took a different path from my usual one for a change. a flowerbed of 葉牡丹 habotan (ornamental cabbages), which i had passed by before, caught my eye. as 葉牡丹 was not among my favourites, i had always ignored them. the ruffled leaves appeared in subtle pastel shades. i was captivated by them for the first time. the rain had washed every leaf earlier on so that they could stand out, looking as pristine as ones on a flower show. i should’ve approved of its hidden beauty from the very first, shouldn't i? i felt like apologising to them.

back home, meanwhile, i found the first flower of a hyacinth in my living room sprang into bloom.

and now there've been a lot more – almost in full bloom since then. i love its scent as much as the aroma of coffee on a sunday morning.