Cultural festival

Bi-ze-n-ya-ki

This afternoon, I drove to our town-hall with Shizusan to see the exhiibits that were created by the town people.
There are flower arrangements, porcelains, paintings, calligraphy, ha-i-ku, wood carving, many handicrafts and so on.

Shizusan's work was a handmade bag.

Once a year, they introduce their own works.
Each person has his or her own hobbies and must have enjoyed making them.
And today they also enjoy looking at each other's work .

This event seems to be held many towns and cities.

I saw some friends I haven't seen long and talked with them a little, which was also a pleasure time.
Where many people gather together, we happned to see men we don't expect to see.

What can we do?

White chrysanthemum


Now in the middle area of Niigata prefecture, many people lost their houses and they are in the refuges, living in the cars or tents in the cold.

Every day, T.V news reports mainly about the sufferers of the earthquake in Niigata.
I wonder what has becomes of the sufferers of typhoon no.23.
Maybe the earthquake was too strong and did too much damage, it has becomes a matter of concern.

Anyhow both the typhoon and the earthquake were deadful disarsters.

What can I do for them?

I think what is important is to have a concern and not to be indifferent to them.
And if possible, we should contribute some money or necessaries to them.
Going to the stricken area is also good, but this will be difficult for us.

I'm hoping for their restoration from uneasy and incovenient situation as early as possible.

Click change

This is a test of 'click change'.

I found it in みんなのブログ.

Green 'ho-u-ki-so-u' will turn red .
Please click this picture!!

Foliage plant

I grow many kinds of foliage plant.

It's becoming colder and colder these days, so I put them in the house.
As I don't have a green house for them, I put them in the entance hall, a passage, e.t.c.
They will be in the house utill next April.

This is one of my annual event.

Proverb 9

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind ?

This means the bad situation doesn't last so long.
So if we were in bad condition, we shoud not be so disappointed but have hope.

One of my friends once said, "By the end of life, everyone will be equal. Every person may have the same quntity of good and bad luck."

It may be true!

Aloe

Yellow flower

I saw this flower, but I don't know the name of it.



Does anyone know the name of this flower?

Adzuki bean

Shizusan grows these adzuki beens too.

She is drying the 'beans in the pod.'

These are dried beans.



These are cooked for 'rice boilled with red beans', 'a bean-paste ball' and so on.

Gradation

Gradation test.

I found this tool of making gradation in Ordinary_Love's blog.
It's fun!!


Down of a dandelion

Ginkgo nut

The other day, Shizusan gathered these ginkgo nuts;gi-n-na-n' on her way from the clinic near my house.

The leaves of ginkgoes or maidenhair trees ;'i-cho-u' in Japanese are turning yellow now and they began dropping their nuts on the ground.
Though they smell very nasty, inside of the seed that we can eat is good.

She is drying these seeds now.

We usually eat them in the dish of 'a savory steamed egg custard with assorted ingredients';'cha-wa-n-mu-shi' in Japanese.

Disaster

There were very big earthquakes in Niigata prefecture yesterday evening.
Many people died or hurt and a lot of houses were broken down.
The rodes and highways were cut.
Even Shinkansen got derailed.

How awful the people there were !
I don't know what to say.

It was a few days after the strong typhoon no.23 which gave much damage at many districts.

Natural disasters are really fearfull as they are beyond our control.


Wild chrysanthemum

At the polling place

Cosmos



Today is an election day.

I went a small community center in the afternoon with my mother-in law ( from now on in blog, I　will call her Shizusan) by car.
There were some peoplle who came to vote in the hall.
I saw some receptionists and voting witnesses who are my acquaintances.
I elected three candidates.
A prefectural governor, a mayor and a member of town assembly on each voting paper.

By this midnight, the result will be known.



By the way, we can see some people at the place like that whom we have't seen long.

Today too, I could see a few persons whom I don't usually see and talk with.
One of them was a young beautiful lady who was my daughter's classmate.
She is now working for a TV company and is an announcer there, so I told her that I sometimes watched her news show and so on.
She has become a good anouncer!

Pyracantha

Pyracantha


I saw a tree with lot's of red seeds in the yard of my next door.

The color of deep red caught my eyes.
It would catch the eyes of the birds too and the birds will come to eat them.
So at the end of fall or the early winter, the red seeds will disappear.

After typhoon no.23

Typhoon no.23 gave us much damage.

An old tree trunk in my yard was also broken off by the strong wind.

But at the bottom of it, I can see the young leaves.


Now I can see the scenery better from inside the room.



Many tall trees of shrine near my house also fell down.

Farm work

I went to my neighborhood to do a group work of removing the hull of rice with a machine with my husband from 8 o'clock in the morning.
It took about 3 hours to unhull about 2tons of rice.

Maybe we　will do the same work as we did today next week at my house if weather permits.

We can eat the rice after polishing and boiling them.


Persimmon tree

Se-n-ryo-u and Ma-n-ryo-u

This is 'se-n-ryo-u'.


This is ’ma-n-ryo-u'


The seeds of these plant turn red soon.
Red color make a good contrast with green leaves.
We use these plants for flower arrangement especially in New Years Days.

Seeing them with red seeds, I remind me of happy feeling of New Year.