Plum blossoms

It has been warm for a week and the plum blossoms at a zen temple named Se-n-ko-ji are in full bloom now.
Seen from my house, the color of this tree is changing day by day.
A pink tree tells us the coming of spring.
It makes my heart warm.
By the way, plum flowers usually bear fruits.
But  according to the priest of this temple, these flowers don't bear fruits.

 

 

Climbing the hills

From the top of a hill named Ba-nyu

It was very calm  and fine yesterday, so I walked in the hill for about two hours with my neighbor yesterday morning.

Walking along the path in the hill, we found a notice of old tomb and we went there first.

old tomb

Next we climbed the hill for a while to get to Ya-ku-shi-do on the hill.

We could see giant rock and a tiny temple there.

And the scenery from the place was so nice.

Last we walked down the hill's path and climbed to the top of Ba-nyu whose height is 186m.
Long long ago, there seems to have been a little mountain castle though there is nothing there now.

The scenery from that place was also so nice.

These are the pictures.

This is the slide show.

White St. Valentine's Day

It has been very cold for a few days and I woke to find white world this morning.

It is snowy all day long.

But the temperature isn't so low, so it hasn't piled so much.

As it will become cold at night, this snow will pile more.

We need to be careful tomorrow morning not to slip.

It seldom snow here, so we aren't used to snow.

By the way, today is St. Valentine's Day.

It was a white St. Valentine's Day.

 

禅ZEN

I watched this movie titled ’禅ZEN’　on DVD yesterday evening.

This movie is about the founder of Soto sect, Dogen in Kamakura era.

The sect of our temple is Soto sect, so we were recommended to see it.

To tell the truth, I went to a movie theater to see this movie about two years ago.

But we missed the movie because we couldn't go there in time because we couldn't find the parking space.

Luckily, we were presented used DVD recorder by my son, so my husband asked my daughter to borrow this DVD.

My husband and I were happy to be able to appreciate this movie.

 

Sign of spring 3

 sunset this evening.

Tomorrow is 'Se-tsu-bun' in Japanese.
It is the turning point of the season and the day after tomorrow is 'Ri-syu-n' ; the first day of spring on the calendar.

Cold winter days will continue for a month or so,  but we can feel  footsteps of spring.

The days are becoming longer and longer and some kinds of flowers began to bloom here and there.

It had been very cold till yesterday, but it was warm a little today.
According to the weather forecast, it`ll be warm this week.

We are longing for the coming of spring.