Bright Spring Sunlight 樹上享受陽光

The whisk fern has passed the cold spring between two branches. I have worried about its survival. 

 Now this plant is enjoying the gentle sunlight on the chery crotch. I watched it several times and noticed that bark could keep warmer temperature than the ground. The winter temperature in my area can go down to -8℃ or 17°F. Whisk fern cannot grow at this coldness on the ground. This one did choose the good place!

松葉蕨本來是溫暖地帶植物。與地面相比，樹皮能保持溫暖溫度。因此，這個植物能在櫻樹的樹襠上忍受嚴寒。

Swans in a River to Pass the Winter 天鵝在河中越冬

I surfed the internet and found an area of swans gathering to pass the winter. It's a river called Gongyo, not a lake or pond.

I came to the river on a Saturday this month. The width of the river is only 20 or 25m. As you see, the river is very shallow because all weirs for irrigation were put down after rice harvesting, in addition, rainfall in winter is very little.  

A young one fluttering its wings looks comfortable.

"Unwearied still lover by lover.

They paddle in the cold

Companionable streams or climb the air;

Their hearts have not grown old;

Passion or conquest, wander where they will,

Attend upon them still." 

W. B. Yeats

I know there are lots of small fishes in the river, but swans usually eat waterweed.This riverbed is gravel not mud. I am curious to know how they get foods here. After coming back home, I read the city website saying: the first swans came here 14 years ago, every year flocks of swans come to this river in the end of October and fly back in the end of March and 220 swans passed the last winter in this river.

Crops In Cold 寒中農作物的成長

It is the coldest time of the year now. Every morning the temperature falls -5℃ (23°F) or lower. Wheat has grown its roots enough to withstand frost columns.

I seldom pay attention to the growth of wheat blades.  When one month or longer time has passed, I can suddenly notice their remarkable growing. Farmers can harvest the crop in April. 小麥在逐漸成長。

Outer leaves of Chinese cabbages are bound with a string to prevent the freezing of the inside.　白菜被繩子捆住以免內部凍結。

Long green onions are tough. They are indispensable for many traditional Japanese cuisines.　我覺得大蔥是日本菜中不可缺少的一個材料。

Though spinach cannot grow leaves upward because of the heavy coldness, it does not worry about frosting or snowing.　菠菜唔怕下霜雪。

The leaves become shrunk by cold and get sweeter. I love spinach shallow-fried in butter.我鍾意食奶油炒菠菜。　

 

New Year Cuisines 年酒年菜

Happy New Year!

I wish you good health and happiness.

新年快樂！

This is a set of new year sake (liquor) utensils. 這是一套吉祥酒器。

A set of three sake cups is a traditional lacquer ware.

New Year's sake is spiced  with medical herbs. 正月喝屠蘇酒。這是在清酒裡放屠蘇散（各種藥草）的年酒。

These are traditional new year cuisines. 

The left red bowl contains steamed shrimp dumpling. The right plate contains special cuisines such as sweet simmered black beans, seaweed rolls, mashed sweet potato with sweet chestnuts, sliced burdock root, sweet rolled omelet with fish paste, sweet small sardines, boiled fish paste, pickled white radish and carrot.

A pair of new year chopsticks is made of willow.

左碗裡有山藥蒸蝦米肉。右彩色瓷盤上有金栗子紅薯泥水，魚糕，魚肉雞蛋卷，黑豆，海帶卷。全都是吉祥菜。 

 

Garlic Domestically Produced 日本大蒜

I often make spaghetti aglio e olio for breakfast. This time I got a big garlic produced in Japan. Its price is 398 Japanese Yen before taxation！　As the present consumption tax for food is 8%, the final price is 429 Yen. Garlics imported from Spain or Italy is 200 Yen. JPY 398 is equivalent to USD 3.46, AUD 4.77, HKD 27.06 and GBP 2.58. Do you buy domestic or imported one? I was wondering how much it would cost.

 It is 7 centimeters across in diameter and has 7 big cloves. Each clove is moist and has soft smell. Luckily, I cooked well with a clove of this domestic one.

Merry Christmas 聖誕節快樂

 I hope all of you enjoy this lovely holiday season in good health.

Old Rural House

This old straw-thatched house was built more than 150 years ago. Ninomiya Sontoku, a famous re-constructor of farming areas lived here. 

Last visit was in hot summer a few years ago. This time visit in late fall made me think about lives one and a half centuries ago. In the night, wooden sliding doors were pulled out in front of the wooden passageway and prevented the house from the coldness. In the morning, the doors were removed and the chilled air directly faced paper sliding doors.  

Residents warmed themselves at a few charcoal braziers put on tatami mats. There were no heater warmer than that. 

I think that old houses in this country were built suitable for hot and humid days alone.

There is the shrine for this re-constructor near his house. The tree of yellow leaves on the right side is ginkgo. Ginkyo is called "ichou". This pronunciation is based on Cantonese '鴨脚：duck foot". It's a good naming.

Red maple leaves feast visitor's eyes.

 

98％ Partial Lunar Eclipse 百分之九八躲藏的月偏食

The beautiful lunar eclipse occurred tonight, around 18:00 Japan Time. Though the eclipse was partial, 98% of the moon was hidden in Earth's shadow. This is a very deep eclipse.

This moon shape is one hour later from the first photo. Did you see tonight's eclipse?

Autumn Deepens 秋色加深

Three cherry trees in the center have already lost their all leaves. Those of the left tree have been changing colors.  The best time of autumn leaves is coming near day by day. 樹木葉子變黃變紅； 櫻樹已經落葉。

Now you can enjoy chrysanthemum flowers. This type of growing method is called "three branch standing".  Growers pinch the top in the spring and raise three branches. They make efforts to grow the two of the three to the same height, the one higher and make all flowers as big as possible. The flowers in this photo are 130 to 150 cm high. 

三枝菊花栽培法

This flower has 25cm diameter. I don't know how to grow chrysanthemum flowers excellent. It takes six months from top- pinching to full-flowering.

Walking in the forest park, I found lovely ruby berries shining under the noon sun. This shrub is Cornus officinalis, the Japanese cornel. The berries have been utilized for nourishing tonic medicine. 山茱萸的核果