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Recent Posts
- A Perfect Fall Day September 27, 2020
- Blue Sky to Rain to Shaggy Parasol September 26, 2020
- Six Short Weeks September 24, 2020
- 317 Days for a Miracle September 23, 2020
- We Can Breathe Again September 22, 2020
- You Can’t Help But Be Sad September 13, 2020
- Duck Serenity September 6, 2020
- August is Coming to an End August 28, 2020
- It’s Easier with Another August 21, 2020
- Hottest Day of the Year August 16, 2020
- Morning Surprise August 12, 2020
- After the Rains August 8, 2020
- An August Morning August 2, 2020
- August Evening August 1, 2020
- When You Are Insane July 21, 2020
- Summer Is Here July 18, 2020
- It Blooms, It Dies July 15, 2020
- A Cool Start to Summer July 7, 2020
- Each Flower Has Its Own Strategy June 29, 2020
- Disaster Averted June 19, 2020
- Cool, Wet June June 10, 2020
- The End of May May 31, 2020
- Newer, Bigger, Better May 22, 2020
- Summer in May May 13, 2020
- Apple Blossoms and Magical Shoots May 2, 2020
- Where is Kaku 隠? April 27, 2020
- How Does a Bee Pick a Flower? April 21, 2020
- Dog or Bear? April 18, 2020
- What Sunshine and Warm Air Brings April 5, 2020
- Where Everyone Gathers March 29, 2020
- Enjoy Them Today March 21, 2020
- The Snow Geese Migration Is On March 18, 2020
- The World is Curvy March 7, 2020
- Little Known Connections – Japanese Curry and Vermont March 4, 2020
- Hello Again March 1, 2020
- Edison Chicken Parade 2020 February 24, 2020
- Apple Aged February 15, 2020
- Swan Heaven February 8, 2020
- Winter’s Last Day February 3, 2020
- Take a Shower for Six Months February 2, 2020
- How Does a Trumpeter Swan Wash Its Face? January 26, 2020
- Mystery Solved January 19, 2020
- One Last Wintery Dawn January 18, 2020
- Winter Interlude January 14, 2020
- Worries Away January 11, 2020
- A Mystery Rose January 3, 2020
- An Auspicious Start January 2, 2020
- December Blue and Green December 29, 2019
- Frosty December 28, 2019
- Too Wet for the Ducks December 22, 2019
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Monthly Archives: December 2016
Year Passing, Year Coming
It’s still a virescent world, moss soft and fern green. But not for long. A light snow is falling, turning everything white. In the woods a brilliant, yellow Heterobasidiomycetes caught my eye. I went looking to see if anything was … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
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Lab Girl
I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. Lab Girl is an autobiographical book by scientist Hope Jahren. She intermingles chapters about growing up and the challenges she faced in her career as a woman scientist, among chapters about … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
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Out of a Winter Garden
Today’s rain has washed most of the snow and ice away. Surprise, underneath the cold snow, the winter vegetables stayed as fresh as ever. The sprouting onions are as fresh as spring time green onions. There’s no need to truck … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
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No Escaping Beauty
There is no escaping beauty. Sometimes it explodes in front of your face when you least expect it, like this morning when I stepped out onto the back patio and beauty flooded the sky from horizon to horizon. There was … Continue reading
It’s Been a Long Time
It’s been five years since the chickens have had so much snow to run around in. Most of them are new to this and would rather not. The snow fell from early morning through much of the day. Even if … Continue reading
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! The calendar says New Years is still eleven days away, but today is the beginning of the new year as far as I am concerned. This morning, at 2:44 am Pacific Time, you could hear the earth … Continue reading
Whole Wheat Anpan – A World First?
Hmm, the an, sweet bean paste, I made brought back memories of a staple of my childhood, anpan あんパン, buns stuffed with an. Anpan are always made with the whitest, fluffiest dough imaginable. What would anpan made with 100% whole … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
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Pastures of Swans
The swans are on pastures by the hundreds. Here a flock, there a flock, everywhere a flock. Swans are constantly moving in small groups from one flock to another. What is that all about? Is the grass better over there? … Continue reading
On a Gentle Snow
A gentle snow fell all morning. As I watched the snowflakes fall, I thought about the stories that each flake could tell. In their short lives, snowflakes have a lot of excitement. One moment they are tumbling tens of thousands … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Tagged adzuki beans, あん映画, gentle snow, Sweet Bean movie, the story of vegetables
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It’s a Small World
Impressed with the Shimonita onions I saw on TV, I ordered some seeds from Japan. They arrived yesterday: Thunder Emperor 雷帝 Shimonita Onions 下仁田ネギ! Much to my surprise, on the back of the package, it says that they were made … Continue reading
Ice is Alive
If you watch long enough, you can see needle ice growing out of the ground. It’s as if it’s alive. The hoarfrost grows too, prickling the leaves and branches. December cold turns nature into a fairyland of ice.
Shimonita Onions – 15 Months to Grow
All around the world are special vegetables, and yesterday I heard about a leek type onion which is grown in only one small town in Japan, Shimonita 下仁田. It takes 15 months from seed to harvest. They are planted in … Continue reading
Shh, the Garden Is Sleeping
The garden is fast asleep under a blanket of snow softer than down. It’s been four years since we’ve had a snow this thick. It’s not a heavy snow by no means. Eight years ago we measured the snow by … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
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Winter Bites
Winter bites leaving its prickly white teeth everywhere. Step outdoors on a frosty morning, and winter bites your cheeks and nips at your nose. You know you’re alive on a morning so cold.
Posted in Happiness
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Farewell Green?
Snowflakes danced in the air off and on today. Will the coming deep freeze mean the end of green? What will be left to pick for fresh salads by the end of the week? The kale and cabbage will survive. … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens, How Things Grow
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A Remarkable Hen and Her Family
MiAsa Hime 美朝姫 is an extraordinary mother. Her chicks are more than three months old and she still spends her days with them and roosts with them at night. I’ve never had a mother hen attend to her chicks for … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens, How Things Grow
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Way Off Topic – a Long Way from Here
Having grown up in Japan and having hitchhiked, biked, and ridden trains all over the country as a boy, literally, at eleven years old I took to the roads hitchhiking for days at a time, traveling over a thousand miles, … Continue reading
Posted in Happiness
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