Neighborhood messageboard

There are things in Japan that don't understand but maybe are important. I'm sure a lot of Japanese would say I'm off the wall with my statement, but I don't like the homeowners association's Kairanban in my neighborhood and don't see the necessity.

A Kairanban is a plastic (until a few years ago it was cardboard) neighborhood message board that circulates to each homeowner.

As a homeowner and a member of the homeowners association we pay dues every month... Or in our case about $50 every three months. As members, we are required to participate in the neighborhood politics. There is a chairman, a vice chairman, a treasurer, an environment chairman, a health and sports chairman, a child-raising group chairman and a lot more duties that I forget. (I was the safety chairman for 4 years.) Maybe 20 in all. On top of that, the whole neighborhood of about 250 homes, is broken up into blocks or groups and we have group leader duty every 7 years.

Oh gosh... I guess I've written a lot of my complaints here and here... I won't go into all of that...

Being a member of the homeowner's association entitles us to information distributed by the city. About once a week we get a newsletter that comes to our house via the neighborhood group leader, via the homeowner's association, via the city. Traditionally, the Kairanban was a way for neighbors to stay in touch with the neighborhood. It was passed from hand to hand and a few words of greeting were exchanged with your next door neighbors. Nowadays everyone is too busy and it was decided that Kairanban were best left by the mailbox.

So, what sort of messages are circulated? Deaths are posted... Invitations to the association for the elderly's flower arranging exhibit... New homeowners are introduced... The local elementary school and jr. high distribute their news... The city lets us know when baby vaccinations will be available... Advertisements are posted for up-coming concerts...

I often say to Tetsu,

"Why do they need to send around all this stuff? Can't people just look in the newspapers and find out which dentist is on emergency call? Don't a majority of homes have computers where if we really wanted to donate money we could get the information? Or use the telephone? American homeowners get along without all this stuff. This is such a waste of money and time." (Somebody has to deliver papers, somebody has to divvy them up into group packets, somebody has to deliver the notice boards to the homes.)

Sometimes all we have to do is glance at the clipboard, add our family chop (signature) to prove that we have responsibly reviewed the information, and then deposit it in front of our neighbor's house. Sometimes there are numerous papers that each homeowner gets from the city and a ream of those get directly thrown into the wastebasket in my house. In all the 20 years that I have lived here I have NEVER needed a single paper that came to my house.

A lot of all this information is repeated in the newspapers anyway (which I also don't read but Tetsu does) so I really think the Kairanban system is generating a lot of waste... But I guess I'm in a minority. This is part of belonging to a Japanese community.

Tessellating borders

I'm late posting today because I wanted to get my borders on and show you. It took longer than I thought it would.

So. Now my Tessellating Cats quilt is an official flimsy. I have embroidery to do but this is as large as it is going to get.

I am very happy with my colorful borders and I'm sort of proud of myself for figuring out a way to make them. I am not too inventive so this is actually an idea from someplace way back when that just stayed snuggled in the back of my mind. The actual Tessellating Cats pattern called for using a striped fabric (which I did not have and did not want to go looking for). I figured I had enough fabric to piece together my own striped fabric in a piano key fashion.

I HAVE another quilt with a piano key border so I wanted to try something new... In accord with the tessellating I decided black and colored triangles pulled the quilt together better and then began designing. What size triangles? How wide a border?

Do you know what this is? I decided on a three inch border. I drew out a template on paper. Then I layered 8 or 10 pieces of paper together (I forget exactly) and machine SEWED over the lines I'd drawn with an unthreaded needle. This gave me 8 or 10 punched-out patterns of my triangles and I did this two or three times... I ended up needing 24 strips of paper for my border and then I was ready to paper piece!

Paper piecing was done as one normally does but instead of following a printed line I followed the needle punches. I used 2 1/2 inch strips in alternate black and colors and trimmed as I went along. When I'd get to the end of one paper I'd pin a new one to the end and continue using my strips. That was all done by yesterday (but it was still a two week long process...) And today I put in corners (that took some figuring too...) and sewed the borders to the cats. The edges are reinforced one more time and then the paper removed from the back.

Next step is to embroider some faces onto those cats. More in front of the TV work.
Colorful is right!

A new leash

I bought Choco a new leash. Choco is hard on leashes. And she is hard on my joints and back!

When Choco joined our family 5 years ago, she was uncontrollable. She loved Tetsu and me, she seemed eager to please, but she didn't like people and children in general. She thought cats might be good food. She regularly slipped her collar and went off into the wilds of the forest. She thought it was a great game to be chased here and there around the neighborhood dodging her pursuers. She barked continually at birds and passersby. She yanked and pulled when being taken for a walk. During the first week of bringing her home (yes, she was a stray I picked up) I seriously thought of taking her to the pound because she was more than we'd bargained for... The craziness with children was especially unforgivable and I asked a seeing-eye dog trainer friend to give me advice.

The trainer's opinion was that Choco was a smart dog but had been abused (which we found out was true) and was scared of everything. He came out a couple of times to help me with the barking problem, which didn't get solved.

Later I hired a young woman who trained police dogs and she came out three or four times and helped me with some of our more dire problems. Lunging at children and cats. Incessant barking, Pulling on walks. The trainer's theory is that there are no bad dogs, only bad dog owners. If I could be consistent with training and praise, then Choco would learn to obey.

I haven't asked the trainer back in the last couple of years because I have obviously failed my dog owner training. As I write this I wonder what we have accomplished... And how much of it is because of training and how much is just the passing of time.

Choco still barks continually. Her area is now as far from the neighbors as possible and Tetsu built a fence so that she can't bark at people going by.

Choco still hates people and children. She goes crazy if she hears them in the house. I am very careful to keep her tied up and outside when visitors come. She has learned to accept a few regulars but HATES strangers and children. I don't THINK she'd really do them injury but I'm not testing her.

Choco hasn't had a chance to escape for awhile so I don't know if she would come back if we called or not. She usually wears two collars so that she can't slip both of them and she has a chain collar when we go for a walk.

Choco HAS learned to live with cats!!! This is a biggie!!! I used to fear for my cats' lives but they can all wander around each other and touch noses and live in relative peace. Choco doesn't look relaxed but she backs up when a cat insists on its way. Chip is especially strict with Choco.

"Hiss! Spit! You vile canine! I despise you! Stand guard! I challenge you to a dual and beware, my claws are sharp and I am quick." Choco hides in a corner when Chip is near.

And going for a walk has never improved. A longer, leather leash was purchased from the trainer but last month it snapped and I needed a new one.

So this is what I bought. A reel leash. Good and bad.

• Bad. This leash means Choco gets no training. She can go where she pleases.
• Bad. This doesn't look very sturdy though I bought the correct one for her weight.
• Bad. When I need Choco by my side (when someone passes us, when a car is coming down the road) I can't drag her back quickly... She has to come on her own accord when called.
  

• Good. There is a lock on the leash that keeps Choco by my side when necessary.
• Good. Choco loves the fact that she can explore the forest a bit more (it can get quite long).
• Good. I no longer get yanked into the stream or forest (unless she sees a quail and the 5 meters still isn't long enough)
• Good. Both Choco and I enjoy our walks more. So I guess for awhile all is good.

We'll see if this leash is studier than it looks... As I say, Choco is hard on leashes.

Wonky Carpenter

This weekend my wonky carpenter was at work again.

Sigh. I love Tetsu and I love how he shows his love for me, but honestly, sometimes his masterpieces don't work out. …And I sort of know when they aren't going to work out and I'm sort of hesitant to get his help… Don't tell him.

This story starts out gross. My cats (maybe just one cat, but which one?) have an embarrassing habit of peeing in the kitchen. They have chosen a certain spot and I am forever wiping the floor under the cupboard. The cupboard itself is a hand me down from a recycle shop and it doesn't have any doors to it. For many years I just hung a lace curtain to hide the vases and candles and things that were stored there but once the cats started using it for their purposes I replaced the curtain with a laminated board that could be wiped down as well. Tetsu did not like my board. He claimed that it alone smelled so he removed my board and wiped down the things in the cupboard and the cupboard itself and then put down cat sheets. I did not think this was a good idea. What is the point of cat sheets? It just tells the cats that they can pee there after all. I wanted my board back but Tetsu had put it out in the rain and it was no longer usable.

As predicted, the cats liked the cat sheets in the cupboard and they actually went IN the cupboard to do their business. I didn't know who I was more upset with… Tetsu, for taking away my board or the cats (but which cat?) Finally this weekend Tetsu decided to tackle the problem.

"Tanya, what we need is a new cupboard because the old one smells and that is what is bringing the cats back to it."

That sounded like a good theory. Do I dare get my hopes up that we are going to make a trip to a furniture store to buy a real cupboard that even has doors on it? If truth be told, what I'd REALLY like is to spend a lot of money and have the whole dang kitchen renovated. The linoleum is curling. The dumb stainless steel counter and sink are an odd shape and that was why we've lived with the recycled-no-door cupboard for these 18 years. How I wish we would just splurge and make a new kitchen with drawers and cupboards and counters and shelves that all matched and not have the refrigerator sticking out blocking half of the cupboard and have the stove in an accessible place, not behind the garbage can. (I have a lot of frustrations with my kitchen.)

"Tanya, I am going to build you a new cupboard."

There went my hopes for renovation. And how do you tell your eager husband that you don't have much faith in his carpentry because everything turns out wonky and crooked. I mean, I love the cat house he built and the cats don't mind a little lean to. I love the shelves in my sewing room even though they have a definite slant. I love the ironing board that weighs a ton and can't be moved from its position. But those are not really convenience pieces of furniture. And not a lot of people see the cat house or the sewing shelves or the ironing board.

"Um… I really think I need something fairly level and with a lot of space in the kitchen, Tetsu…"

"I KNOW that! I'll get all the measurements right and cut it at the hardware store when I buy the two by fours."

Two by fours. There went my dreams of a snazzy, modern sliding drawers, pull down shelves, convenient racking system cupboard.

Tetsu was so happy. For awhile.

Saturday he spent a lot of money buying a lot of two by fours and having them cut to his measurements. Sunday morning before church we moved the refrigerator and took off the top half of the old cupboard (ah, he's only planning to make a bottom half…) Everything came out on the counters, on the tables, into the dining room and living room. The whole downstairs turned into a shambles! And gross it was behind all this furniture that hasn't been moved for 18 years. No dead mice but yuck.

Off we went to church. The actual carpentry was going to be done in the afternoon.

Sunday afternoon Tetsu spent out in the yard hammering and whistling. I spent the time upstairs doing machine quilting. At 3:30 Tetsu called me to come help him bring in his HUGE, VERY HEAVY, VERY CLUNKY contraption of two by fours now hammered to look something like… a farm shed? This is going in my kitchen? Good wife that I am, I did not say a thing and helped drag it into the kitchen.

"Wha…! Wait! …Why doesn't it fit?"

Somewhere along the line Tetsu had miscalculated. He had made a very sturdy (if not too attractive) cupboard/shelves that would NOT get into the previous space and there wasn't anything he could do to remedy the situation.

"Tanya, how about if you used this in your sewing room?" (as if my sewing room doesn't have enough stuff in it already!)

"Well… maybe… There's my design wall… if it doesn't interfere with the blocks I put up there…"

Tetsu wanted a bit more enthusiasm for his handiwork. His mood started to go downhill from there. We LUGGED the shelves upstairs and deposited them along the wall and Tetsu went back outside to see what he could do with the old cupboard that he had thoughtfully washed with the hose earlier that morning. However… due to maybe too much water the wood had sagged (he wouldn't admit to that. Tetsu said it was already broken when it got out of the kitchen) and he spent a lot of time reinforcing it with left over two by fours. I went back up to the sewing room and tried to fit a couple of baskets into my new shelves… They don't fit too well but that is beside the point.

Another hour went by and Tetsu was ready to bring the newly repaired, old cupboard that no longer smelled (because he'd washed it) into the kitchen. I came downstairs to help.

"Wha…! Wait! …Why doesn't it fit?"

Déjà vu.

The extra two by fours had changed the measurements of the old cupboard.

"Just go back upstairs and do your sewing." growled Tetsu and so I did.

Around 7:30 he had gotten the old cupboard (newly reinforced, newly repaired) into position with the upper half back on. Everything looked the same as before. In fact, it doesn't look like ANYTHING has been done to the cupboard. Two days of Tetsu's hard work and there is no difference. I put up an old laundry basket and a piece of plastic tablecloth in front of the cupboard to keep the cats out of it …because it STILL doesn't have any doors.

No pictures today. This is still a touchy subject in our house...

Patches and Pinwheels finished!

I have a finish! Of my own! The Patches and Pinwheel quilt is officially on my futon (bed). It seemed like it was a long process but I guess as quilts go, it really wasn't. I checked older posts and found that I started it May 17th. That's not bad! I was trying to use up Leaders/Enders and whether I succeeded, I'm not sure. I always seem to have Leaders/Enders. But I have DO have a bed size quilt now!

Even when I started this I was wondering how I was going to quilt it. Putting together the quilts go fine (basically), it is trying to quilt a large quilt on a domestic machine with no long arm quilters in sight which gives me frustrations. But the patches got done without much thought. (Leader/Enders amount significantly decreased). The pinwheels got done with the help of an Easy Angle tool. Putting them all together was fun. The border triangles got added with a little inspiration from Elaine.

But quilting? Many of my blog friends suggested quilting in pieces so for a long time this quilt has been in quarters which actually made quilting on a domestic machine manageable. Overall pattern? I get so lost when I try that... But I figured I could keep my head if I thought about a petal pattern within a certain set of blocks (still got a little lost. Some backtracking there), and I really like how the quilting and the piecing match up. Finally the fourths were connected and the final quilting down the centers were completed without too many headaches.

I sat and stared at this border for the longest time but decided I'd never come up with a perfect solution and I just had to get this crossed off my to-do list so I went ahead and quilted "flower petals" in the empty spaces and more triangles in the final border. I hope it ties it all together.

Four months for a quilt... Okay. If I'd been doing it by hand it would have been four years (I've got one of those about too.)

(The quilt on Tetsu's side of the futon is another of Bonnie's patterns the Pineapple Blossom. That one was quilted by hand though.)

Happy Village quilting

On Friday when Mrs. Nakazawa and Rumi-san brought their coffee cup quilts over to show, we spent the rest of the day working on happy village quilts. Mrs. Nakazawa has had her heart set on making one of those and the two of them cut fabric and arranged while I brought down more choices from the sewing room. (We can't all fit in the sewing room.)

Then yesterday I spent about two hours quilting Rumi-san's Happy Village. Maybe with the rest of today I can get to Mrs. Nakazawa's. I can't show those here yet, (I do think the creators shouldn't get their first viewing of their quilts on my blog) but this is a peek.

Rumi-san is more of a dog lover than a cat lover but I haven't gotten dog quilting down pat yet. This cat quilting design is directly from Diane Guardinski's, Savy Quilting book and Mrs. Nakazawa definitely wants a cat on her quilt!

These aren't going to get done until the end of the month when Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa come again to put on borders... But I'm itching to get them quilted. Kind of fun!

My friends' finishes

My friends, Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa came over for some show-and-tell time with their coffee cup quilts. Last week each had come over separately to put on binding and they had homework to hand sew the binding down. Yeah!!! Two finishes for my friends!

Rumi-san is already working on a new coffee cup quilt for her daughter... Or maybe her daughter is going to get this one and she is making a new one for herself. She had a lot of fun choosing red fabrics and recently has started haunting fabric stores to pick out choice fat quarters. I am happy to report that she says she finds quilting "relaxing."

Mrs. Nakazawa had a specific place in her house that she wanted to display her quilt. She has a wall over her kitchen counter and so she put her coffee cups on a long "shelf" . She also included a cat sitting there among the cups as she is a confirmed cat lover. (I go to Mrs. Nakazawa with my cat woes.) Mrs. Nakazawa has declared that she will put a cat in every quilt that she makes from now on! Look forward to seeing more cats!

And in the evening I had some chatting time with an English student from WAY back. She used to come to me for English when she was in jr. high and now she is in her late 20s. I hadn't seen her for at least 14 years! She said she fondly remember baking cookies and doing some small handwork (not so many memories about English) and we sewed "cute but useless" cats while we chatted. She may be back for more handwork... not so sure about English...

(By the way, that is not a cat behind the first one. That one is trying to be a Totoro! One of the famous Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazawa's characters.)

More this and that

I love the comments I get on different posts. (A couple have sent me to chocolate with my head hanging...) Advice, Bible verses (thank you GG!), links to online information, messages from the past.

A couple of days ago I posted about one of my first "quilts". The one that could double as a mattress... And the recipient "baby" for whom it was made nearly 30 years ago wrote to say that she saw the picture, remembered that I had been her mother's roommate in college, and put two and two together.

"I didn't know you made that puffed quilt - I loved that quilt! It was so nice to squeeze :)"

Now, does that make a quilter's day or does that make a quilter's day!!?

**********

The school children have been hard at work making scarecrows for their rice field. Every year the older classes and neighboring grandparents bring in "junk" and construct cheerful scarecrows next to the school's rice paddy.

This is the mochi rice field (sticky rice for rice cakes) and will be harvested later in the autumn than regular rice.

All over Japan Oct. 1st marks the day when school uniforms too change over from spring-summer version to fall-winter version. According to regulations today I started wearing my autumn uniform for crosswalk guard duty. Jacket, necktie, vest and STOCKINGS! I guess I could go stand with the scarecrows in the field after crosswalk duty...

I did NOT get a lot accomplished sewing wise. Yesterday I spent the day working on borders for the Tessellating Cats quilt. I actually did some machine quilting on the Pinwheels and Patches quilt too but neither of them got finished... At 9:00 at night I was putting the final embroidery stitches in on the Tisket a Tasket BOM just so I could post it here and say I got it done within the month...

Hope for more productivity in October!

Convalescent care

I spent some time yesterday chatting with friends I have known for 20 or so years. Our kids were all in kindergarten together. As the years go by and our kids grew up to go to different elementary, jr high, high school and colleges, our conversations have changed but we still offer advice, still sympathize with the headaches of child raising. We've gone through bullying, rebellion, entrance exams, failures, successes, boyfriend-girlfriend relationships etc.

Times are changing. Our conversations now flitter towards how to stay young, husbands' health problems, and most recently, parents and in-laws.

All of our parents and in-laws are in their late 70s or 80s. There have been a few funerals in the past couple years. That has been hard. Maybe harder though is the period of increasing dementia that so many of our parents are facing. My mother participates less and less with family activities. She forgets most things but seems content. A few years ago she went through a stage of fighting for her rights (right to drive a car, right to manage her own finances) but she is past that now and lets everyone else take care of her. "Time to take a bath, Mom." "Okay… if you say so…"

But some of my friends are at that difficult stage now. Parents calling or knocking at the door at all hours. Complaints, accusations, losing things, odors. Some of my friends are angry. Why should they have their feelings and life tossed around by this older person who has no regard to how sharp words, hysterics and threats hurt. And then there is the guilt. "I really should visit more." (This is my own guilt towards Tetsu's mother.) "I really should quit my job or take an extended vacation to care for my ailing parent (or parent-in-law)." I think these feelings of guilt are more prevalent in Japan because traditionally the eldest son and his wife cared for the parents till death. Until the past 20 or so years, there WERE no convalescent homes. That was the lot of the wife of the elder son; to produce sons herself and to care for her in-laws (from the first day of marriage!) You can see why a lot of women said that there was no way that they would consider marrying the eldest son of a family!

The elder son's hospitality is longer the only option for the older generation of Japanese. Other siblings are likely to get involved with care. There are convalescent homes springing up everywhere in Japan nowadays (Japan has the highest percentage of population over 70 years old in the world). They offer baths and ball throwing games, childish finger plays, kindergarten instruments and activities. There are programs for temporary day care, for overnight stay. There are programs for meals-on-wheels and low cost taxi service. There are helpers who come into the homes to clean or cook or cut toe nails. There are care managers who arrange transportation, schedule doctor visits, and evaluate the elder person's situation monthly.

But for many of this generation of elderly (Tetsu's mother, my friends' parents) all these programs are shunned as proof of ungrateful, adult children. I have heard a couple of times that at the mention of using such facilities the old grandma or grandpa will say (scream) that they would rather be killed right then and there! And then there are my friends who have already placed their parents in convalescent care yet feel a sad guilt that they couldn't or wouldn't do more…I can see no answer to the dilemma. If you put grandpa into a home you feel like you are a lousy daughter. If you bring him into your home you are likely to go crazy and do something unforgivable.

I think it will take a while before the Japanese society gets used to the idea of care for parents outside the home… And maybe a while before those in care get treated as more than aging children. MY generation, right?! Am I going to be ready? Will I go quietly? You could make me very happy right now if there was a lot of fabric and a needle and thread but when I'm 80? Am I even going to be able to SEE? I only hope I will be a cheerful old lady and go smiling to wherever I'm bound.

Goya

Wednesday morning (today) I am always racing and need to be out of the house by 8:45. (It is 8:17 now!) No time to write.

Pictures...pictures...

Do you know what this vegetable is? It is popular in the southern islands of Japan, Okinawa, but I think only in the past 10 years has made it to my part of Japan. This is called goya and I can't even find it in my Japanese-English dictionary. It is also known as a bitter gourd and bitter it is!!! It is NOT Tetsu's favorite food but if it is cooked a bit it loses some of its bitterness and tastes very nice mixed with bland tofu and bland scrambled eggs. Sorry didn't make that for dinner last night so no picture of that dish.

Isn't it pretty hanging there? It is eaten while still green so the red ones have already gone to pot... Hmmm. Maybe I'll make goya tonight for dinner. Tetsu can pretend he is in Okinawa.

Okay, I have GOT TO GO! It is 8:27!

Teaching quilting

Yesterday I helped my friend Rumi-san put the binding on her coffee cup wall hanging. And a few days before I had helped another friend, Mrs. Nakazawa, put the binding on her tapestry too. It is interesting to work with new quilters and I wonder how strict I should be with them.

"The seams need to be more exact..."

"Don't let the backing pucker..."

"Let's do that part again..."

I don't want to squelch enthusiasm with little details like which direction to put in pins or doing a full backstitch when using the sewing machine but how else does one teach excellence? I don't remember how I was first taught quilting. My first attempts were from books and magazines, many of them in Japanese and I couldn't read them at all. Oh yes, there were some trials I went through!

History...

In college I won a quilt raffle and came home with a wonderful bed size quilt that I still have and love. That sparked my interest in quilting and I think one summer I took a community class where the teacher was trying to teach us to applique teardrops in a quilt square. I didn't see the connection between that and my beautiful quilt and I don't think I ever finished that square.

After marriage and with time on my hands and my beautiful college quilt I tried to teach myself quilting from Japanese books (which I couldn't read!) Oh my! I don't know if you could say disasters but I hope people will think I've come a long way, Baby!

This is a "quilt" I made for my former college roommate's baby. Those popcorn puffs are stuffed so hard one could bounce on it! I'm surprised the baby didn't suffocate! (Or maybe my roommate used it as a mattress... That would make more sense.)

I made this baby quilt for a missionary friend. What are the colors in there?! Was I mad or what? I have a feeling some of those fabrics weren't even cotton!

I made another quilt when Takumi was born with the same book and at least figured out one should try to coordinate the fabrics a bit... I hadn't learned about batting yet though and so I bought cotton for cushions and pulled it apart and laid it as flat as I could...

Finally after Takumi was a few months old I took a quilting class at the local church and learned to hide knots, use 100% cotton, and make templates. From there on in my disasters haven't been all that obvious (only to my own eyes).

I don't recall that the one patchwork teacher I had for 6 months was particularly strict. I do remember her being upset about one student who had a very liberal style and was not exact with seams and puckers. The teacher wasn't too happy to have her name passed around as the "quilting teacher" what with the very haphazard way her student was going about making quilts. It made me think that my own work could reflect on my teacher and I think I've tried to be more exact in making seams and eliminating wrinkles since then... This is a sampler quilt I made under the instruction of the quilting teacher...

Is it more important to teach new quilters the joy of piecing and choosing colors, quilting and accomplishing finishes or is it more important to get them used to a few rules which can help them improve and expand their future horizons?

"Your seams need to match..."

"Try to learn how to use a quilting hoop. It will make your stitches more even."

I suppose if they are really future quilters then they will want to pay attention to details anyway...

I think I am a better quilter than quilt teacher... I'll be showing my two students' quilts later this week...

Pot luck

Yesterday we had a pot luck at our church. (Our church building was built 7 years ago and many of us stayed after the service to celebrate.) Do you want to see what sort of things are brought to a Japanese pot luck?

Here's the main table spread out.

In the foreground you can see sticky rice balls covered in sweet bean paste. These are called Ohagi.

And behind those are a mixed rice dish, white rice, and rice with red beans. And another type of ohagi with the bean paste spread on the rice. (Tetsu's favorite.)




Down the way a bit were some grilled chicken wings and a salad of seaweed, okra and slimy potatoes.







I brought scalloped potatoes (no recipe... added chicken, broccoli and mushrooms.) and someone brought a wonderful corn soup that we ate out of paper cups. I seemed to have missed capturing a tomato chicken dish...





There were sandwiches (jam and potato salad) and huge grapes that need to be peeled to eat.







Someone brought Oden which are various fish cakes and vegetables simmered for a long time in fish broth. A few hard boiled eggs in there too I see.






Some meat and potato croquettes we ordered from the supermarket.







For dessert there was a sponge cake someone had baked and a fruit yogurt dish. Sorry I didn't get pictures of those but last but not least rice dumplings in a sweet bean soup.


Hmm. We seemed to have a lot of sweet beans and potatoes at our pot luck. No casseroles as most people don't use an oven. Could have been planned better (I was on the planning committee. "Please bring something.")

I came home very full and didn't need dinner!

A walk with Choco

I haven't had many animal posts recently. One reason is because I got enough comments telling me I should really let the cats survive on their own (I wrote how they tore up the carpet and the window blinds) that I don't want you to think I am loonier than I am. The cats are still at their antics ("can't get through that blind anymore. Let's make a hole in the next one over...") and they are beginning to think of humans as "warm furniture".

How about Choco? This morning I went out with Choco on a long walk and took the camera along. I must say, Choco's season is really autumn. It must be the hunting dog blood in her. She really fits the autumn scenery.

First off, the Higanbana have bloomed. The fields have borders of Higanbana all around them and I made Choco sit and pose.

(It is to Choco's credit that I can get her to stay long enough for me to walk away and take a picture of her. She will stay for about 30 seconds before forgetting she's on a stay...)

A few fields are still unharvested. Look at that shadow of Choco. She likes to walk with the dumb leash right between her hind legs. It looks like a most uncomfortable position!




And here she is welcoming the morning sun.












No. I didn't lie on the ground to take this picture. Choco is up on the bank of a field and I'm walking below her...

Almost home and Choco needs a drink from the stream that feeds the rice fields. Don't pull me in too!





Oh, and I do like this picture. The pampas grass is taking over the fields and the morning dew makes them glitter with a cloud of gold. After nearly an hour's walk, Choco is puffing and making her own cloud of warm breath! A crisp autumn morning and Choco and I were both happy!