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Wow!
The annual spring winds were extra severe today. On the way home we encountered several intersections without signals. The police were guiding traffic. In addition, power was out in a neighboring town. When we got home, we discovered that the door to our shed had been completely blown off! Wow. That must have been quite the gust of wind. In the back some roofing all was blown off the rear shed.
Hm… how are we going to fix this? I’m too busy this week!
Update (one month later): Good news! We got word that our home insurance will not only cover the cost of the repairs, but also take care of the whole fix-it job. Great! One less thing to worry about…
The Big Melt 2012
This amazing winter is finally coming to an end. Wall to wall snow from late January until March is a very rare thing around here, but it happened this year. We are still getting some flurries and hail, but that all melts quickly. Cherry blossoms are just around the corner.
Favorite Family Photos: Our home in winter
This is my favorite shot of our home during my favorite part of the year: on a sunny day after huge snowstorm. We had way more snow in the winter of 2010-11 than usual, which created a lot of trouble in our western-Japan region (Hokuriku). But it also created a beautiful winter-wonderland atmosphere, one that I really really love.
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If something bad happened and you could only save a handful of your photo collection, which ones would choose? That’s the question guiding this series of blog posts I’m dubbing “Favorite Family Photos”. It’s a chance to look back at the past 10 years and revisit special moments in our family’s history. These are our best and most precious memories.
Favorite Family Photos: Mizubei Plaza
This is a wonderful shot of Luke walking along a bike path above Mizubei Plaza, the park in front of our home. It was a late summer afternoon, and Luke was on his way home from drawing a picture by the riverside. This photo fills me with peace and a feeling of gratitude for being able to live in such a nice area. The Jinzu River is just to the right, and on a clear day you can see the mountains.
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If something bad happened and you could only save a handful of your photo collection, which ones would choose? That’s the question guiding this series of blog posts I’m dubbing “Favorite Family Photos”. It’s a chance to look back at the past 10 years and revisit special moments in our family’s history. These are our best and most precious memories.
Favorite Family Photos: Our House in Summer
This is one of my favorite all-time shots of our home, definitely the best summer one. It was taken in late August of 2010. This one just came out super great. The grass was at its peak of green, and the late afternoon sunshine wrapped everything in a golden hue. Looking at this photo makes me feel a great deal of gratitude and humility for being able to live here: “Yeah, this is home.”
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If something bad happened and you could only save a handful of your photo collection, which ones would choose? That’s the question guiding this series of blog posts I’m dubbing “Favorite Family Photos”. It’s a chance to look back at the past 10 years and revisit special moments in our family’s history. These are our best and most precious memories.
A Black & White Morning
Got up this morning, opened the living room curtain and looked out at the morning sky, as usual. I was happy to see about 10 cm of new snow, but beyond that, something seemed… unusual. After a moment’s thought it hit me- as I looked out over our neighborhood and off into the horizon, I realized there was virtually NO COLOR! It was as if I were looking at a black and white photograph! As Spock would say, “fascinating.” Here’s an untouched photo.
TFiJ33: Luke & Max’s 1st vegetable garden
For his summer English project, Luke uses English to tell the story of a vegetable garden he and his sister Max planted this past spring. Shinobu got the idea rolling, which was to create a small, manageable garden that the kids to help out with. This sort of “micro gardening” is currently VERY popular in Japan. Parents are using it as a way of teaching about and introducting nature into their kids’ lives, and since many people live on small plots of land, it also has taken off because it’s very easy and manageable. As for this video project, I wanted a way to kill two birds with one stone- share a family experience and help Luke practice his English. Seemed like getting Luke more involved in our family podcast was the way to to. I wrote the script, Luke worked hard to learn the lines, then we spent a couple of afternoons recording and filming. I also printed the script with a “schoolbook” font so that he would have some writing practice as well (by tracing over the letters). Overall it was a lot of good practice for Luke! He’s not totally smooth, but it’s so cool to hear him speak in only English for an extended period. This is a very rare thing, since he lives in a Japanese world most of the time. I’ve been finding it hard to motivate him to use English, so I’m hoping this project idea works out. If it does, I have some ideas for other projects. . I hope you like this little story. If you have some words of encouragement for Luke, please leave comments. This will give Luke some good reading practice!
TFiJ17: Tree planting day
For our next family video clip, this time we focus on our house, especially with our recent landscaping efforts. This spring Shinobu’s dad (a champion bonsai grower), has been helping us plant new shrubbery. We’ve been working hard each weekend on various little things, and the place is really beginning to shape up! During the beginning of May we were browsing around a local garden store and happened on a great deal- a huge (4m) Japanese Maple tree for only about $400. We took one look and just knew, “that tree belongs in our front yard!” We hurried up and bought it before we could change our minds, and a few days later, on May 9th, the tree was delivered to our home and planted. I didn’t have to work that morning and captured the entire event on video. I hope you enjoy this little clip. It’s kind of cool to watch the guy plant the tree.
