Admiration of Nature

Autumn colors

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:00:22 GMT

EXPO'70 Commemorative Park in Suita, Osaka, Japan.

Ikkyuji(temple) in Kyotanabe, Kyoto.

Nature Art

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:14:02 GMT

By master spiders collaborating with the sunlight.

Gold bars

Universe

I'm so sorry for not visiting your sites. But you all are in my thought.

Sat, 13 May 2006 15:56:25 GMT

Long time has past since I posted the last entry...

My youngest son graduated from high school in March, and he left home for living in a dorm at the university in Kyushu in Japan. About 40% of all the students are from abroad...amazing number. Most of the classes are taught in English.

As for me, I'm much into photography.....of course a beginner, learner and Amateur all the time. I love it.
Here is Sachiko saying "hi" to you all!

The first snow of the season brought...this.

Sat, 24 Dec 2005 05:23:24 GMT

Just clicking the pictures will bring you to my photo album. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Merry Christmas to you all!

A spirit tree, one of my favorites.

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 02:19:54 GMT

Lately I keep myself busy taking many kinds of photographs, especially birds, flowers and trees. This is a tree that stands by the path to a meadow where I enjoy watching birds in Nara park, 30 minutes, more or less from my home by car. There is a trace of a thunderbolt on the trunk and more than half of the trunk is missing. Yet it is still standing tall and strong. One of my favorite trees.

These are two of the birds that I saw in the trees in the meadow two days ago.

（shijukara) = Great Tit and

（yamagara) = Varied Tit

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 01:10:08 GMT

Variation of Honey Oatmeal Bread.
I tried "barley" when I was out of quick cooking oats. Barley needed to be cooked for about 20 minutes until soft.
My bread got a nice nutty and chewy texture.

*Honey Barley Bread
1½ cups water
½ cup honey ( I use tangerine orange honey, very nice flavor)
⅓ (margarine or butter) +grape-seed oil
5-6½ all-purpose flour ( I prefer flour used for bread and pizza mainly)
1 cup cooked barley
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast
2 eggs
¼ sesame seeds
(1 tablespoon water+1 egg white) for brushing tops of loaves

Bake at 375˚F for 35~40minutes.
(Basic recipe from a KitchenAid cookbook which came with my mixer.)

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:53:40 GMT

Praying mantises are amazing. They have very expressive face. This one, i found her (^_^) on a branch of one of my Rose of Sharon trees.

"Don't miss the ant."

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 12:45:52 GMT

I often see this kind of tiny butterfly. I wish I knew its name. http://static.flickr.com/25/57446926_178220acd7_o.jpg

Hand made

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 23:54:50 GMT

With my eye sight getting dimmer with age, I have difficulty doing things that I have to depend on my eyes. Same with the two of my friends. We all struggled making something like this...
My youngest son brought me back a necklace as a souvenir from the school trip to Viet Nam. I got the idea from the necklace and decided to make my original one. The pearl is genuine. The turquoises and silver beads are from his host family in Colorado. "With much appreciation for Mr and Mrs. Pieper and all the family"

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 01:25:17 GMT

Here is one more picture that I forgot to post along with other pictures.

A visit to Oyamazaki villa Art Museum.

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 15:58:09 GMT

Some of my friends and I went to see an exhibition of the works of three generations of famous potters: the late Shoji Hamada, his son and his grandson. Especially the first one, Shoji was once designated as a national living treasure. The exhibition is on now at this great villa, Oyamazaki. http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/visitkyoto/en/theme/sites/museums/asahi_beer

These days we seldom wear kimono. It takes a good long time to dress up in a kimono and it doesn't fit in to our way of life now, unfortunately.
I never thought about wearing kimono when I was young, because of the uncomfortableness I felt and the difficulty in wearing one. However, thanks to one of my friends in these pictures, I learned how to wear it the right way. Still, it takes me about 30 to 40 minutes to put one on.
It was such a lovely day that day, we all decided to go wearing silk kimonos.

This is one of the beautiful custom-made stained glass doors. Sorry about the quality of the picture, it doesn't show how pretty it is--a mixture of green and yellow.

I visit this villa quite often and I find this window especially attractive. I love to look outside through its crystal glass.

Looking into the sun room through the doors from the main room. Over the sun room is a spacious stone terrace porch.

Stained glass windows. There is a sitting room behind these windows.

This room used be a sitting room, now a part of a coffee shop where we had a tea break. There are wine red stained glass windows between this room and the one on the left.

I learned later that taking pictures inside of the villa was prohibited, mmmm..

Now we are outside in the yard, looking at the villa. You can see the beams of the stone terrace porch.

This is a part of a new concrete building designed by world famous architect, Tadao Ando. There are several paintings of "water lilies" by the French artist Monet on display in the basement of this building, which is attached to the old villa. I posted this picture to the communities, "doorwindowwall" and "cloudchasers"

Before going home, we stopped at a shrine near the villa art museum and prayed for peace and happiness for all.

Fate...

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 05:29:34 GMT

It happened in my garden.
I came across a praying mantis attacking a grasshopper.

Both of them noticed me and the mantis stopped what he was doing to the grasshopper.

He managed to escape while the praying mantis was so distracted by my camera lens, ended up losing his game!
I'm such a nuisance! Or I might call myself the grasshopper's lifesaver...

Now it's time for a good laugh!

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 04:10:15 GMT

mmm, inviting lips...!? Everyone at the etegami class really enjoyed drawing on the stones. Roaring with laughter.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b115/sachicat/stoneart.jpg

Etegami

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 14:41:11 GMT

Autumn...does your appetite good!

Oriental White Storks

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 09:49:03 GMT

My husband and I, along with a neighbor couple and five of their friends went to see the ceremony releasing five oriental white storks into nature in Toyooka city in Hyogo prefecture on September 24.
Prince Akishinomiya and Princess Kiko were also there to attend the tape cutting ceremony.
It was quite an exciting event with many people crying out with joy when each stork was released from its box.
*Worth driving 4 hours each way!*

Click to see more details;
http://www2.nkansai.ne.jp/toyooka/kounotori/end.swf

#3 The first scarecrow contest in town!

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 15:17:52 GMT

YAY, we came in scond!!

The Harvest Moon

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 16:25:13 GMT

The most beautiful moon in the year. We celebrate and admire its beauty in Japan.

Click for more explanation. Very nice site. http://www.watanabegumi.co.jp/jpculture/tukimi/tukimi.html

#2 The first scarecrow contest in town!

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 15:50:46 GMT

After the winners are chosen next monday, all of the scarecrows will be given to the farmers in the neighborhood. Will they really scare the crows away? Hahaha.

#24 Hula dancer..."Masterpiece???" by my group :D

#1 The first scarecrow contest in town!

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 04:07:19 GMT

The local cable tv crew came!

"Reborn wheel cap", great idea!

To be continued...

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 08:10:22 GMT

I did everything to protect the clematis plant from countless tiny pale green worms. Nipping them with my bare fingers every morning and evening and spraying them with a bug killer several times. But all of my efforts were in vain. That was last year.
Then Mother Nature gave me the pure white sensation of this flower again. Where did all the tiny bitty worms go this year?

A white cascade of flowers.

"Click below" This one was taken two years ago.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b115/sachicat/clematis3.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 00:48:29 GMT

In the air and in the greens
Of rice paddies and kudzu vines
The pure white egrets
Rejoicing the blessings
Of their lives ever so free

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 15:13:51 GMT

I want to share the beauty in the sky in Kyoto on September 7th.

A fun event

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:53:58 GMT

The first scarecrow contest in my town starts tomorrow!
A volunteer group called Himawari (sunflower in Japanese) which I belong to, is organizing the event.
What we regularly do is clean up and plant flowers along the river Tebara which runs in our neighborhood.
We decided to have some fun, "A SCARECROW POPULARITY VOTE".
There will be 23 scarecrows in the contest. The nearby kindergarten is participating in the event, too.
My team, four women made a hula dancer scarecrow!

The picture shows the first encounter of the head of the scarecrow and Chako, a very old cat owned by one of the members.

And after all the hustle and bustle.....a glamorous star is born!!
(CLICK ON THE LINK)
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b115/sachicat/hula9.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com

We will know the winner in two weeks.
After the event, all the scarecrows will be given to the farmers in the area.

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 16:34:22 GMT

I have been practicing taking pictures of birds, especially blue herons and white egrets which gather at the nearby irrigation ponds among rice fields, using 10x zoom. Here are several of those pictures.

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 18:06:34 GMT

My sister in law sent us a very cute website.
I bet those who are in love with cats will really enjoy it.

http://catsinsinks.com