It looks they harvest rice only once in early autumn. That plant is strong enough to grow again, while no sparrows come to sip milk from the ears. They might be empty or too small to feed little birds. If the first, tasty harvest results from agricultural efforts including pesticides and fertilizers, the second one symbolizes what it is by right, doesn’t it? Our ancestors have tampered with the nature to eat more. We currently try to eat less for good health.
金木犀=kin-mokusei is one of Mei-Shun’s most favorite flowers. It reminds her of childhood, or accurately happy school days. Festival season used to come with that sweet scent, followed by tiny yellow flowers in bloom. Her parents also love it, planted the other breed of white flowers as well called 銀木犀=gin-mokusei, meaning fragrant olive with silver flowers. Original one means golden flowers with 金, giving young Mei-Shun treasures in garden.
How beautiful! Under this miraculous phenomenon, cicadas sang, humid and hot air held us. Summer seems to postpone his departure. Fiery sunset with orange and red gradation in winter is nice, yet it makes us a bit lonely, doesn’t it? Mei-Shun, who prefers lively pink, blue and green combination, was lucky to see it on walking way to home in the evening. The lane between harvested rice paddies was tinged with scarlet of 彼岸花 here and there.
… prevents Mei-Shun from walking for a week, while horse riding class today. Her next reservation is on 30th — well, it does not sound so bad to go up to the next step at the end of month. We had 秋分=shubun, the 16th of 二十四節気 yesterday. It is said 暑さ寒さも彼岸まで, meaning torrid or freezing weather would end at the autumnal/vernal equinoxes. So please, Ms. Stationary Front, leave our archipelago by Sunday, the last day of current 彼岸=higan as summer does.
Wild flowers seem to like autumn, not only spring. They make hordes next to walking courses of Mei-Shun around 乙戸沼 Pond while along rice paddies, making her eyes deeply pleased. Her mother taught her little daughter that blue ones below are called 露草=tsuyu-kusa. Or dayflower in English, their one-day life rings a bell for morning dew, it is said. Other names include 青花=ao-bana and 月草=tsuki-kusa, meaning blue flower and moon plant respectively.
It makes us feel real beginning of autumn to see golden rice harvest. However, attacked by extraordinary summer typhoons, some of rice ears lean to the ground, looked disappointed this year. Mei-Shun sympathized with them walking along. Now it is over by half: she found them dried on 稲木=inagi or inaki, bamboo hangers constructed on rice paddies after harvest. Bundled ears are spread under sunlight for longer shelflife and better taste.
Today’s highest temperature in Ibaraki was just a bit lower than 33 degrees Celsius. Yes, September is such a month these days. Most of Mei-Shun’s generation, sometimes called 昭和人=Showa-jin, people born in our previous era, remember clearer boundaries between four seasons 2 decades before. Maybe affected by global warming, recent summers appear to reside with us until winters approach just nearby. So does next-door 百日紅=saru-suberi, serving Mei-Shun a gift in eyes.
We had 二百十日=nihyaku-toka, 210th day after 立春 on the last day of August this year. It is said to represent a time when rice harvest and typhoon landfalls often come together, a warning to farmers. And this flower called 彼岸花, higanbana in Japanese or Lycoris radiata carries three names in English including hurricane lily, red spider lily and cluster-amaryllis. Mei-Shun cannot help hoping such beauty in nature be ever resonant with peaceful repose of our lives.
Oh, poor gingko nuts. Chanthu and Mindulle have blown you down on the ground, still premature. Mei-Shun wishes she could pick you up to eat, yet they say you have amygdalin, a harmful toxin. You remind her of their own gingko, whose green leaves have been torn from branches to land onto balcony floor. Both of you left home too soon, yet had no choice.
Shin and Mei-Shun visited 水郷 Park. They found that it is one of “Poké-Sta.” since there were many people walking around with their smart phones in hand. The former looked happy to play on his own while the latter was more interested in flowers around them. She had believed that they slept at night, yet some of these lotuses bloomed in lovely pink. Or mischievous monsters might ask them to provide good hiding places.
meishunkikunoe 