nature

School Restarted

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So here is the beginning of September. Hello again, school children. How was your vacation? This summer has recorded the longest serial days of torrid weather, while it has been cloudy and cool since obon holidays. Such a big swing between too-hot and too-cool days would make us worry about the future — is it an effect of global climate change?

Izayoi Moon

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We see 十六夜, one day after the moon looks full called 十五夜, tonight. It comes up to the sky a little delayed compared to last night. In old days, they took it as moon’s hesitation and read this Chinese letters izayoi. As the moon appears later night by night, they call 17th moon 立待月, 18th 居待月 and 19th 寝待月 meaning to wait for the moon standing, sitting and lying.

Looking Better

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Our cymbidium has recovered from her sick condition of paled leaves. It was caused by too much exposure toward the severe, midsummer sunlight: she has nearly got burned. Sorry, honey. Now we are ready to transplant her into a bigger pot, yet another problem is that she is stubbornly sticks to current one.

Fine green

Fine green

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…loves blue pot.

Next-door Pink

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Our neighbor in the south and north plant various flowers in backyards. The former is the Ys who have camellia and hydrangea while below belongs to the latter, the Is. This beauty called 百日紅, meaning 100-day pink. It is lucky for our eyes to enjoy it all through the summer.

Thanks, I-san.

Thanks, I-san.

Turn to Yellow

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Yes, on our lunar calendar, autumn has already come. Tokyo had serial 8 days of over 35 degrees Celsius from July 31st to August 7th. And this green started to go yellow from August 8th, risshu (=the beginning of autumn) of this year. It is amazing to see that truly reflects seasonal change.

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Sick Lady

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Our cymbidium looks a bit tired — her leaves turn pale, with tops blacked. Current environment might be too hard; in such a torrid weather. We decided to bring her indoors after watering in the morning, keeping her wet in daytime. In the evening, she returns to outdoors to be watered enough. We hope she would recover soon.

Banana Joined Us

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We hope she likes this environment enough to give a fruit. Attached instruction is read that banana leaves fall after another to grow up. However, it is a bit shocking to find out fallen one on the floor just over a night. We would try to be used to her custom.

Ready to Fly

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… and suddenly disappeared. He showed a good appetite last night — it seemed that he had survived pretending to be a part of avocado in daytime. However, the more he eats, the more he exposes himself to bird’s eyes. A big contradiction in a small life, isn’t it?

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Well … come

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Our avocado has a friend. It was first in the size of one’s finger nail, while has grown almost ten times as big as just a few days before. It kept this camouflage as a stalk among leaves even when watered. Amazing power of nature.

Good disguise

Good disguise

Severe Life

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We heard Tora-chan’s voice in the morning. Rushed outdoors, we found her looking exhausted and scared. However, Mei-Shun was too slow to feed her who ran away from our garden in a second. Oh, such a cold nature … she might have lost in a territory fight. However, if we protect her to see Dr. O, it would mean to deprive her of the right and freedom she had won so far.

Wink!

Wink!