I wish I had one of those fancy night photography cameras. If I did you’d be in awe.
We stood here, at the edge of the rice field in hushed silence. The air was misty cool. A low, thin layer of fog hung over the paddies. Hundreds of frogs broke into song, rising to a crescendo and falling silent over and over again.
Night insects chirped along in harmony and every once in a while a bird, who had perhaps been disturbed, added a startled note or two.
The fireflies….oh..the fireflies! Hundreds and hundreds of them winked on and off again in their gentle pulsating dance over the paddies and along the creek.
I watched as two would meet in the air, their lights winked on as they touched and then moved apart. With each illumination I saw they were further away from each other.
I saw spinning and twirling. Some gently floating and some in what seemed a free-fall nose dive!
The clacking of the bamboo trees in the wind accompanied by the babbling of a waterfall I couldn’t see and the sound of excited children somewhere up the road…all part of this magical night.
Every one of my senses alive and tingling! It is amazing to me how these little creatures that come but once a year and don’t live very long- only about 24 hours-give us so much wonder!
We stood in the semi-darkness, in the almost full silence, in the midst of the forested valley at the foot of the mountain.. in awe. A cool gentle night breeze, the sounds of night creatures and silhouettes of pine and bamboo against a moonlit sky…and we were thankful.
We’ll go again tonight to bid them farewell because I don’t think we’ll have time to see them again before they all go…
Aging has brought me yet another gift. The gift of being able to totally enjoy the simple life. Not that we didn’t live the simple life on the tiny isolated island of Saipan! Actually I was kind of worried that once moving here we’d get caught up in the “modern life” , not that the modern life is bad…just that I wanted to maintain our simplistic life-style. For the most part.
So last week when a friend gave me bag of green ume I was thrilled! I was not going to let the opportunity go to waste. A chance to “do it myself”.
I hate to let anything I’m given go to waste. Last year MIL gave me a small jar of ume jam she had made and I’ve not been able to get the taste out of my head! It was delicious, tart and sweet and refreshing!
Several friends suggested that I make umeshu-plum liquor with my little bag of gold and although I love plum liquor I really wanted the jam more.
I heard that the ume (more of an apricot than a plum) are slightly toxic and you have to prepare them first to avoid getting sick.
Thankfully there are several foreign wives who blog and who have knowledge about this sort of thing!
The jam turned out delicious!!! It’s the first time I’ve ever made jam-in my life- so I’m thrilled.
Without further blabbering-here are the directions for making ume jam.
I used 2 kilos of ume.
I got them when they were really green so I set the whole lot on newspaper in front of a sunny window for about two days to soften and yellow-up a bit.
After they were yellowed I removed all the little stem pieces. Some of them are really tiny-just a speck of brown where the stem would be. You have to remove that. I used the tip of my favorite paring knife. Some people use a toothpick.
Next I put them in a large bowl and filled the bowl with water and added a tablespoon of table salt and soaked them overnight. Soaking helps remove the toxicity. Ume are not “killer” toxic but do have to be prepared before making jam. The instructions for making liquor are different.
The next morning the ume were drained, rinsed and transferred to a large cooking pot.
I brought them to a boil but while they were beginning to boil I used a handled screen to scoop the scum that forms. I brought the pot to a low boil and scooped as much scum as possible then I drained them and rinsed them as best as I could -they had already started to get mushy.
I didn’t remove them from the pot.
I re-added just enough water to almost cover them and started to cook them on a medium flame.
While they were cooking I scooped out the pits and put them into a bowl. When I had them all out I put the bowl into our quick freeze drawer to cool them down and when they were cool enough I used my hands to squeeze the remaining fruit off of them. I got quite a bit of fruit off the pits!
I divided the pits into two batches-here is a shot of what I got off one batch of pits. Sorry-it’s rather blurry and well…frankly…I’m too rushed at the moment to stop and edit the picture (I really need to get dinner started).
I added the fruit I took off the pits along with two cups of sugar to the pot and let it simmer for a bit. I tasted it to see if it was sweet enough. Some people may want it sweeter. I thought it was just right.
When it was cooked to the consistency I wanted I turned it off and let it cool a bit. You can make smooth jam or chunky jam, it’s really up to you.
I put a bit into the quick freeze drawer so that I could enjoy some ume jam toast right away!
Delicious!! I mixed a bit of it with my plain yoghurt…WOW…absolutely wonderful!!!!
The rest of it was jarred and frozen because I didn’t “can” it. I didn’t have canning jars. I used recycled store-bought jam jars.
Hubby loves it too….I don’t think it’s going to last very long….
EDIT: I wanted to add that I didn’t have to add pectin because ume have plenty of natural pectin!
Well, I’m back after a needed break. There are times in life when you just need to step back. That’s kind of cliche but I really mean it. I overwhelm myself many times. I try and do too many things all at the same time.
Then I crash.
I have so many goals and from the looks of things …so little time! Sometimes I think everything is a priority!
When brain is on “menopause” it doesn’t help.
The weather man said the rainy season has “officially” begun. Hubby came home the other night and said he heard it on the news and sure enough, the very next day it started to rain. I thought “gee, accurate”!
My garden is loving the rain and growing out of control. Rainy season is a bit early this year and I’ve already got potatoes that look like they need to come out. Mrs. Pottager (a student of mine who gardens for a living) said to leave them in a bit yet….at least a week or so. I’ve been chewing my nails in anticipation to see what we have under the soil.
Last week the ladies from morning class and I went on a field trip to our local flower park. I’d never been there before and I didn’t know what a treat I was in for!
I’m glad we went when we did, before the rainy season got here although, I think this garden would be just beautiful to visit on a cloudy, misty day when everything is fresh!
They have a community room that is available for rental-about $30.00 per day. I thought about holding a yoga class there but I was told there is already a yoga class on Tuesday’s and it’s always full. It was a round about way to say that “we already have a yoga class and we don’t want to give the teacher competition”.
I was asked if I wanted to teach English? I declined.
There is no air-conditioning in the room and Japanese summers are STIFLING hot and absolutely over the top with humidity. The day we were there was the first mildly hot day we’ve had this year and the sweat was pouring off of me just standing in the room. I can only imagine what teaching an English class would be like. The papers would be a sodden wilted mess, so would I.
In yoga we sweat anyhow, so it’s not a problem, but I don’t want to stand in front of a room full of English students dripping sweat everywhere….yuck.
I may be able to teach a yoga class at the Bunka center (culture center) in hubby’s hometown. I’ve got a meeting with the folks that manage the building soon-so we’ll see what happens with that. All I want to do is teach a gentle yoga class for adults. Nothing fancy or difficult. Something that the average person can join and enjoy. Things seem a bit more complicated here in trying to set these sort of things up. I don’t have any “connections” in our town and from what I’m understanding connections matter. I guess it’s the same everywhere. Connections were everything in Saipan!
The humidity has already climbed considerably-my hot flash meter has been on emergency status several times already. This summer should be interesting. I’m looking forward to the summer but at the same time dreading being sticky and damp continuously for several months.
Mrs. Pottager brought me some ume (Japanese plums) the other day.
I’ve got them sitting by the window so they can color up a bit and soften. Usually these are picked green and used for making Japanese Umeshu-plum liquor which I really love but, I don’t want to open a moonshine distillery here in my home.
I’d rather make jam out of them. My MIL makes jam from them and it is really tasty-tangy and a bit sour, but I really loved it! I was given instructions from one of the other “foreign wives” on Facebook and I’m waiting anxiously for the plums to ripen a bit so I can get cracking with making jam!
Speaking of Facebook…..I guess I must be a strange sort of person. I thought Facebook was a place to communicate with other people. Discuss things, share ideas…etc. I recently had a bit of a melt-down on Facebook and it had to do with people who were my “friends” but never ever communicated with me, regardless how much I commented on their postings. I was completely ignored. They commented on other people’s posts- a status update of “I had chocolate cupcakes for lunch-yum” got comments galore while something I posted that I felt was worthy of sharing because it contained useful information, was completely ignored.
So, I deleted everyone who fit into the category of “ghost friends”. I have one or two more that might get nixed soon…
I dunno, maybe I’m just strange that way. I was left with 42 friends and 16 of them are family! I think perhaps because I don’t have the social life that people who live in a country where they speak the language do, I take something like Facebook a bit more seriously than many.
Anyhow- I’m rambling on about something stupid, I think. I guess I mentioned it because this is one area where my life has changed….I was never a social network kind of person.
I’ve got to get cracking on a baby blanket that I’m crocheting for a grand-baby that’s on the way! The parents are outdoorsy and definitely not into the usual pink and blue or pastel colors that most baby blankets are made of. I chose colors that would fit their “family style” and when mama saw them she loved them-so I’m happy with that. My little pile of granny squares is growing…I hope to have it completed by August so I can send it off to Oregon and mommy can put it in baby’s room before baby arrives! I do know what “we” are having but I’m not allowed to tell…it’s a secret from grandpa!
I’m off to take a sneak peek at my potatoes (I’ll just dig around the edges a bit) and then spend time on the baby blanket!
Well, it seems as of late that this blog is mostly about gardening.
As a child and young girl I spent a lot of time in the outdoors with my father. It’s from him that I learned to appreciate the beauty and wonder of the natural world.
But when I moved to Saipan I lost the four seasons I had grown up with. There are seasons in Saipan but they are subtle and you have to pay attention to really notice them. Mostly it just seemed hot and hotter.
Perhaps the 30 years in Saipan wiped the wonder of spring from my memory? Whatever the case may be, it actually turned out to be a blessing that I should have been deprived of Spring for so long because now it seems as if I am experiencing it for the very first time.
Being a new gardener is exciting! You can’t imagine how it feels to see seeds that you’ve sown actually grow!
At first it was all about just getting something to grow! I didn’t want a neat little row by row garden. I envisioned a wild little place with color and texture growing everywhere.
Well, I’m learning that “wild” still needs to be planned a bit.
This big tall plant on the left with the stakes around it was planted from seed. I don’t know what it’s called but it had pretty purple flowers on it from early spring until about two weeks ago. It has started to turn brown and there are no more blooms on it so I decided to take it out. It also took away the sun from the other flowers. So out it came.
I rearranged some of the plants. They mostly survived me moving them. I think I may lose one or two. The rest hung their heads down in protest for a day or so but, it started raining last night and it’s been raining all day and it looks like they have gotten their energy back and are standing tall.
I planted a couple of other flowers in alongside them so it should fill out in a couple of weeks.
All of the flowers in there were planted from seed. Mistake. I think I’m better off next time sowing the seeds in pots and then transplanting the plants. I noticed some of the seed seemed to move from where I had planted them in the garden. Rain maybe? I dunno-but next time I’ll sow them in pots (like the directions said to do).
My chamomile is growing really well! I’m surprised because German chamomile is supposedly an annual plant. I only sowed the seeds once-at the beginning of last spring. I got tiny plants out of that batch of seed but no flowers. They didn’t die over winter! They came back!
I’m harvesting flowers every two days. I’ve built myself a dryer out of a bamboo table mat and an old serving tray. the mat fits nicely over the tray. I fasten the mat onto the tray with wire twists. I used a plastic tray at first and a smaller bamboo mat over a pan but I noticed that the flowers dry much faster on the bamboo so, I got rid of the plastic and made a bigger bamboo dryer.
I check each flower for bugs and things when I lay it on the bamboo to dry. It seems to take about two days and then I can transfer the dried chamomile from the dryer to my jar. I had my first cup of chamomile tea the other night and it was delicious! About fifteen minutes after drinking it I had to go to bed-it put me to sleep! I’m growing it as a relaxant and sleep aid-I’m happy to say- it works!
Hildegard was a medieval German healer and nun since the age of eight and an expert (to say the least) in the healing properties of herbs-something I’ve been interested in for years. I ordered Hildegard’s book and this book:
The lavender that I thought had perished also came back-I’m encouraged! I need to give it a trim here and there because it is rather scraggly.
Much of my free time is spent studying gardening and taking notes and now putting useful information into my Gardener’s Scrapbook. I’m already thinking about next spring!
It rained all day today and my garden was very happy about that!
I spent the day practicing crocheting edging onto fabric.
I ended up making a mini curtain for our toilet room door.
Even though I spend much of my time alone I am never lonely or bored! If you want to know the truth-I see this time of my life as being really important to my spiritual growth. This semi-monastic life-style. I’m not distracted by much so I can really concentrate on what is before me.
There are some who might fret and be upset over being put into this sort of a situation. I could have done that. I could be downright miserable if I chose to be. I won’t lie, sometimes I feel depression just around the edges….trying to creep in over the threshold but I stop it right then and there. I do not entertain the thoughts. That’s where it starts-with the thought. If you entertain it then it snowballs and you are a goner.
That’s where mindfulness helps me so much. Bringing myself back into the moment-not living in the future or the past but now.
I inhale deeply while standing chest high in my chamomile patch…have you ever stood chest high in chamomile? The scent is heavenly! It brings me right back to now.
After moving to Japan and discovering that the mountains were almost in my back-yard I was in ecstatic! I literally put on my hiking gear, walk out my genkan and in about 45-60 minutes I’m wandering the trails beside cascading waterfalls.
There is a house that sits at the entrance to the trails. It’s not your typical house-type building. It looks sort of like a small hotel or traditional Japanese inn called a Ryokan. There is quaint coffee shop on the bottom of the main building which is about three stories high and set back into the woods. Next to that there is a second two story building the bottom being an semi open kitchen type place. I don’t know how else to describe it.
Next to that building is a small tea-house and shrine.
Every time I walked up there, I was curious about who lived there and what all the buildings were.
A couple of weeks ago Sunny Sky and I walked up to the falls and as we were leaving two ladies were outside the house cleaning bamboo shoots. One was the property owner. What a wonderful woman! Rather rough and tumble, nothing girly about her at all! Being the outdoorsy type myself I immediately felt comfortable with her.
We gabbed non-stop for several minutes and ended up exchanging phone numbers. I hoped she would call.
About a week and a half later, she did call and we set up a hiking date. Turns out, shes a very experienced hiker and woods-woman! She and a volunteer crew maintain the hiking trails in the general area, which I happily joined! I’m now a member of the trail maintenance crew.
She took me for a short trek up to a “secret spot” called Happy Dragon Falls. There were a couple of sawed off logs that provided the furniture for our little picnic snack of wild cherries once we reached the falls area.
What a wonderful day-a sort of introductory hike and friendship building time. We bonded, that’s for sure. We clicked as friends and both of us were thrilled about that.
The entrance to the trails is shown up above. I loved the way the light filtered through the trees. There were dozens of little insects buzzing around and they glimmered in the filtered light.
The trail follows the river and there are dozens of small waterfalls along the way. In several places the river forms little pools and I thought-great place to come during the summer! The water is clean, you can drink it.
I didn’t do well in photographing Happy Dragon Falls-sorry. I couldn’t get closer without clambering over some fallen trees and didn’t feel like making the effort. The waterfall is quite high-gushing over large boulders at the top and cascading down into a little pool. The water flows out of the pool and over some more boulders and then sort of gushes over-top of them and continues down the river.
We sat down for about a half hour and talked and got to know each-other. (click on the pictures if you want to view the full photo)
She told me that she paints the trail signs and, there are quite a few. This one is a full map of the area but there are other small signs providing information for hikers.
We hiked back down to where we entered but we kept on going past the entrance and followed another trail that led behind her house. She wanted to show me her bamboo “garden”.
She planted the bamboo, cut it and is building the fence herself, in her spare time. What a woman!
We walked up a little path that led to some smaller trails along what she called the “flower way”.
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It was just gorgeous! What a grand-finale!
Then it was time to wander back down to her house for some coffee in her private coffee shop. She opens it to the public during the camping season which is from about July thru September.
Her sister joined us. She gives tea-ceremony lessons in the little tea-house on the property.
After coffee she insisted on taking me home so that she would know where our home was. We definitely have plans to get together again soon!
Golden Week has come and gone. It’s a busy time of year in Japan-vacation season, the expressways are jam-packed. Hotels and Ryokans and vacation spots fill up with guests for the holidays.
Since moving to Japan we haven’t gone outside the prefecture yet during Golden Week. Actually, we barely leave the immediate area.
The traffic and the crowds don’t really appeal to us. We try to find something special to do that’s not too far away from where we live.
This year we took a day trip to Moji-a port city about an hour away. They had some festivities set up down by the docks-not too much so that it wasn’t too crowded but enough so that we were able to spend several hours walking around and enjoying what there was to see.
There are several historical buildings right around the area and I was very surprised to see that they were not built in the Japanese style. Many looked European.
I love the smell of festivals- BBQ and corn roasting and sweet smells from the confectionery booths. There was laughter and music and people selling various products by talking into megaphones.
The children looked like they were having a great time playing with toy trains that were set up by the dozens in a designated area.
We strolled around the boardwalk (which was not made of boards but concrete) and in and out of the various shops in the strip mall. We wandered over to the German beer tent that was playing German festival music. They had several tables set up so we ate the lunches that we bought at one of the tent vendors and listened to German music. I had a German tap beer and it was delicious…but it brought back memories of my dad and I’ll admit I had to swallow a few tears, I just miss him so much.
We sat and watched people for a while. People walking, taking pictures, eating BBQ on sticks or ice-cream cones. People walking their dogs or pushing little kids in strollers. Grandmas, grandpas, moms and dads and kids watching the fire juggler…and I remember thinking…this is wonderful…seeing all these people enjoying themselves.
But at the same time I’m always aware of my surroundings, always aware that not everyone has good intentions. I hate to think like that but in today’s world unfortunately, we have to.
We wandered over to several of the historical buildings and had a peek inside-lovely! I love old buildings. My dream house would be a 200 year old Victorian or something like that. If I was rich – as in no limit- (ha) I’d find an old castle someplace and buy it.
Yeah…dreaming…lol
Anyhow, the day was a wonderfully relaxing and interesting day.
And here, as usual, are the photos. Some are on Photobucket because if I keep posting pictures on WordPress I’ll run out of space in a hurry!
I’m taking a break for a couple of moments from working in the garden. The weather was so nice today, 75 degrees Fahrenheit and just about zero humidity. The rainy season is creeping in and soon the humidity will be draped over us like a wet towel that won’t be wrung out until mid autumn.
Even after living on a tropical island for 30 years I’ve never experienced humidity as high as it gets here. I’m sure there are places on the planet where it’s higher- and thankfully I’ve never been to any of them!
Everyday that I go out to inspect my garden it’s different. It’s even different from morning to evening.
The most obvious is how fast the weeds have grown. Some I don’t mind, like the clover…most of them can usually stay. Then there are the less noticeable things like, a small flower that was open in the morning, has already withered by the afternoon. Unless you have been looking closely, you might not have really even noticed.
Or the even less noticible teeny army of ants that have carefully climbed up to the tippy- top of one of the Chamomile stalks to gather food from the tiny flower buds (not even sure what it is they are gathering). They move systematically from stalk to stalk -working on one stalk and an hour later clambering up a totally different one.
Then there are the garden spiders who begin in the morning with one thin and barely visible thread strung carefully between the Azalea and the Hydrangea bushes. By late afternoon the spider has finished weaving an intricate web complete with levels and now sits waiting for its dinner to arrive.
All these and more.
All these little worlds and realities going on all at the same time here in my little garden.
Take that a step further and think of all the realities going on all over the neighborhood. While I’m puttering around in my garden I can hear Mrs. Umbrella next door-banging pots, running the kitchen faucet. I even hear her peeling vegetables, the peeler making the same sound mine does because the slicer part is a little loose and it bangs softly against the metal screws that hold it on the plastic handle.
Across the street I hear the rhythmic humm of a Japanese washing machine grinding and wringing the heck out of a load of wash, while the old lady that lives there sweeps her steps with an old wiry broom made of thin tree branches. I can’t see her but, I can hear the scrape of the branches against the concrete.
From over the top of the house comes the sound of chanting along with the sharp sound of the wooden striking instrument that is used to keep time. Mr. and Mrs. K are praying for their son who died over twenty years ago. I can smell the sweet incense as it is blown into my yard on the gentle, late spring breeze. Buddhist rituals in the early morning.
Somewhere over the wall and down in the valley I hear the grinding of heavy equipment-men working on fixing the drainage pond to keep the children safe from falling into it.
All of us in this huge cosmic dance we call life.
While I was stooped over pulling up the weeds that weren’t going to get to stay, I was making note of all the sounds around me. The sounds of life. Something occurred to me that had never occurred to me before…or maybe it had but I didn’t really think too deeply about it.
I realized that feeling “alone” is really just that- a “feeling” and not a reality. I know that sounds really simplistic “gee, what a novel thought”…but just wait a minute…
Here is the thing-there are many people who waste away because of this feeling. They feel alone, like they are the only people on the planet with their particular set of issues.They shut themselves up in their homes and isolate themselves and think-why am I so alone? But it’s not true…we are not alone.
That’s just not true.
As I stood there all stooped over-like thinking and listening to the life all around me suddenly…for the first time ever…I felt connected to every thing…and I realized that we were all here together…on this planet…all experiencing life together. No one is truly ever alone. It was one of those “ah…ha…” moments when you not only know something intellectually but you understand it on a level that is beyond that…you understand it on a level that is intuitive and may I dare say…spiritual.
What I just said may fly over the heads of some reading this.
That’s okay .
It might have flown over mine years ago too, had I read it then.
All of this living together is what makes our life. All the sounds filling my day-other people’s lives touching mine…and mine touching theirs, many times in ways that are not even obvious to us.
I have a habit of playing music when I garden. I love Songs From A Secret Garden and I thought of the notes flowing from my speakers and swirling around in Mrs. Umbrella’s kitchen while she banged pots and washed vegetables and cooked. Notes drifting up into Mr. and Mrs. K’s incense filled tatami room and becoming part of the prayers.
All of us living together here on earth, our lives interacting on levels that we don’t notice unless we are mindful.
I saw an awesome film not too long ago called “Life In A Day”. It’s a documentary about one day on this planet -24th July 2010. A compilation of home videos from all over the world shot on one single day. It is AWESOME if you can find the time to watch it.
Call it a moment of revelation or enlightenment but that realization has changed my thinking profoundly and I can sense it will be a huge benefit to me from this day forward.
If you are not familiar with Songs From A Secret Garden here is a sample:
