some flames outdoors and indoors in the beginning of winter

Blinding sunlight looks darker, and some colored leaves flame up abruptly in it.
Such transient shine of the leaves mingles with the sunshine soon.

Two deciduous trees between two cedars.
Leaves just before being defoliated become golden time to time as sunbeam changes.

Some reddish fallen leaves collected at a foot of a tree show their brightness before returning to the soil.

These white flames are of silver grasses.

When they sway in the breeze it let me imagine some people's hands waving again and again...

夢にだに出でこぬ人に振るごとくそよげるすすき朝の陽のなか

In the glare of the morning sun

silver grass waves its hand

for an invisible sweet

who never turns out

even in its sweet dream

haricot

**************************************

On the 5th of December my dead mother used to start preparing for New Year adopting one of olden Japanese behaviors.

Remembering her I started to clean rooms and arranged a small corner of our living room for coming Christmas.

This collage was from Jen ( Country Weekend) around this time last year.

This quilt was made by Annette (here).
These handmade items make our living room quite warm as if they are flames for winter time.

Thank you very much, friends and visitors!

I hope the new year will bring you good luck and happiness.

on an observation deck and high land searching for autumnal colours

From an observation deck on Shin-Hodaka of 2156 meters high, for looking over Japan Alps with 360-degree view, in Gifu prefecture. Thanks to a rapid aerial gondola which goes up along the steep way, climbers can reach here quite efficiency.

In the  different direction different features of mountains can be seen.

An active volcano,Mt. Yake, is observed at the depth of this photo. This mountain is located on the border of Gifu and Nagano prefecture.

 The opposite side of Mt.Yake. This area is called Kamikōchi which is a high land of 1400 meters above sea revel, in Nagano prefecture.
When Mt. Yake exploded its life again in 1915 ( in Taishō period) ,this big eruption made a dammed lake. The lake is called Taishō lake.

A view of Taishō lake.

Azusa river pours into the lake. Ascending stream of Azusa river, various view of river, trees and plants are pleasure for eyes.

Visitors can breath clean air not only having been provided by various plants but also prohibition the use of cars.
There is establishment in this area for those who are affected with asthma.

鳥に影樹樹に眠りのあることを風よ告ぐべし未生の者に　内藤　明（１９５４～）

Wind must go and tell

to the unborn beings

such truth as

birds have their shadows

and trees have their own slumber

Akira Naitō 

This is a view from Kappa bridge which is one of the most popular spots in Kamikōchi.

Kamikōchi became to be world widely known due to introduction by Walter Weston (1860~1940), and nowadays is well known and popular hiking area in central Japan.

on a rainy day in October

Rainy days and Mondays? My dog, Daisy, looks so bored.

What let her down is just the rain fall.

Fortunately in my area September rain fell relatively gently despite of approaching typhoon, and it cooled me down physically and mentally. I was more reflective than usual in the midst of the rapid change of climate. 

 It was like already long ago when we had a relentless heat wave.

Today it is rainy. We haven't had much rain for a little while since the last typhoon 
brought various damages around near here, in Kansai region too. And until recent days the temperature was as high as that of late summer again.
Today's rain fall made the climate much closer to the real calender. 

In my garden some Japanese limes are growing slowly, being barely visible from underneath of the leaves.

Unknown plants have settled down nearby the lime tree and have massive tiny flowers.

Some of them started to have some seeds which look like berries. Anyone knows the name of this plant?

Recently my youngest son told me his determination of remarriage in near future.

Listening to the sound of rain fall I thought of the months and years which have passed since he divorced. Regardless to be single or not I'm a little anxious mother about my three sons and a prayer for their future as all of mothers are so.

傘を打つ無数のおとを聞きとめてすぼめる傘より雨粒こぼす

Have listened to 

numerous tapping sound of rain

on my umbrella,

I put it down

dropping a few rain drops from it

haricot

Rain in Autumn,  in the midst of October, with ripple-chills brings myself to create something.
As it is just not good enough to compose some tanka poems, I tried to make a small chair of eight milk cartons and of some old clothing fragments, for my little grand daughter.  
Each of the small scrappy holds memories when I was young and my sons were kids.

Come rain or come shine, the chair will be waiting for your visit, little lady.

I do not dislike autumnal rain, besides I hope the following typhoon wont cause much damage.

in a pasture

Mt. Maya( 摩耶山）is a small mountain on the center of Rokkoh mountain range, about 700 meters high,in Hyogo prefecture. We can easily access to the top of it by a little cable car,

and can enjoy an ocean view including expanding  reclaimed land like amoeba which became a convenient modern area. 

A pasture is not far from the cable car station of Maya, and the sunny afternoon gave my husband an idea to pay a visit the pasture and I could not resist it.

At first glance the pasture looked compact, but a path led us further up and down showing some animals, goats. horses, sheep...

These goats are still quite young.

They seem to be well tamed, still their feral instinct is observed especially in the eyes.

荒れあれて雪積む夜もをさな児をかき抱きわがけものの眠り

石川　不二子（１９３３～）

Embracing my innocent life

in my arms

at night of storm-force wind and snow,

How wild and beast-like

my sleep is

Fujiko Ishikawa

In fact to talk about snow is too early here. What associates me with the tanka poem is the age-hardened coats of sheep. Their features make me imagine the weathertight lives even in this calm sanctuary. And for the people who work for the animals it must be harder in severe winter and summer time.
Now it is a short comfortable season just after the long extraordinary heat wave.

By the way, the writer of the tanka poem, Fujiko, used to be a dairy worker after she studied on farming at University, and continued to compose tanka poems working with her husband in a pasture.

The natural style of her poems reflects well the way of her living, and I admire the hint of unaffected sensuality in her poems.

  

It was Indian summer that day, though already some Japanese pampas and sort of bush clovers were rustling on the hilltop.

in an extremely hot season

Buzzing of cicadas is loud from early in the morning.

Yet it will be replaced by another sort of cicadas one after another towards the end of summer.

Hearing the buzz, though it is not so comfortable sound, I think of a wonderful woman who died of breast cancer 

recurrence in the midst of August in 2010.

She is Yuko Kawano( 河野　裕子） who was a representative contemporary tanka poet and wife of Kazuhiro　Nagata who is also a tanka poet as well as a competent scientist.

Recently I read Kazuhiro's tanka anthology,「夏・２０１０」(Summer・２０１０) in which he sang his　lament about his wife's little time left to live.

His feelings are objectively clear, suave and give readers fade-less impression even three years after her death.

あと五年あればとふきみのつぶやきに相槌を打ち打ち消して、打つ　永田　和宏

You murmur

" I wish we could have five more years...",

 I agree with you

and deny your words,

then deny my negation

Kazuriro Nagata (1947～)

Their son and daughter write tanka poems as well, and the

son also published his tanka anthology after his mother's death.

The title is 「湖をさがしに」(Searching for my lake), and he mentions in

the postscript that the lake signifies Biwa lake relevant to his dead mother

and also to another place somewhere else for him.

By the way, the tanka book setting in the last ones by Yuko Kawano is called

「蝉声」（Buzzing of cicadas).

The other day my husband invited me to walk along sea shore and we went to Suma　in Hyogo prefecture to where it takes about 90 minutes by train.

Considering the intense sun rays and a little long journey I decided not to go with my two-year-old granddaughter. Maybe next year!

We could see a couple of dolphins which were loosed from an aquarium nearby.

They looked joyful being free and they tried to make communication with visitors in their own way.

The manner how to do it reminded me of my dog, Daisy, when she looks quite happy.

Dry breeze from the sea is comfortable enough while the sun rays never deteriorate.

We took the exactly same route of the last time we visited here,

walking along the sea shore to the next station for returning.

Meanwhile I thought of our last visit of two years ago; the quiet sea and young people full of energy are the same, almost nothing have changed...except the condition of my knees.

A young man lies on his stomach to get more suntan. I'm sure this place is one of his favorite.

Cheer for his youth!

イルカの目見てきて仰ぐはるかなる雲のひと群れ夕づく空の

Pod of dolphin-shaped

are floating

in rarefied height

of evening summer sky,

 letting me think of dolphins' gentle and calm gaze

 haricot

walking around in the field of Oze(尾瀬)

My husband and I spent our last weekend at Oze(尾瀬).

Oze is a huge highland marsh, a wide basin, on the borders between three

prefectures, Gunma, Fukushima and Niigata. ( map is here)

Actually where we visited was Oze field,a part of the marsh, located

1,400 meters above sea level.

As the field is a basin surrounded by mountains visitors have to descend for

there from a certain point called Yama-no-hana, literally a nose of a mountain,

foot by foot on a narrow boardwalk and partly on stone steps.

As the boardwalk is slippery, even some experienced hikers are getting down on it very  prudently.

For a begginer like me it took more than one hour to get the plateau.

To have this view after some hard walking was so cool and relaxing.

Some bogs are gentle reminders of the huge marsh.

It was just after the official announcement of the end of the rainy season

in Kanto region, but in this area the season was not yet over, and we had faint flurry. 

人ひとり想ふひそかさなんとなく雨が似あふも尾瀬のはつ夏　今野　寿美（１９５２～）

　

I'm walking in the field of Oze

letting be a person on my mind,

It goes quite well with

jot and quiet rain

of early summer

(Sumi Konnno)

On the highland with lower temperature, a little rain and breeze, I felt it was

like early summer as the poem says, while the Meteorological Agency told that

it was like high summer around my residential area during the days.

This field is famous for Mizubashou(水芭蕉）,or skunk cabbage, but their season

is almost over.

 Instead, コバイケイソウ（小梅蕙草、Veratrum stamineum）are in full boom now and the flowers protect themselves with their poison from be eaten by bears as many flowers of skunk cabbage are done.

I found several Nikkou-kisuge, or Hemerocallis on the field as well.

The season of the field colored with the light orange of the flowers will come soon.