- APRIL 2022 -
Hello! I hope you’ve all been well? Here is my seasonal photo journal for the first time in three months. Let’s start with the April’s journal.
We celebrated our first anniversary of moving to Scotland on the 25th April. We were welcomed by the pink cherries all over the village and we started a new chapter in our lives so this pink cherry became a very special flower to me.
こんにちは。ご無沙汰しております。皆様お元気ですか？ 3ヶ月ぶりに、季節のフォトジャーナルをお届け致します。まず、本日は四月編。
我々がスコットランドへ移り、4月25日で一年を迎えました。村のあちこちに咲く満開の八重桜に迎えられられ、新しい人生の章をスタート。この桃色の桜は私にとって特別な花となりました。
Chris brought me a bouquet of roses and carnations for our anniversary.
一周年記念にクリスがプレゼントしてくれた薔薇とカーネーションのブーケ
COUNTRY WALK JOURNAL
Although the new season has definitely arrived, we still had cold days in April. The Scottish spring was under overcast skies with grey clouds.
確実に新しい四季の訪れを感じるものの、まだまだ寒い日も多く、どんよりした雲が立ち込めるスコットランドの春。この季節が冬の続きであると実感します。
In March I was obsessed with collecting broken willow branches. There are a couple of large willows on my daily walk and I enjoyed myself so much finding those treasures on the ground. The very first time I found this tree I was shocked by its beauty.
これは三月頃、夢中になって集めていた柳のほんの一部。散歩ルートには二本の大きな柳の木があって、その辺りで地面に落ちている枝を見つけるのが毎日とても楽しみでした。初めてこの柳を見た瞬間、あまりの美しさに感動。
Protected during winter time, the fluffy silvery heads appeared out of the reddish black bud scales. The contrast of the black and silver looked amazing against the blue skies. I’m so pleased I’ve discovered another joy of springtime to look forward to every year.
冬の間は芽鱗に覆われていた、フワフワした花芽が顔を見せる春。赤みを帯びた黒と銀白色のコントラストが青空に映えて本当に美しい。人生に新しい春の楽しみが増えたようで嬉しいです。
Then my obsession moved to watching lambs in April. I now understand why people love spring so much because it’s the season of baby sheep!
そして柳に代わり、4月に入って私が夢中になったのは、可愛い子羊たち。彼らを見ていて何故、人々がこれ程までに春が好きなのかを分かった気がしました。春は羊の赤ちゃんの季節だから!!
Unfortunately I was not able to see any Panda lambs in the nearby fields but hopefully some day!
残念ながらBarr Lochのパンダ羊の赤ちゃんには出会えませんでしたが、いつの日かきっと：）
DAYS OUT JOURNAL
We visited Edinburgh by train for the first time. It was to receive a certificate of residence from the Consulate General of Japan.
この春、初めてエジンバラを訪問。日本領事館から在留証明書を発行してもらう目的でした。
After arriving, we straight went to a Scandinavian café for breakfast. As it was the Easter season, I wanted to have a traditional Nordic sweet bun, Semla but they didn’t have any. Chris got me a blueberry & custard pastry instead, which was really lovely.
By the way, I wonder what makes cafes such an attractive space to me?
When I was a teenager, there were ads for Nestle Coffee featuring portraits of young foreign people. There were a few versions of the ad but each had a black and white shot of a model posing holding a coffee cup in a café. I used to collect the ads cutting them out from magazines and put them on the wall in my room.
The copy was [ I like the coffee I drink with you ]. In English it might sound odd? But just like the phrase “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” indicates “I love you” in Japanese, the copy in the ads sounded very romantic. I would like to add that there are tons of ways to say “I” and “you” in Japanese so it feels totally different depending on which “I” and “you” are used in a sentence. You can easily image what type of person he or she is by how they call themselves. It's also the same to image the relationship by how people call each other.
I’ve always loved to watch people having coffee, smoking a cigarette, or reading a newspaper (rather than a book, somehow). And the time passed, after more than 30 years, we rarely see people smoking cigarettes or reading newspapers. Yet, I still love black and white portraits and love spending time in a café.
After breakfast, we strolled around Edinburgh Castle.
到着後は、北欧カフェでの朝ご飯からスタート。イースターの時期だったので、スカンジナビアの国々で伝統的に食されるセムラという菓子パンを予定していましたが見つからず、代わりにブルーべリーとカスタードのペイストリーをクリスがチョイス。◎でした：）
それにしても、何故カフェってこんなにもワクワクと楽しい空間なのでしょう？
中学生の頃、カフェでお茶をする外国人のポートレートを扱ったネスカフェの広告がありました。結構沢山のバージョンがあって、若い素敵な女の子や男の子を中心に、
『 君と飲むコーヒーが好きです。』
のキャッチコピーと一緒に、それぞれがコーヒーを片手にポーズをとっているモノクロ写真。写真一枚に一人のモデルがアップでフィーチャーされ、吸い込まれそうな瞳でこちらを見つめてくる。その広告を切り抜いて下敷きに入れたり、部屋に飾っていました。懐かしいな。
コーヒーを飲んだり、タバコを燻らせたり、新聞を読んでいる人たちの居るカフェの風景を眺めているのが大好きでした。時代は流れ、今ではタバコを吸う人も、新聞を読む人も見かけなくなりました。でも私はその頃からずっと変わらず、モノクロ写真もカフェも大好き。
コーヒータイムのあとは、エジンバラ城周辺を散策。
Edinburgh cherries were also beautiful. They were shining white against the grey skies.
エジンバラの桜も綺麗。曇り空に白が眩しい。
It was only a few hours stay and we were caught in pouring rain in the afternoon but we got familiar with a part of the city so I’m very much looking forward to the next visit – definitely would like to enjoy the museums.
数時間だけの滞在で、午後は大雨となってしまったけれど少しは土地勘も掴めて、次回のエジンバラ訪問が楽しみ。是非美術館へ足を運びたいと思います。
The countryside outing in April – we often go for a walk around the south part of Highlands - normally one or a two-hour drive from home. We visited Lochan a' Ghleannain in Aberfoyle one weekend. It’s part of Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, which is one of the six parks in Scotland, established in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Elizabeth II. There are some little islands in the loch and the landscape reflected in the mirror of water surface on the lake looked fantastic.
四月の遠足。週末ハイキングは車で小一時間程のハイランド地方南部をよく訪れます。ここは、エリザベス2世の戴冠式の年である 1953年に設立したクイーンエリザベス森林公園内の湖。小さな島が点在し、鏡のような湖面に映し出された雰囲気のある景色が印象的。
Pesto Gnocchi
We repeatedly had this pesto gnocchi in April. With lots of roasted veggies, mushrooms and mozzarella. In the summer, we would be using cropped veggies from our garden, hopefully!
四月はよく、クリスにペストニョッキを作ってもらいました。ローストした野菜やキノコにモツァレラチーズをトッピング。夏には、家庭菜園の野菜が使えますように！
Thank you for reading! I’ll introduce a May journal in the next post. Have a lovely day!
ブログ訪問ありがとうございます。次回は5月編です。どうぞ素敵な一日を：）
1001 DAYS PROJECT
1001 Days Project 千昼一昼ﾌﾟﾛｼﾞｪｸﾄ Day 496 : Spring rain / Day 500 : How so fortunate we are to be able to admire the moon