24 Seasons [ Lesser Heat ]
二四節気 [ 小暑 ]
Bergamot
Clematis
Hello, everyone! I hope you’ve been well? We had a couple of really hot summer days last week but now it's back to the normal cool UK summer. The 5-mile travel restriction was lifted in Wales yesterday but I'm still staying close to home so I’d like to show you some photos from my old blog from 2016.
The above is bergamot we got this plant at the Monmouthshire Rare Plant Fair. It's flowered a lot with a really vibrant colour - amazing.
Clematis; I love white coloured flowers but I think this purple clematis is really lovely.
皆様こんにちは。お元気ですか？先週30度を超える真夏日が2日程続きましたが、ウェールズは再び涼しい通常の夏に戻っています。8キロ圏内移動規制は昨日解除されましたが、今回も古い2016年のブログから写真をご紹介致します。
写真は、毎年楽しみにしている南ウェールズとイングランドの町々で春夏にかけて開催されるレアプラントフェアで見つけたベルガモット。枯れ始めても色は鮮やかなまま。
そしてクレマチス。白もいいけど、紫も素敵：）
Blackcurrants
We bought blackcurrants at the yearly Penarth Plants & Craft Fayre in 2015 and they fruited this summer. They looked absolutely beautiful and I needed to photograph some.
こちらも毎年恒例地元の植物＆クラフトフェアで2015年に購入した黒房すぐり（カシス）。少しだけ実をつけてくれました。あまりに美しく、熟してしまう前に記念に一枚撮ったもの。
Bay fruit
The bay tree we got from Anne-Marie and Mark's garden always grows so fast so Chris pruned it a little. We hadn't noticed it had lots of fruits. I wonder how these would have looked later.
月桂樹が育ち過ぎたので、クリスが少々撰定。気づかないうちに、こんなに実がなっています。そのままにしておいたら、実はどうなっていたのかしらん？
Mint
Rosemary
Willow
That year I was enjoying a “Rooting Festival” at home. I put any branches and plants in water and observed them starting to root. The most amazing one was a broken willow branch, which I picked up by the canal near the bay on my daily morning walk. Later on, the willow grew pretty yellow catkins. Herbs such as rosemary, mint and thyme were also brilliant – I loved observing them dancing in water!! Afterwards, the Rooting Festival became a bit of a jungle.
この頃夢中になっていたのが、根っこ観察。水に差しておくとちゃんと根っこが生えてくるのが嬉しくて、この年の春から”根っこフェスティバル”で賑わっていました。一番の感動は散歩の途中で拾ってきた柳。嵐で枝が折れてしまっても、毎日水を交換して、この後、可愛らしい黄色い花もつきました。ローズマリー、ミント、タイム等ハーブたちの根っこ観察も楽しいです。水中ダンス♬ その後、根っこ祭りはジャングル化が進行。
The Japanese Tradition #6 [ Tanabata Star Festival ]
日本の伝統 #6 [ 七夕 ]
The 7th of July is the Tanabata Star Festival in Japan. Its origin comes from the ancient China just like many other Japanese traditions. It's a celebration of the meeting of the deities Orihime, Vega, and Hikoboshi, Altair. According to the legend, when they met, they fell madly in love and Orihime, a skilful weaver stopped weaving and Hikoboshi, who looked after cows let them stray all over Heaven so they were separated by the Milky Way and only allowed to meet once a year on this day.
In ancient times, people wished to improve their waka poetry or calligraphy by writing on a Kaji Japanese Mulberry leaf using ink made with night dew gathered from a Taro leaf. During the Tanabata Star Festival, there’s a tradition related to this ancient story where people write their wishes on a strip of coloured paper (tanzaku) and attach them to bamboo branches. In some areas of Japan, these are set afloat on a river but customs vary depending on the region.
The picture above is a wood-block print titled “The Tanabata Festival in the Flourishing City (1857)” from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Utagawa Hiroshige [1797-1858], which I introduced in April and May.
When I was a primary school student, I would visit a local Science Centre every Saturday afternoon to attend a workshop. In the first half of the course, we did some scientific experiments then in the second half we enjoyed the Planetarium. I always enjoyed listening to the astrological mythology looking up at the myriad stars reflected in the planetarium dome, of course including the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi. I must have been so impressed that I had a dream that I saw all the beautiful constellation pictures in the night sky in reality, but even after waking up, I was overjoyed by the magical star world.
今日、七月七日は七夕。七草、桃、菖蒲、菊と並び五節句の一つだそうです。短冊の風習は、里芋の葉に集められた夜露で磨られた墨で、梶の葉に歌をしたためて、和歌や文字の上達を願った事に由来するのだとか。なんとも趣のある願い事の文化があったのですね。
写真は四月、五月にもご紹介した歌川広重 名所江戸百景シリーズの一枚、"市中繁栄七夕祭"の木版画です。皆さんは七夕にどんな思い出がありますか？ 私は小学生の頃、毎週土曜日の午後、近隣のプラネタリウムへ通っていました。どういう経緯でその教室に通う事になったのか全く記憶にないのですが、前半は化学実験で後半は実験室からプラネタリウムへ移動。ドーム型の天井に映し出された満天の星を眺めながら、学芸員の人が語る織姫と彦星の話が印象に残っています。余程感動的だったのか、その後私は実際の夜空いっぱいに星座絵の広がる夢を見て、目が覚めた後もその余韻に浸っていました。ずっと記憶に残る七夕とプラネタリウムの思い出です。
Ghost (♀ born December 2009), Maine Coon cat
Freya (♀ born January 2011), Maine Coon cat
Haiku (♂ born October 2011)
Our Maine Coon cats, Ghost, Freya and Haiku. Mochi had only just been born at that time and he came to our home at the end of the summer of 2016. The ice cream with Baby Haiku was made with homegrown cherries. The pink was really beautiful. At the moment, we have some apples growing in the garden so I’m looking forward to making something yummy with them in the autumn.
2016年の毛むくじゃらトリオ。ゴースト、フレヤ、俳句。この頃、餅はまだ生まれたばかりで、我が家で迎えたのはこの年、八月の終わり。 俳句と一緒に写っているのは、庭で取れたさくらんぼで作ったアイスクリーム。ピンクが綺麗でした。現在、林檎が成長中。秋には何か美味しいものが作れる事を祈って。
Thank you very much for visiting my blog. Please take care and hope you have a beautiful summer.
今日もブログ訪問ありがとうございます。大雨による被災者の皆さま、心よりお見舞い申し上げます。今後、被害が最小に収まる事、少しでも早い日常生活への復旧をお祈り致します。