May the young be happy and healthy

We had a quiet day at home, celebrating Kodomo no hi (Children's Day) in a laid back manner.  We proudly flew our koi flag; ate a bit of chimaki and kashiwamochi; and even took a bath with iris leaves.

Click here to learn more about this fantastic national holiday!

Solace in temples

In this crazy time, I need a place to be away from my home, away from other people, and a place to gather my thoughts.  For the most part, my family has found temples and shrines are pretty deserted.

Sanpo Ji was the temple we stopped at when we went to Ozaki Flower Market.  It was a beautiful and relaxing place that offered a bit of the respite we all need right now.

Maybe at some point we will go back and learn more about the history and philosophy of the temple.  But for now, we'll just appreciate the bit of solace it is affording us.

Are there ever enough plants?

We decided to make the trek to Ozaki Flower Park to look for a couple plants I've been wanting.  Knowing the mosquitos are on their way (we've already been bitten a couple times!), I wanted to buy some plants that they don't like.

We took our time getting there, because getting any distance from our house is a rare occurrence these days.  Since Ozaki is over 7 kilometers (over 4 miles) away, we took the time to stop by some new to us places, like a temple that we've passed many times but never stopped by.

When we arrived we were greeted with a plethora of plants.  I was most intrigued by what I thought was cat grass.  But it wasn't cat grass, it was rice!  That was something I have never seen at a garden store before.

We didn't stay long, because... well... now isn't the time for wandering around aimlessly in stores, even if they are outdoors.

As we were checking out, we noticed the cashier was wearing something around her neck that was labeled as "virus away".  Curious, in part because we've seen several people wearing these, my husband asked her about it.  She replied that a friend gave it to her to help keep Covid 19 at bay.

One quick look on the internet, and these are a complete hoax.  I am not surprised by this whatsoever.  In fact, many countries have actually banned the sale of these!  But they are for sale and being purchased in Japan.  After seeing the package online, I realized I've seen them at several stores around town.  I guess I just found them to be so ridiculous that I had completely put them out of my mind.

We found everything I was looking for - including more seeds for microgreens. I didn't buy the rice, but I certainly was tempted.  How fun would that be?

Dinner delivered

A very sweet and generous friend brought us dinner tonight.  She texted to ask if we would be home and then stopped by with a bag of soba!

She has a friend that opened up a restaurant recently.  We wanted to have a lunch together at the restaurant, but we were busy and then were asked to stay at home to stop the spread of Covid 19.  As the end of quarantine keeps extending, she decided we had waited long enough.

Inside the bag was soba, dipping sauce, REAL wasabi, and some lamb.  It is getting more and more rare to get real wasabi these days, so we were quite surprised to see 2 nice chunks of it in the box.  My husband cooked the noodles and plated everything for us.  It was a lovely dinner.

Someday it will be nice to go to Soba Hiru Andon for a ladies lunch, but until then, at least we enjoyed a lovely dinner!  I'm so lucky to have such a thoughtful friend.

A bit of greenery

The pots in my little rock garden are really coming to life.  It is a little oasis out there at the moment.  One of my neighbors likes to stop over and gaze over the fence.  She always exclaims how nice it looks.  I hope it can keep it up!  Growing in pots has always been a challenge for me.

The miracle tomato that self-propagated and already has flowers!

Potatoes, lavender, and celery

My son's raspberry.  He checks it daily for flowers.

Future salads from starts and seeds, plus slug fighting marigolds.

Garlic chives (a key ingredient of gyoza) and garlic, plus a random flower.

Snow peas, sage, pea shoots, spinach, and flowers.

The "empty" box is basil.

Baby basil!

I've started growing lots of  microgreens, which we have already been enjoying in salads and so forth.  They definitely make me feel successful!

A variety of microgreens, my son's beans, and more.

Microgreens - peas, rocket/arugula, broccoli, salad mix

For the moment, I am not worried about bugs or stressed plants.  I am ore concerned with keeping up with my son's demands for salads and eating things straight from plants that we've grown!