Wilted Tone

These two shots are of today's flowers. Obviously, they are the same flowers, but I wanted to see the difference between indoor lighting and using a flash.

The top shot used a flash, which seemed to take away from the natural tones of the tokonoma alcove wall. The bottom shot was ambient lighting while using a tripod. I like the color of the wall more, but the white flowers are showing their wilted tones as well.

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Pink Clip

I must have dropped this plastic clip on the floor, and it landed under my desk.

Leave it to her to find anything that she can play with!

She really loves this clip! And, she looks so cute when trying to chew on it. However, I'm afraid she might swallow some plastic or it might get stuck on her tongue or lips. So, sadly enough, I had to take it away from her.

Sorry Mary!

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

U-Turn

Rained a lot yesterday, so the local river was flowing at quite higher levels than usual. Dale didn't expect it to be so deep and was a bit surprised to not be able to touch the bottom as she usually can. She made a quick U-turn for the shore!

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Naughty

Hey! Someone is where they're not supposed to be!!!

Hard to get upset when she gives me that look!

OK...time to get down off the table!

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Hagoita Flowers

Different shots of the flowers in the tokonoma alcove in the Japanese-style tatami-mat room.

If I had the time and money, I'd love to learn how to do ikebana flower arrangement since I have a place to put the flowers now.

These flowers were chosen by the local florist down the street. I told her what I wanted to do, and she suggested these flowers for the tokonoma alcove for this time of year.

Overall, this small bundle of flowers cost about 800 yen, which was a bit less than 10 dollars.

I hope the summer heat doesn't kill them right off. The florist suggested that I add ice cubes to the water in the vase to help keep the flowers fresh. 

Every morning, I change the water, clean out the vase, add ice cubes and a bit of water, and put the remaining flowers that still look fresh back into the vase. 

This is a wooden, Japanese hagoita paddle used the the Japanese-style badminton game called hanatsuki. This paddle was given to Kyoko when she was a little girl. She has had it ever since. I am glad she didn't throw it away!

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tropical Factory

Found this flowering bush on the way to work this morning. Kind of makes me feel I'm on a tropical island. 

Once inside the factory grounds of my morning job, I take a shortcut through a small tree grove planted on the grounds. During different times of the year we can see fruit tree blossoms along this path.

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tokonoma

Our "living room," which I use for the classroom, is  a traditional Japanese-style room with tatami straw mats, paper sliding shoji doors, and a tokonoma alcove where you can place flower vases and hanging scrolls. Can't afford any scrolls right now, but at least I can add some flowers to the tokonoma. The room also has a glass-enclosed sitting area on the south side called a hiroen where you can look out over the flowers, fruit trees, and shrubbery and the surrounding view.

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.