two sorts of public art

Douglas’ days off will be Tuesday and Wednesday. To celebrate our first “weekend” we borrowed the center’s van and headed to the coast road to drive north. Barely 15 minutes later we saw this from the road.

plum blossoms

Formerly I posted these as being cherry blossoms. Oops – it’s plum blossoms that are the first to emerge in Toyama Prefecture each spring.

rice-straw rope

Rope made by twisting together rice straw is used a great deal in gardening and in traditional decorations you see at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. When plants are carefully trussed up in it for the winter, gardens gain a striking new layer of geometry. I had thought that protecting the plants this way was more-or-less optional, but finding a huge amount of fallen cedar branches — and no rice straw in use — has made me think otherwise. There are lots of scenes like this one in the temple gardens located near our house.

we’ve landed

Leaving my job, leaving Dad, leaving our home and our dog – it was a marathon. At work I raced against time to leave projects in good order. And then with just five days left, there were care issues for my father to resolve, and paperwork and bookkeeping that needed to be organized for the hand-off. There was last-minute packing and what cleaning I could fit in for our renter. And Weaver needed to get to the vet.

Saying goodbye to Dad could have been the hardest of all, but because of his amazing generosity, and the assurances of family and caregivers, it was warm and upbeat. I reached the finish line at 3 a.m. the morning of our 6 a.m. departure.

A week ago we arrived in Himi.