An absolutely beautiful Sunday – warm and sunny without a cloud in the sky, just a bit of that Spring haze creeping in. There’s a women’s marathon or something in town today, so we have to get off to an early start to miss the roadblocks. I really don’t see the appeal of running for 40-some kilometres, but there always seems to be one going on somewhere and the TV lap it up. It makes for cheap content I suppose.
The mountains are still covered with snow and on a day like this you get some great views on the way out. Out at the house the stream is softly chuckling under an “ume” with still only a few flowers, though others down the road are now in full bloom. A couple of lizards enjoying the sun in front of the house – just woken up I suppose. No birds to be heard though – are they taking the afternoon off?
Spring weather is changeable and Monday’s cloudy. The birds are back though: a flock of tits and an “uguisu” getting warmed up for its Summer warbling. Those migrants we saw in the Winter are gone I think. Now the digging’s done, it’s pruning – first the “tsuge” in front of the house into a vaguely Japanese shape, then the tea bushes somewhat rounder and less straggly. Tea if left to itself will grow huge and impossible to pick. We don’t pick more than a handful or two at the moment, but I still clip the bushes now and then just to keep them in some kind of usable condition. Just in case.
I don’t think there’ll be any more really hard frost, so no need to drain off the water system this time before leaving. It should be OK now till December, but in Winter if you leave the water in it’ll burst the pipes.
There’s rain coming this evening.
min temp -2°C max 14°C
asazuke 