asazuke

(btw added a few pics to March, April and May)

10th~11th

• We missed a week because of a Daihachi Ryodan gig, but manage to get out of town on Saturday evening.
• The Rainy Season officially started on Saturday and Sunday is typically cloudy with a HOT sun, though there’s still a bit of a fresh breeze and the house is still dry. Weeds are UP.
• Voices: In the afternoon a strange yelp, a bit like a dog. I go to have a look and something jumps out of a tree. A monkey probably. That night I’m dozing in front of the fire and woken by a scream! Get a torch – can’t see anything but it continues a while. Deer probably. (Is this the original banshee? Do they have deer in Ireland?)
• T discovers a small pink and black snake under some dead leaves. Don’t know what it is, but probably harmless.
• Monday is busy: planting out the first “Malay” chillies, more digging and shopping on the way home.
• Min. temp. 10°C, max. 26°C

17th~18th

• It pours with rain on Saturday night and we expect more of the same at the weekend, but Sunday turns out merely cloudy, gradually clearing so by the time we get to the house the sun has come out and brought up all the moisture so it’s really humid. Our entrance floor is damp, but there’s none of that mouldy smell we used to get. It must have been coming from that old tatami we got rid of last autumn. Inside the house it’s cool and pleasant – that money we spent on re-doing the floor might not have been for nothing.
• That evening there’s a clear sky and it cools right down. One firefly shows up, way too early – they usually come out in early July.
• Monday is hot and humid too. A typhoon’s due on Wednesday though…
• Gradually burning the leftover timber from last year’s work on Sunday evenings – last night I must have turned over some plank a bit suddenly because today there’s a squashed snake in the middle of the woodpile. It looks freshly killed, but its head is definitely too flat for survival.
• I plant some “Ishigaki” small hot chilli plants, and some big mild paprikas, then get a little weedcutting done.
• T is hard at work picking and drying tea for our consumption. It’s not bad at all actually.
• Min. temp. 15°C, max. 25°C

24th~25th

• A hot Sunday, and no rain.
• The new green rice is beautiful.
• There are a lot of anglers in the river on our way up – the “ayu” season has just opened.
• The house is a pleasant 23° or so, and still dry!
• At the entrance to the chilli field is a “mamushi” (kind of adder) – it moves away, twitching its tail threateningly. Are rattlesnakes related?
• Another snake in the woodpile! This one’s probably a harmless “aodaisho” like last week’s, but not squashed at all, and makes its escape, along with a centipede and a couple of small crabs. Yes, there are small land-crabs out here, not really big enough to eat, unfortunately, unless maybe if you dipped them in flour and fried them crisp…
• A big grey heron is joining in the ayu-fishing at the river on our way back.
• Min. temp. 13°C, max. 26°C