Lots of wabi-sabi-esque situations awaited during this recent, second visit to the land of the rising sun. Tokyo and above all Kyoto presented themselves in full fall foliage splendour, for example at the beautiful oasis which the garden of Nezu Museum in Tokyo is, the Murin-an garden or the “Moss Temple” Saihoji Kokedera in Kyoto. Difficult to choose between the many impressions of gingko, maple and camelia leaves among fluffy pine trees, but here are a few:
So. Many. Leaves!
Bashō would now come up with a 17-syllable poem (“Haiku”), but I’ll rather conclude with Ayumi, since she’s already reaching out for the maple leaves …
We recently had the privilege to be hosted by Lithuanian friends of ours for some fabulous days of baltic midsummer: collecting berries and wild thyme in the forest, swimming in the lake, wine, bbq and redbeet soup, Liliputas cheese, no sounds except for birds, dragonflies and the occasional fish jumping … and a bit of history lessons at Gruto Parkas.
Fukubana cherry gladly survived the move to Neukölln last year, despite attacks from evil rubble and tumbling wooden plates on the back then still a construction site “garden”. Nothing a little duct tape can’t fix! 😉 Now, among some old and many new friends, she thanked with a particularly splendid blossom (jap.: sakura). Björn and I sat a bit under it and looked at it (jap.: hanami, … or o-hanami if you wanna be polite – yes, we do! we’re in Japan!) for good fortune.
Now we’re experiencing a bit of a temperature drop again – no frost, but almost – and what might help better against the cold coming back in spring than Takeshi?! So lets watch a bit of “Show of HANDS” (categories, darlings, categories!)
Sakura. Best served with some hot plastic-bottled green tea from the vending machine 🙂 Or with sake.
Nicht alle Rezepte müssen von Schwedens bestem Koch (sorry honey, that’s not you – yet – although I really like your pecan thumbprint cookies!) stammen, aber sirapslimpa (Mitte) und vörtbröd (rechts unten – ein sehr gewürznelkiges Brot mit Gerstenmalz) können wenn man will, man muss dazu aber nicht unbedingt den traditionellen schwedischen Holzofen anfeuern, Anleitung siehe Seiten 151-154! 😉
