Internet...

has arrived in Yasaka! We had our cable line installed this week. The work was done by grumpy old man who couldn't believe he had to come do construction for cable TV on a house where there was no TV! Oh the grumbling that came out of his mouth...despite his kind younger co-worker's explanation of 'they just want internet and maybe they will buy a TV someday". Once the grump left to let his colleague finish, we got to talking and I realized that this kind man was slightly familiar because his amazing wife used to be my favorite teacher at one of my Kawamoto schools. I had seen their wedding photos a few years back. Anyway, when he said he lived in Masuda and I remembered that my friend had moved to a Masuda elementary school and her husband was an electrician, I took a random guess that out of a city of 40,000 people he was the husband. I was right. A small world...

Anyway, I have been Skyping and Facebooking and emailing away very happily this week. I am sure the fun will wear off soon but the connection with friends from back home again has been wonderful. I also have enjoyed being able to listen to different music again via net radio! Perhaps now I can blog more regularly again. HA! I can always dream...

Our garden is growing well in the torrential rains we have been having. Although as usual, we are losing against the weeds since it is tough to get out in the muddy mess to pull them. This week I harvested about fifteen pounds of beans (green, yellow, purple string beans and some wider green beans that I forget the name of). This is ALOT of green beans!!!! We just bought a large new freezer so I spent a long afternoon washing, cutting, blanching, icing, draining, and bagging. Green beans are always my favorite harvest veggie but at the end of that day I was glad to be done with them. The smell and thought of seeing another actually nauseated me! I think maybe that was due to all the munching I was doing during the process! Oh well. This is part of the pile before I started.
Here are some other recent photos to enjoy.

Mid 'putting up' part of the twenty five pounds of "un-saleable" plums Craig picked at a friend's farm. Utterly delicious...
Chiogga beets ready to boil
The dance party on my birthday
My co-celebrants
A colorful Wednesday harvest
Two strands of cranes I folded as a prayer for peace for the upcoming bomb anniversary. Our Co-op is collecting them and will leave them on the memorial in Hiroshima on the 6th of next month.
My third 95 point flower test. My teacher is good! Apparently, in recent memory no one has ever won three certificates (scored so high) in a row!
Today's flower lesson
That's all. Love to you all!