And the Etegami Oscar goes to......

Woke up this morning to find, in the immortal words of  Sally Field on accepting an Oscar  "You really love me!" (or was it that other ridiculous person Gwyneth Paltrow..no I think it was her dress that caused hilarity).
Anyway I digress, a sweet girl has noticed me on her blog at Mari-chan's Vegan Bento Here and she has such nice things to say that I am pink with pleasure. Her blog is new and cute so do check it out.
Good to see that etegami fever is positively raging across the internet (well a little hype doesn't do any harm) if only to keep the snail mail tradition alive. There are a lot of Japanophiles out there and maybe we can recruit them all given time.LOL

Garden treasures: etegami

The long weekend is even longer here, raining, small breaks with sunshine, no husband cluttering up the place, plenty of opportunity to paint. The ash cloud from the South American volcano is messing with the airline flights and it looks as if the Prof will be delayed in Singapore at least until the end of the week.
 I find there is a period of time when the other half goes away that is dedicated to general sloth and eating whatever is not on his list of likes. After a few days the novelty wears off and you get a little bit lonely, no-one to dig in the ribs and tell 'Look at that!' Moving on into the second week you establish a routine of your own and after that it is a bit of an intrusion when they return and it takes a day or two to settle back into the old routine. (depends what goodies he turns up with of course!)

I am fascinated by all parts of the lotus, the water repellent leaves, the flowers. the seeds and the wonderful dried seed heads.

Sour grapes!

For weeks I have been watching the last  few late bunches of grapes slowly colour up on the grapevine on our pergola. The leaves have dried off into autumn tints but the the grapes were a tantalizing purple. Yesterday I took my trusty secateurs to the vine anticipating a reward for my work...quelle disappointment! The grapes were as as sour as vinegar.
 In a roundabout way this explains the words on my etegami, quoting from Aesop's fable of the Fox and the grapes. The fox you will remember was not able to jump high enough to eat the grapes so he concluded that they were not worth the effort. I guess this is a kind of a morality tale, the fox having 'sour grapes' about his failure. I've always had a lot of sympathy for the fox who could reconcile himself to failure when he came off second best.

Something we all have to do at times. Then again it could just be the pessimist in me.

Garden cuttings etegami.

Gardening at this time of the year seems to consist almost entirely of hacking and cutting things. I love pruning or "Fredding" as we call it at our house, commemorating an event when a friend called Fred got carried away with the secateurs and laid waste to his garden. A pruning saw or secateurs are dangerous in the hands of a man, so must be very closely supervised by a cooler head.
In preparation and to psyche myself up for the task  ahead I thought I would make this etegami.

Kimono.

Yes! the kimono that I ordered from Japan has arrived and I am so in love with it! I plan to take it up a little (shorten it) and use it as a dressing gown for my hospital stays.

Mel from Kimono Reincarnate here , a talented Aussie who spent some time in Japan and who crafts beautiful jewellery and other small decorative things from Japanese fabrics, mentioned the name of a seller of kimono who ships overseas and who is a friend of hers. I contacted Higashi-san and for a very reasonable cost I am now the proud owner of two kimono. The second one, a child's kimono will make a lovely wall hanging for my bedroom.
The adult one has a beautiful small allover design of flowers and tiny Pekin ducks on a lovely chiriman(?) silk with a white lining bordered with orange...stunning.
I did try to photograph them but must apologize for the blurry photos, maybe I was shaking with excitement? 
Posting a direct link to Hiragashi-san's shop here the postage is quite high but still a bargain and fun just to look at the lovely clothing.

Ballerina blossom.

Posting this etegami for my 5 year old granddaughter who starred in her very first ballet concert last week.
She looked very professional in her pink tutu and when I saw these camellias I immediately thought of her.

I am a little sad because the Prof. is visiting her in Singapore at the moment and I would really like to be there but am instead here at home nursing a cold and a cantankerous 18 year old dog who is deaf and blind and has separation anxiety!

Hark, hark, I hear his bark!...we miss you daddy!!!!!!

Pentimento.

Pentimento
Noun: pentimenti
A visible trace of earlier painting beneath one or multiple layers of paint on a canvas.
(from Italian-literally repentance)

I have certainly changed my mind many times in life and it seems almost that nature does too, shedding the old leaves in Autumn and redrawing nature in Spring.
Gathering up the 60 or so bags of leaves our massive Liquidamber tree sheds in the Autumn gives me plenty of time to muse on past deeds and future resolutions...stay posted.

A timely postcard.

Thanks Debbie for this cute card, I sure could use some help to make me run fast!

The fruit is called in Japan, Crow Melon and I can only guess why it is considered a charm to make you run fast. Although,.. as the English name is Snake Gourd,  I would run away from it! Both rather sinister names for such a decorative plant.

I tried yesterday's etegami in a different colour and I think I like it better, any opinions?

S.A.D.

Sometimes I am convinced that I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder even though our winter is laughably mild...grey gloomy days really make my mood take a nosedive. Layers of clothing, shut up rooms, sniffles and cold weather  are anathema to me.
I dream of beaches (where I never usually go), bare skin (which I hardly ever show) and ice cream (which makes me throw (up)) Can you have double parenthesese?
All this is leading up to today's etegami which is decidedly gloomy and was prompted by news of yet more natural disasters this time in the US.
Thank goodness that Pandora's jar (Box?) had a lip where that little bit of trembling hope became trapped.  I am sending that hope, to all the people of the affected areas, on the wings of an origami crane, traditional bearer of hope.

Chrysanthemum etegami

Still being inspired by the lovely bunch of 'mums and lillies given to me for Mother's Day.