Thursday 10 December 2015

Forlorn Indigo & Cotton

The sun sits lower and lower on the horizon each day. Last week it lowered into the bamboo grove on the mountain near the south face of the house. The sunlight twinkles throughout the leaves now. The monkeys are tripping back and forth across that face fighting and looking for a few forgotten persimmons in the leafless trees. No direct sunlight on this old farmhouse until the third week of January. It then hits my bed in the morning of my birthday.

 Hibernation time for now. There is a week left before the sun starts to slowly ascend day by day.

Leila and Frank have come from the UK to help me with carpentry projects around the house and bring in some festive cheer into this grumpy no-Christmas house.

Leila has mince pies baking in the oven right now. Frank is making some hot chocolate. Joni Mitchell is singing, "River"

It's coming on Christmas,
They're cutting down trees.
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace,
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

But it don't snow here,
Stays pretty green.
I'm gonna make a lot of money
And and then I'm gonna quit this crazy scene.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I wish I had a river so long,
I would teach my feet to fly.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.
I made my baby cry.

he tried hard to help me,
he put me at ease.
lord,he loved me so naughty,
made me weak in the knees.
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I'm so hard to handle,
I'm selfish and I'm sad.
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I've ever had.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I wish I had a river so long,
I would teach my feet to fly.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.
I made my baby say goodbye.

It's coming on Christmas,
They're cutting down trees.
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace,
I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

Hiro made a Christmas flower arrangement yesterday. Ogata san is showing off her latest minimalist shibori...."I should have added a second circle."


The week before she made some gift handkerchiefs. It is cold outside by the vats and she is using her 97 years to get the young ones out there to help with nine of the ten dips. (While she supervises on the heated side of the glass doors.) 


If I go to Switzerland for Christmas I manage to hum a few Christmas tunes while decorating the tree and setting up the nativity scene under Barbara and Martin's tree for the kids but there hasn't been a tree in this place for 26 years. What a miserable scrooge.

There are other traditions though.

The trip to the indigo field when the seeds are hardened and the sparrows are not hungry enough that they will eat them.  The timing has to be just right.

Gathering indigo seeds to send to friends all over the world over the holidays and for the field and garden next spring.

The indigo stems were not a festive red but the scrappy blue leaves were the best instead.


The fallen indigo seeds have sprouted before winter sets in. Tomorrow's frost will do them in. 



I've never quite seen the mulberry in this state. A unseasonably warm day or a bitter cold wind will decide their fate. 


The earlier frost burnt  leaves off the cotton plants.  Some white cotton fluff still clings marvellously.  Revealing there were more bolls I'd missed while harvesting


14 comments:

  1. Thank you to do research and run this blog :)

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  2. you're back! great to see Ogata-san, she is a miracle. when did you start growing cotton, are you spinning it? time to grow hemp. listening to Sarah McLachlan singing "River". may the sun always shine on your birthday.

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  3. it's a bittersweet time at best, this lengthening of the vast nighttime and cold. i wish you warmth and wellness, and happy indigo seeds and cotton bolls. and lovely joni, also bittersweet. here, the same, too warm and kids are so very very sad.

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  4. Greetings to you from a tumultuous, storm-ridden Pacific Northwest of America, Bryan. For all of your grinchness, I am still pleased to see your post in my reader as yours is not the only "grumpy no-Christmas house"...

    Still, souls like Ogata san bring festiveness to EVERYTHING, I imagine; what a gift to have her close. I gravitate to some of the old ones in my own community. They are - or once were - mighty rivers in their own rights.

    Don't have skates. Do have rivers. Tis the season.
    All best wishes,
    Christi

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  5. Good to see a picture of Okata san and Hiro.
    I imagine .. beautiful , peaceful winter in farmhouse..
    Miss you guys... Pls check e-mail~

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  6. hey! you haven't frozen yet.ogata-san is very suave showing her shibori
    noticed you cut your hair.

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  7. wont it be a delight when the sun shines on your room again. Love the handkerchief! It is beautiful!

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  8. Hello Bryan! I love that photo of you and Ogata-san with the beautiful Leila studying in the background. Is she and Frank still there? say hello from me. Next time I come over I need to wander through all those fields of yours. [Nice haircut by the way]
    Sending warmest Christmas wishes to you, Hiro and the wonderful people that surround you.
    Keeping cool in the shade here - it was 45 deg [that's 113F for any Americans who might be reading this]two days ago!
    Missing you and Japan

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  9. Frank and Leila say a big "Hi" back. We just go track from seeing Star Wars.....all excited and happy.

    We could use some warmth up here. The real cold starts in two weeks. All is good here. Pretending to be on holiday but very very busy with projects and wrapping the year up. Hugs, Bryan and Hiro and Frank and Leila.

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    1. Hope everyone is safe and warm in cold winter at Mt. Fusino. Did you receive my Christmas card that I sent a while ago? I hope it found you well without getting lost...Bryan, you gonna send a homework packet to me as well, right?
      Happy New Year~

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  10. Happy New Year to you Bryan, Hiro, Leila and Frank! It warms my heart to see you all and of course Otaga san.

    I do not believe for one moment that you are a miserable scrooge, missing you and Hiro more than you know.

    Warmest wishes to you all for a peaceful new year. <3

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  11. Warmest wishes for a happy and peaceful new year to you Bryan, Hiro, Leila and Frank!

    How good it is to see you all and Ogata san.

    Missing you and Hiro more than I can say. Hello to everybody.

    <3

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  12. Hi Bryan, a wonderful post and I have enjoyed my visit to your blog.

    I am back from vacation. Thanks for visiting when I was gone. My first journal post is http://anenglishgirlrambles2016.blogspot.com/2016/01/first-day-of-vacation-washington-dulles.html

    Happy New Year to you and all your Loved Ones :)

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  13. This is all very lovely. Read your last comment to Frank and Leila. I saw the new Star Wars a few days ago with our son. It was very exciting wasn't it? Happy weekend to you and thank you so much for leaving a comment on my blog :)

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