Magnificent people made 2023 a much better year than I thought it was
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Although it was a glorious morning with clear, starry skies and then a wonderful sunrise, it was bloody freezing, confirming that the long-dreaded winter has arrived. Until now we have been blessed with unseasonal warmth: I wore shorts all weekend and the temperature topped 20 degrees on Saturday. I still wore shorts this morning, but my head and extremities were cold, and more core chilled by the time I arrived home. Time to rug up for the next few months.
It was Mrs. Kangaeroo’s birthday yesterday, and taking the day off to celebrate opened the door to an unexpected arvo of pleasantness. With the morning occupied by what may prove to be fateful events (of which more may come at a later date), Mrs. Kangaeroo grabbed me by the scruff of my ear and dragged me to Shibuya Hikarie to see the Accidentally Wes Anderson exhibition. Asked repeatedly about our intended destination, Mrs. Kangaeroo kept referring to a uesuandaason exhibition that didn’t really sink in for me. I had no idea what a uesuandaason is….until we got to the actual…
Mother Nature greeted me with a glorious sunrise yet again today as I biked the Tama River Cycling Road. Most of the ride was in the dark, as is the case at this time of the year just before the winter solstice. But just as I was leaving the path and preparing for the ride up Tama New Town-dori (avenue) and the way home, the skies turned on a huge smile for me. Clouds and color made for a great shot. And my ego got a boost, too, when I was able to casually run down another cyclist on a…
It’s raining today, and while that would normally be grounds for disappointment, considering the dryness of the year, the precipitation is actually welcome. Nowhere is that more obvious than in Kangaeroo Corner. The sprinkle made the garden sparkle. The yard always looks nicer after good rainfall, which makes the greenery glisten. I’m still in pretty much full-time panic mode, so I woke before 3 a.m., had brekkie and readied myself to head out on my customary morning ride. After I kitted up and readied, I looked outside in the dark and noticed raindrops falling into the bird bath. I opened…
Incredibly, just about everywhere I went, a little piece of Australia popped up in front of me. I left home on my bike not long after 6 a.m. to head out on an errand before having a regular, quarterly hospital check-up. I left the route up to my Wahoo Elemnt BOLT device, and next thing I knew, I was riding up a hill in Hachiojji where I could see eucalyptus trees. I had been looking up news about them only recently, so stopped off, took some photos and headed to the hospital. The doctor visit went well. He is very…
Winter is probably the worst time of the year to try to grow plants from cuttings, except, like for me, you’re desperately trying to avoid doing something unpleasant and you’ve been handed unseasonably fine weather. So, instead of taking a trial test for a potential new job as I could have done sitting in front of a computer for a couple of hours, I looked up how to propagate a grevillea. It seems the process is pretty easy (at least from the standpoint of the pros giving the advice online), but a lot of the available information was for the…
Like it or not, and I’m firmly in the “not” camp on this one, winter is here again, but I’ve been kind’ve happy to see how well Kangaeroo Corner has held up this year as the cold sets in. This year is the second year of our garden and for the most part it has thrived. That’s especially fantastic considering the harsh summer we went through, followed by an Indian summer that extended deeply into the autumn. I’ve previously experienced summers in Japan as hot as those of 2023, but none as dry. The lack of rain might have been…
