• Daily Life

    Starred Woes* A New Hope(lessness?)

    I’m deeply grateful to my employer for many years of employment and, perhaps most importantly, guiding me and our family through the COVID-19 pandemic and the gut-wrenching fears it sometimes brought with it, which can be easy to forget now, many years down the track. But my Company has also made me an absolute wreck because it has sanctioned a reign of terror and harassment for the past few years that has deeply eroded by sense of well-being, confidence and savings. Part of the problem is that I am almost inextricably linked to my employer courtesy of having caused very…

  • Daily Life

    Wisteria Hysteria

    For the second time this week, I headed off to nearby Yakushiike Park to get photos of the glorious wisteria there, this time with the hope that they would be in full bloom. I was probably still a bit too early, but it was beautiful nonetheless. And the short trip was made even more enjoyable because I was caught riding a bike inside the park by a loudspeaker-blaring jobsworth of the type I associate with the place. But I was left alone after dismounting even though I noticed the officious guard had come after me with his guard stick in…

  • Strine Strife

    The Lucky Country

    Australia is often referred to as “the lucky country,” which most people use favorably, but was actually a derogatory term coined by journalist Donald Horne in his book of the same name, and with April 25 a landmark date in Aussie history now called ANZAC Day, it got me thinking about fortune and the role it plays in lives. Australia had the misfortune to fight its first day of war as an independent, federated country on April 25, 1915, and thousands of young men were brutally mowed down in meaningless slaughter in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of World War I…

  • Daily Life

    Well, That Was A Surprise!

    Nature delighted me this morning when I went into the garden and found something I would never have expected: Our cherry tree was blooming! This came weeks after most cherry blossoms had flittered away in the Tokyo area and long after we had given up hope of our plant blooming. The little flowers were tremendously enchanting and gladdened my heart and soul. The garden overall is playing a pretty similar role as the April rains bring their nitrates and give the greenery a bit of extra sparkle. I’ve also been lucky enough to install an arch that I hope will…

  • Daily Life

    Quick Cleanse

    Aging, if nothing else, has made rising early a common habit, and I was able to take advantage of that by slipping off to a nearby park and being blessed by the sanitizing surroundings. Yakushiike Park in Machida is not far from my home, so I got on my bike in the predawn hours and headed off to take some shots. The park is famous for its flowers throughout the seasons, and I consider it the best place to see wisteria in bloom in our local area. With past experience having taught me that the park is staffed by officious…

  • Daily Life

    Paws Before Thinking

    Times are tough and Mrs. Kangaeroo implored me to tighten my belt to cope with rising prices and crippling wage cuts, but I don’t think she was too impressed by my belt tightening efforts involving gargantuan eating practices and getting fatter. It’s been a gloomy year in many ways so far, including literally, which has had an effect on the plants I’ve been growing in Kangaeroo Corner, and which are providing incalculable amounts of joy. As I’ve mentioned before, I got to realize how little sunlight we’ve received in western Tokyo this year because of the performance of our solar-powered…

  • Daily Life

    Bracing…

    Unfortunately, the bracing in the title of today’s post refers to readying for what looks like a rough ride ahead instead of the alternative meaning of refreshing. My job search has proved disastrous, and it’s hard to keep trying to convince myself that I should be grateful for the position I do have even though my employer clearly wants me out and is harassing and haranguing me in every possible way to make my departure a voluntary rather than enforced one. It’s even worse to be surrounded by people who, though well-meaning and intending to encourage, are driving my feelings…

  • Daily Life

    Budding

    Spring has well and truly hit and an unexpectedly wonderful day full of sunshine has the Kangaeroo Corner garden and its Aussie plants poised to explode into color as one tree after another buds. Jacaranda leaves are sprouting. And the native hops are ready to show their funny flowers. At least the most fragile hairpin banksia is growing for sure. I suspect the more settled hairpin banksia is growing, too. I wish this would grow faster and give me greater confidence that it is, in fact, growing. The coastal banksia is also growing, albeit with some disconcerting yellowing of its…

  • Daily Life

    Decidedly Unpheasant

    Having passed a lot of Japanese green pheasants along the Tama River in the past couple of weeks, I decided to burden myself with a cumbersome camera. Of course, I got almost no sight of the avian creatures! That’s not quite true: I saw plenty of pheasants, and heard even more, but wasn’t close enough in most cases to get a good shot. It was bleak and overcast when I left home, and I noticed scattered rain. My pedals (I think) are giving me trouble, too. With my inability to find a new job, it’s adding to my constant stream…

  • Daily Life

    Final Blossoming

    Cherry blossoms are about to end their blooming season in Tokyo and I was luck enough to cop a few shots of them on my morning’s ride. The photos I took this morning were of yaezakura, the late-blooming, multi-layered blossoms whose appearance follows the peak of the hanami flower-viewing period symbolized by the someiyoshino flowers for which Japan is perhaps best known. Now I am waiting for more blooms in Kangaeroo Corner. I can see that we should get some azalea in the next few days. And I am absolutely thrilled at the way the bottlebrush is shaping up with…