• Daily Life

    Mates’ Paws

    June 17, 2024

    We had a busy and fruitful weekend, welcoming friends over for a party yesterday, working for a new future and getting to enjoy kangaroo paw that others are growing. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, I grew kangaroo paw from seeds and got amazing results, which I delighted in “sharing” with friends and neighbors. It wasn’t until I’d given out a dozen plants that I realized I wasn’t presenting people with an exotic decoration of considerable expense was perhaps an unwelcome nuisance. So I didn’t push too hard to hand over plants to people who visited. It was a wonderful weekend for…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024
  • Daily Life

    Pawing My Heart Out

    June 14, 2024

    June continues rolling on and the rainy season has yet to appear, which is an immediate blessing yet also a warning, but for the time being the kangaroo paw are leading the way in bringing me unimaginable delight. The rainy season can be pretty bleak with day after day after precipitation. I also find the low pressure systems that dominate the weather have a tendency to drag me down. But with a few years in the garden, I’ve also learned how much plants appreciate the rain. They like the unadulterated dose of water with all its nitrates that gives them…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024
  • Daily Life

    Pushing the Paws Button

    June 12, 2024

    Even by the generally lousy standard of 2024, this morning was a pretty rotten one in some ways, yet even that couldn’t deter gaining pleasure from our kangaroo paw. The flowers have hit peak bloom. They bring me unbridled delight. I’ve still got hope some of the plants we have that are yet to flower will eventually bloom, too. I’m delighted these flowers have grown from seeds I got in my home town. Having been able to share the plants with friends and neighbors has also been wonderful. Some of my friends have grown plants even more magnificent than ours.…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024
  • Daily Life

    Delivering Delight

    June 11, 2024

    Having not had the remotest interest in gardening until well into old age, it constantly amazes me how much hanging out with plants brings me joy and wonderment, and one of the greatest pleasures is being able to share that. On a visit back to Australia a few years ago I bought a lot of native plant seeds and tried to grow them by myself. Most failed, but a few got through, like the hardenbergia, dwarf wattle and, especially, kangaroo paw. With the blog association and our huge kangaroo statue in the garden I really wanted kangaroo paw to grow…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024
  • Daily Life

    Enoura Observatory: Putting the WOW! Into OdaWOW!ra

    June 9, 2024

    Enoura Observatory, a short trip from the center of Odawara and which I had never heard of before Mrs. Kangaeroo dragged me up to earlier today, is simply sublime and a breathtakingly beautiful gallery well work the trek to get there. The installation created by New York-based, Japanese-born architect Hiroshi Sugimoto is stunning from the point of entry through to departure and filled with stunning designs along the way. And the mountaintop location with spectacular vistas, which blend with some of the works on display, creates a complementary effect that truly makes this a must-see for those with the time…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024
  • Daily Life

    Castle In The Air

    June 9, 2024

    From Atami, we backtracked only the old Tokaido route to the castle town of Odawara. We were delighted to be presented by a garden full of flowers again, this time the hydrangea and shobu, both plants that bloom around now when the rainy season hits. Mrs. Kanageroo had never climbed the keep of the castle, so we headed upstairs through the concrete recreation of the once crucial fortress in feudal times and enjoyed the glorious view it gave of the once strategic city. Greater things awaited, though, so we didn’t linger for long, but were there for just enough time…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024
  • Daily Life

    Go Fly a Kite!

    June 9, 2024

    Our delightful time in the seaside city of Atami drew to a close as we overcome a huge buffet breakfast and watched a black kite circle the skies for prey in the early hours of the morning. The bird of prey was majestic and graceful as it glided through the air. I could have watched it for hours (and actually did just that, to the chagrin of Mrs. Kangaeroo as I was supposed to have been packing!) Related posts: A Second Bite of Biwaichi Jacaranda Journey Provides Purple Haze A Pheasant Start to the Morning Far Canal! Had No Idea…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024
  • Daily Life

    Gay Time With a Geisha

    June 8, 2024

    Gay, in this context, meaning enjoying ourselves, and it was for a fleeting instant that the joy came through a geisha, but the headline was hard to resist. Still in Atami, we moved on from the Jacaranda Festival to the very surprising Kiunkaku. Japan’s Meiji era is an amazing time in history as Japan moved from a feudal country to industrialized nation and world powerhouse in decades, becoming the only non-Western country to do so. It was an absolutely scintillating transformation and the Meiji-Taisho eras from which Kinukaku, a former ryokan inn, draws its influence. Many swoon at the influence…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024
  • やばいリンガル

    Jacaranda Journey Provides Purple Haze

    June 8, 2024

    Mrs. Kangaeroo and I woke up early, let the dinosaur roam free for a while to stretch her wings, then headed off to Atami for one of Japan’s few jacaranda festivals. We’ve got a jacaranda in our garden and it has proven to be pretty fickle, so I was very interested to see how more experienced, more skillful gardeners such as those good enough to hold a festival centered on the trees would handle the South American natives. And it was interesting, indeed, because the 100-odd trees the city has grown in the 34 years since being presented with a…

    Related Posts

    Watch Your Words!

    March 28, 2024

    The Fountain of Strewth!

    February 9, 2023

    オーストラリア最大恐竜がエロマンガに

    March 1, 2022
  • Daily Life

    Doxing Paradoxes

    June 7, 2024

    OK, the title is a bit of a lie, because I confused doxing with poxing, but the wordplay was better, so that’s what I went with. The paradoxes I’m dealing with are trying to make a living while blessed with innumerable talents that are all useless and a track record in life where the two most consistent results have been mediocrity and failure, yet still believing I am a highly competent member of the workforce. And, of course, the enormous self-hate. Anyway, it was a great start to the day, especially considering I had feared waking up feeling bleak because…

    Related Posts

    Seeing the Light

    July 19, 2024

    Uneventful

    July 10, 2024

    Practicing for Hades

    July 8, 2024