• Daily Life

    Feast of Flowers

    There’s much to love about Tokyo in May–long, warm days with little rain (for the most part), lots of greenery and things settle down after the hectic early months of spring when much of the country starts and ends the business year. Little, though, can beat the delight that the month’s flowers bring. For me, at least. Of course, the real stars of the Japanese spring flora are the cherry blossoms, wisteria and azaleas as the main players, but they’re usually gone by the time May hits its straps in the middle of the month (and there are plenty of…

  • Daily Life

    So Close…

    Mid May, now basically, has become a tantalizing time of the year for me, with most of the spectacular blooming of the gorgeous Japanese flowers like cherry blossom, wisteria and azaleas (to name a few) having ended, but the Aussie plants in my garden not quite ready to spring forth. Plants are budding and growing, but flowers are few and far between now. Our garden superstar, the grevillea, has finally started to show a bit of flower growth with lots apparently still to come. I need to learn about deadheading to make the bloom a bountiful one. Kangaroo paw are…