Today’s title is more than just a play on words to boast about the beautiful bicycle photos I have been able to take recently. It also refers to what’s going on in my life at the moment. I can’t stop pinching myself to check that I am really going through what’s happening. Essentially, it revolves around the various miracles that have occurred to get me into a great new company, where I am surrounded by extraordinarily talented people and working in an environment so supportive that it is difficult to believe. Hence the pinching. This has brought about such an…
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Today looks like it’s going to be all about Lazarus-like feats centered around reviving death in all sorts of ways. First there’s the Death Machine; the name I give to my recumbent bike because riding it always feels like it could be fatal with each ride. It needs a tune, new chain and brakes to get back to fighting fitness. Hopefully, this won’t lead to a chain-reaction effect requiring increasingly more parts and labor, as is often the case. That segues into dealing with another form of death: that of my career. I can’t find a job and it seems…
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It’s becoming increasingly obvious that we’re finally going to get a banksia flower in the garden. We’ve had a banksia in the garden from the outset, but yet to get a flower some three years down the track. And we’ve had plenty of troubles along the way. In addition to the coastal banksia we started with, we also bought a hairpin banksia last year. It was a ripper and we grew it in a pot. It withstood the blistering heat of the summer of 2023, but I planted it too early into the autumn and it withered and died. We…
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Some years ago, I got too far ahead of myself and lost my humility with the upshot being daily humiliation now. Over the past 14 years or so, I’ve attended a 12-step group pretty much daily to make myself a better person, and to be more decent to others. As my character improved, I gained a little more self-confidence. But it turns out that I also lost a lot of humility and didn’t show enough respect for others. One of the things I learned in my early days of going to AA was the importance of being respectful to every…
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Yesterday gave me an absolutely delightful surprise that I am now hoping will be a tee off toward better things as our tea tree bloomed as we hit the heat of early summer, long after I had given up hope of it doing so this year. I was thrilled to see the tiny white flowers appear. As I’ve mentioned often previously, this year had a darker than normal winter, which is usually bright and sunny in Tokyo, and even though it has been warmer, it has had an impact on blossoming. But our tea tree has clearly joined the party…
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It’s an unbelievable joy to be able to go into the garden in the mornings and see the kangaroo paw grown from seed flourishing so well. Today I captured some photos for posterity, which was prompted by the solstice and realization that days are getting shorter from now onward. The flowers are growing unbelievably well. Not all of the plants have flowered, though, which is also OK, but I have been blessed with lots of glorious colors, which has been really pleasing. Some of the flowers in pots are bigger and thicker than the kangaroo paw I’ve been able to…
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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…
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It was the D-Day anniversary today and it sure felt like I was storming enemy territory for most of the day, but the fantastic flowers blooming in the garden warmed my soul. And the magnificent Mrs. Kangaeroo took the ugliest flowers in the garden, the Australian native hops, chucked in a few snow in the summer blossoms and created a stunning bouquet! Words cannot describe her brilliance! I hope her terrible taste in men remains eternal. Related posts: Arrows of Outrageous Fortune Strine Dictionary Where’s the Whist Amid the Wisteria? Savorin’ Straya Powered by YARPP.
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So much is going on at the moment, it’s been hard to take the time to stop and smell the roses, or at least some kind of flower, but I’ve been able to take a bit of a pause this morning. It seems almost certain that my current career path is over, but where it leads to remains a mystery. Prospects are not exactly hot, but who knows what fate has in store? There’s plenty to love about life at the moment as the glorious weather continues in the ominous lead-up to the rainy season. This morning’s ride was clockwise…
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Rain is falling pretty steadily and though the rainy season in Japan gets me down, on the verge of its start, the precipitation has whetted the garden’s appetite for the wet; at least for the onset of the season, which could go on for months, or not happen at all, as was the case last year. Snow in the summer is starting to bloom, greeting our large lounge room window with a view of dainty white flowers. Proteas, which had started with a bang in March then appeared to go dormant, have started to show signs of blooming, which would…