• Daily Life

    Reflections

    Today’s gonna be a demanding day, but hopefully a magical one in all sorts of ways. I’m connecting with wizards who I am hoping will whisk me away from the uncomfortable spot my professional life has found itself in, but the imposter syndrome is already really strong. At least I got a great ride in this morning as the last few days of the most glorious time of the year tick away. It was wonderful to ride along the Tama River in the early hours of the morning and greet the occasional Japanese green pheasant along the way. And then…

  • Daily Life

    Brush With Death

    I got to have a brush with death this morning. Nothing serious, of course, as I’m referring to a log-awaited photo opportunity with our bottlebrush in full bloom and the Death Machine as we refer to the rickety old recumbent bike which seems to offer the opportunity of terminating life every time it is mounted. As a pun lover, I’ve been waiting for the chance to use this headline for a while, but preparing the Death Machine for a ride takes time as I have to uncover it, set up the lights and flagpole to make sure drivers can see…

  • Daily Life

    Brush Aside

    It’s a sodden May morning, so rather than risk my luck and hoping I’ll be able to brake properly, I’ve spent the morning enjoying the blooming bottlebrush flowers in our garden and being played with by my dinosaur. It used to be my habit to wake and immediately set off on a bicycle ride pretty much every morning of every day unless it was snowing or the roads were icy. Weather barely came into play, but over the past year, rheumatoid arthritis has played an increasingly dominating role in deciding when I can or can’t go out. Because it has…

  • Daily Life

    Just A Bit Longer!

    The hand-wringing wait for spring blooms is slowly starting to draw to a close as more and more sections of the Kangaeroo Corner garden burst into flower. Our callistemon is literally packed with buds that are bursting into blossom in what is actually quick succession, but feels to be interminably long. The yearned-for kangaroo paw are also showing tremendous progress, as are the banksia and grevillea. Another week or two and the garden will be at its peak! Sadly, the cute little bugs that were enjoying our garden through to this morning appear to have met their demise, judging by…

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    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…

  • Daily Life

    Princely Reward

    Nature, and Mrs. Kangaeroo, provided a princely reward for patience and perseverance as the little prince protea I had been nagging for months to have removed from our garden because it had died actually sprouted and proved that it was as alive as my spouse had been saying it was. To be honest, I’m not that keen on the proteas in the garden, even though they’re delightful plants and the flowers are exquisite. That’s because I see them as being quintessentially South African and not really part of an Australian-themed garden. But in Japan, proteas and other leucospermum are lumped…

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    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

    With 10 Thumbs, Odds Were Always For 1 Being At Least Malachite, If Not Green

    I’m notoriously clumsy, making even the simplest task a monumental one, but having 10 thumbs also increased the odds of at least one of them being green, if not a little shade of malachite. Nah…just kidding….I’m still bloody unco, and trying to prove I’ve got something of a green thumb only served to verify that fact. With the weather finally warming–and brightening–I could turn more attention to the garden, and instead of letting things lie, I want to get involved and get things growing faster than nature will allow. So I set my eyes on the kangaroo paw I’d grown…

  • Daily Life

    Paws for Effect

    Blessed by warm, sunny weather and the sight of spring blossoms, I boldly decided to divide our kangaroo paws to try and get better flowers to make Kangaeroo Corner look even more effective. I’ve grown these kangaroo paw from seed that I brought back from Australia when I visited in September 2002. I didn’t think I’d be able to grow them, having never even conceived of the idea before getting a garden in 2022, but decided to give it a try anyway. I brought back dozens of varieties of seed, but the only ones I really, desperately wanted to succeed…

  • Daily Life

    Garden of Weedin’

    Spring has sprung (for today) at least, and the garden at Kangaeroo Corner looks resplendent thanks to early morning weeding, a mow and planting plenty of new plants. Weather helped, too, with delightful sunshine and warmth as the temperature topped 20 for the first time this year. I had planned to transplant some plants bought over the winter next week, when we have a holiday, but circumstances conspired against me and I won’t be able to do it that day, so things turned out perfectly by forcing me outside from just after dawn. With last year’s lawn woes in mind,…