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| Earlybird express
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| We are glad to let you know what we do everyday
in this Hakuba countryside and country life. |
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| May 17th 2006 |
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Painted a bicycle wheel in white. I
found this idea somewhere in a magazine and it reminded
of me to do that when I decided to abandon one of
my bicycle. How does it look? |
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We choose what we call barbena as ground covers
for our flowerbeds this summer. Some perennial plants
like delfiniums, lavenders stay with. Also, some
basils, thyme, oreganos in pots.
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I don't know if tulips were in bloom
like the right side one..... Behave! Whom does it
follow? |
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As one of foliage plants what we call
hedera has gotten crowded, we pull some stems out
to put it in some sand to get another root in each
and every. |
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| April 21st 2006 |
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As it snowed today tulip worried that
they should grow or rest. Model
train layout is slowly going ahead though. |
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| February 8th 2006 |
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Tried cross country skiing for the first
time in my life at the Snowharp 1998 Nagano winter
olympic trails. more... |
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| February 7th 2006 |
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Visited the snow monkey place for the
first time. more... |
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| February 4th 2006 |
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On January 25th, went to Sun-Alpine
ski slopes with guests from Australia. They were only
guests at that day, so didn't need attention on other
guests that's why I could make it - inn master. More.... |
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| December 5th 2005 |
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It has been snowy since Nov.30th and won't stop
for a while. Our van got stuck in the snow and had
to dig tons of snow this morning. Good start for 2005-2006
season! |
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| November 6th 2005 |
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Found a fantastic art in a park in Oomachi. I don't
know who did that but really nice one. The center
yellow rose flowers are made of ginkgo leaves. |
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| October 24th 2005 |
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Red and yellow leaves have been coming
down the mountains, but it's a bit latter than usual. |
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Walked around on the previous Saturday
to collect some leaves. Spread them on a newspaper
and put another paper on top of them to dry. Hope
they won't change the color. |
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| October 10th 2005 |
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I seeded some "wild flower"
which many kinds of seeds together in a pack at the
begining of this summer and now they are in bloom.
It was a bit strange weather this summer - dry in
June and tons of rain and typhoones in July. |
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I bought this one this spring. Just transplanted
into a size #5 pot. Perhaps I had better cut the stem
a bit more to grow sideways. |
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Perhaps 3 or 4 years have passed since I bought
this one. Now in a pot of size #8. Hard to grow in
winter in this snowy land. They really love sunshine.
If I put it in a warm room where airconditioner works
good, it would grow a lot more than natural which
looks a bit odd. So I usually put them in a place
where airconditioner doesn't work so that we can keep
them shape and protect then from desease. |
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| June 16th 2005 |
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Though full of fresh green at the bottom of mountains
but still this much snow left at the top. Need to
wait for some more time to climb there. Click here
for larger image. |
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Many kinds of flowers have started blooming one
after another in our garden, too. A kind of daisy(before)
and nasturtium at our signboard. Forget-me-not has
already been done, chervil is getting seeds.
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May 28th 2005
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The first strawberry fruit of TOYONOKA at a pot
we bought back in this April. As strawberries increase
by runners, if we put some pots at some bigger fields,
probably they will grow a lot. Leaves and calyxies
of strawberries hide the fruit, so perhaps it's
hard even for birds to find strawberries from the
sky. Impressed that strawberries live hard to survive!!!!
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Different strawberries named "Shikinari
ichigo" which means roughly "seasonary hervesting
strawberry". A bit outstanding indented leaves
compared with Toyonoka above. I seeded a pack some
years ago and only 1 pot has survived among them.
Devided the pot into some last year. Just harvest
this to make strawberry jam. |
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Pepper mints get crowded, time to pick
some up. |
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Cut some stems approx. 10cms in length
by a pair of scissors, then get rid of leaves at the
lower side of stems. Pour some water in a glass and
put stems in it for 1 week or more until some roots
come out of the bottom of the stems. Books say it
needs about 1 week but from my experience, it would
need a bit more time. |
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When roots come out, time to put stems
into pots. These left are sparemints. Mints are strong
enough, you can try this easily. |
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Thymes also started blooming. |
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When thymes survive over winter, the
bottom get like trees. I just transplanted this one
from smaller pot ( size 5) to bigger one ( size 6)
this spring. |
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Soupcereley we bought this April together
with Toyonoka strawberries. It looks similar with
Italian perceley but tastes really cereley. Probably
some people like it but others don't as cereley is
loved by some, hated by some others. |
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Lily of the valley?? We call it Suzuran. |
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Chives also has been increasing. |
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Selfilles have grown really quick in
this couple of days. Time for them to have flowers
at the top. They look really sensitive but you can
hold them fresh when you put some in a glass filled
of water. Unique sweet smell when you put some in
your mouth which is lovely, you can't miss it!!!! |
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Rosemary the devil!!!!! Really handful
to hold. They need enough sunshine and dislike rain.
So we need to put the pot in the sun when it's sunny
but if it starts raining, we need to be in a hurry
to get them back in the house. Rosemary is the first
plant for me which was dead in the rain, I know plants
would die if they don't get any water though.....
Rosemary is not originally from desert!!! but from
along the Mediterranean sea, so I guess they like
dry and sunny weather. |
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Sansho the Japanese pepper. We didn't
seed any, it came out probably because some seeds
landed on there. Bad thing is a kind of caterpillar
( baby of a butterfly ) eats these leaves to grow.
They hide stinky yellow feelers at the head with which
they threaten enemies when they are touched. When
enemies touch them, the feeler come out all of sudden
and they stink a lot. |
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Lemonverm. Really strong to germinate
and survive. So if you are a beginner to grow herbs,
I strongly recommend to try this one. Judging from
my observation, they prefer half shade rather than
strong sunshine. |
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Introducing 3 kind of camomiles.
First, Roman camomile which is a perennial plant
with white flowers.
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German camomile which is just a 1 year
plant with white flowers. They germinate good by dropped
seeds. |
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Dyers camomile which is a perennial
plant with yellow flowers. |
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Forget-me-not. 2 years plant which were
in bloom at the next year after I seeded at the next
year when I moved into here. I just left them as they
were in the snow though I expected they would be in
bloom in summer seeding some in the spring. Since
then they keep repeating to bloom and drop seeds to
bloom again. Light sky blue and white flowers in color.
There seem to be pink one sold, but has seldom seen
pink one from dropped seeds. |
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As I like Forget-me-not
because it reminds me of Kasumiso ( mist plant????),
sensitive and lovely. So every year looking forward
to seeing this flower. |
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A delfinium in a flowerbed. Approxmately
3 years ago, I seeded some. Really different in size
depends on the individual. Some grow really good as
you see, it is almost 50cms tall even it still doesn't
have ears of flower. Time to put some poles to support
them. |
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A delfinium in a pot. Smaller than ones
in flowerbeds. |
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Nasturtium also started being in bloom.
As they are originally from Peru, South America, we
have to be careful if we got any late frost notice. |
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| March 31st 2005 |
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It's April from tomorrow but still snowing. |
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Everything is still covered with snow. Hakuba Goryu
Iimori slopes and Toomi slopes. |
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Went to Mimizuku no yu today. They have kinda outdoor
spa. |
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Happo one is visible from Mimizuku no yu. |
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| October 24th 2004 |
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Now autumn foliage come down the mountains here.
Already got the first snow at the top of mountains
so you can see white snow, autumn foliage and green
at the bottom of mountains. |
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| September 25th 2004 |
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One of our neighbor complteted to build a track
for model train. They use coal for energy to drive
locomotives! |
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| March 5th 2004 |
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Ski slopes here in Hakuba have been good in this
season as well. All available at the moment, Hakuba
Goryu, Hakuba47 and Happo one will have been available
until 5th May. So even if you were not good at cold
weather, you can try spring skiing/snowboarding!!! |
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| December 9th 2003 |
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Finally snow falls early in the morning today. We
had very early snow last season but we had not had
yet this season. Hope snow keeps falling for a while.
Hakuba Goryu and Hakuba47 ski slopes got in business
partially today. |
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Our van was covered with snow. Had to wipe all the
windows!!! Brrrrr..... |
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October 19th 2003
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Tried to create some special dishes for autumn using
some mashrooms, fruits. The left one is a dish of
chicken, some mashirooms and vegitables with cream
sauce. Yummy and less calorie than supposed. |
| The right one is a dish of pork, some mashrooms
and vegitables with tomato sauce. As we grow some
vegitables in a small farm we borrow, we harvest a
lot of tomatoes in summer. If you eat some dishes
with tomato sauce while you stay in our inn with us,
the tomatoes are basically the ones we have grown. |
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September 3rd 2003
It has been a bit strange weather in most part of Japan
this summer. So much rain and not enough sunshine and
much cooloer than usual at this time of the year. So though
we will have the time to harvest fruits, rice soon but
guess perhaps they can't harvest as mush as they have
done in the past.
But anyway it's autumn now, we can harvest some fruits
like grapes, apples, appricots and rice. Nagano prefecture
is famous for fruits, so if people are interested in it,
just email us. We can ask some farms for you to get in
there to harvest some.
Grapes - at the middle and late September
Apples - from the middle September until top December.
Different kind of apples in different time.
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| July 24th 2003 |
 We
tried Loberia, Hedera and Impatience together
in a basket. Usually Loberia and Hedera prefer
sunshine, Impatience prefers shade. Wondered if
it goes good, but please see, now it got pretty
as you see. We made it at the end of May and have
put it in the shade below larch trees. If we did
it in sunshine, I guess probably Loberia might
have already dead, in short we adjusted the timing
to be bloom for Loberia. Loberia usually gets
in bloom in spring. Just wanted to try Loberia
and Impatience get together. |
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