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| Spiraea growing from a pipe in the river wall.... |
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| ...trailing graceful fingers on the surface of the water |
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| pink Spiraea begins to bloom |
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| Boke (Flowering Quince) with Spiraea buds |
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| Hiyodori enjoys the last of the plum blossoms |
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| ...as peach buds swell |
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| Sakura prepare for entrance ceremonies |
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| Green returns with early spring rains... |
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| ...some call them weeds (Lamium amplexicaule) |
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| ...I prefer not to. (Henbit up close) |
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| The first cherry blossoms open with encouragement from the rain |
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| Kosagi (Egretta garzetta)...breeding plumage |
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| Goisagi in breeding plumage...Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) |
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| from beneath a bush, snowdrops announce the spring |
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| Daikon left in the ground sends forth tall shoots of pure white blooms |
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| Tsukushi--a living fossil-- the stems of the strobili can be eaten in spring |
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| On the mountain, cherry blossoms emerge from amongst the pines |
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| From the most unlikely places... |
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| ....beauty emerges |
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| A life is tenuous... |
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| ...but Life is Tenacious. |
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| Gambare, Nihon! |
Gorgeous! Hope springs eternal.
ReplyDeleteThanks--it's been hard to post...
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures and apt comments. Thanks for the spring views.
ReplyDeleteGambare, Nihon! Indeed!
Glad you liked it:-) On TV, they've been showing elementary school students here painting cherry blossoms to encourage everyone--children at one school are "gambatteiru"--ing and trying to paint a thousand pictures of sakura, like the One Thousand Cranes...
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Evocative & poignant. I esp. love the composition & colors of the first two, of the Spiraea in the river wall. Eager to have our spring catch up to yours, but Japan needs it more.
ReplyDelete--Diane G.
I'm fascinated by things growing out of cracks and unlikely places (wrote a whole post on that, as a matter of fact:
ReplyDeletehttp://yokohamayomama.blogspot.com/2010/10/friday-field-notes-out-of-cracks.html
;-).
And you're right-- we do need the spring, even though it's hard to enjoy it knowing how many are suffering.
"some call them weeds (Lamium amplexicaule)...I prefer not to. (Henbit up close)"
ReplyDeleteFrom the Society Of Great Britain For The Protection Of Plants Unfairly Categorised As Weeds (current membership, 2 — my mum and myself), I thank you. Down with weedism! Down with it, I say!
Ahem
I've not quite got the hang of this 'ism' kind of post yet. Would some random use of CAPS-LOCK and some out of context quotes help?
Are there yearly dues? Does the SoGBftPoPUCaW take credit cards?-- count me in as a member!
ReplyDelete("random use of CAPS-LOCK and some out of context quotes"-- Daz, you just slay me. Still laffing:-))
Wahay! We now have a membership of three, then! The acronym looks like it might need some rethinking though, 'specially as we now appear to be internationalised.
ReplyDeleteBTW, how you getting along with Merchants Of Doubt?
Yes--acronym was...troublesome.
ReplyDeleteAbout a third of the way through Merchants of Doubt... excellent so far! (If a bit frightening).
Great to have you back. Lovely pictures. I hope your obvious love of nature rubs off on the children!
ReplyDelete;)
Dom
Glad you enjoyed the photos, Dominic:-)) I hope it rubs off, too--I come by it honest myself! (both of my parents love the outdoors, too--camping, walking, birds, flowers...)
ReplyDeleteA bit frightening? I sit here in my newly constructed tinfoil hat and you say a bit frightening? Well, maybe I exaggerate. :-) To be honest,I don't know how much they've pared their data down to make the most prominent four names stand out amongst the crowd. Not exactly illuminati, but scary nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded that new Bart D. Ehrman one too. So now I'm stuck reading two different Bryson books, and that one. "I think I'll read for a bit" has now become a nail-biting decision moment.
"http://yokohamayomama.blogspot.com/2010/10/friday-field-notes-out-of-cracks.html"
ReplyDeleteVery much enjoyed that, both your always excellent photography (nearly all of which would make great desktop backgrounds) and your musings. I've been so much happier since I discovered how to stop hoping for bobcats (to pull up a random name of something rare to see) and start enjoying the squirrels...A lesson you seem to have learned much sooner than I did!
BTW, I believe that succulent-y thing in the picture with the moss was probably a sedum of some sort...
--Diane G.
Thank you (blushing--you are of course *more* than welcome to use any photos as wallpaper. I'm extremely flattered that anybody would want to look at any of my photos that much:-))
ReplyDeleteAh--hoping for bobcats...my dad always has all the luck seeing those (one got locked in the bathroom at the golf course, no less! He went to unlock it early one morning, and out rushed a frantic bobcat!). Squirrels--there are hardly any squirrels in this uber-urban environment. Japanese are so funny when they see squirrels. I grew up chasing them out of the bird feeder. People here, young and old, point and squeal whenever they see one and shout "Jouzu!" (talented!...referring to the way squirrels run up and down branches and power lines;-). Cracks me up--but I kind of miss squirrels now that I hardly ever see one any more.
Aha! You are right--I knew that succulent-y thing was separate from the moss, but just never went back to look it up properly and fix the post. Sedum acre--you're exactly right. Domo!