Happy holidays!

With only ten days left this year, I’d like to thank you all for encouraging and inspiring me 
in the blogsphere throughout the year.

I also hope you spending this special time of year in a relaxed way enjoying what you like to do.

It's gotten quite chilly these days after five months of summer

and only one month of autumn.

Ginkgo leaves are still beautiful even in the late-December.

Dec. 16th

My husband and I are having the secular Christmas only between two of us
and celebrating the New Year with all the family members. 

Origami ornaments for Christmas by M

                                                  

December is the most eventful month in my family.

My son, the eldest and the youngest grandchild F and M, were born in December.

S completed Kobe Full Marathon in November

 Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year!

Linked to Mosaic Monday

Autumn splendor at 天授庵 Tenjyu-an and 南禅寺 Nanzen-ji

It’s that time of the year when Momiji, Japanese maples, shine blazing red.

This post is a report of 天授庵 Tenjyu-an and 南禅寺 Nanzen-ji Temples.

Don't you feel excited just looking at Tenjyu-an from the outside?

The inside is much more than your expectation.
You enter Pond Garden by way of Dry Landscape Garden.

Fascinating reflections can exist anywhere.

A garden with a pond spreads in front of the Shoin architecture.

Tranquil and serene.

Carp look swimming through the reflected leaves.

An image with reduced reflection

Tenjyu-an

Verdant garden of 天授庵 Tenjyuan shows what the garden is like in May.

Which garden do you like, in spring or in autumn?

 Tenjyu-an is close to the massive San-mon Gate of Nanzen-ji.

Trees are fiery red.

Among all the autumn leaves, Momiji is the last to paint the landscape shades of red.

They have touched Japanese people’s heart at its core from the ancient times.

The precinct is ablaze with the final burst of glory before the winter calm.

Nanzen-ji

Today is the coldest of this season; the heaviest snowfall in 10 years

is forecasted in the northern Japan.

Linked to Mosaic Monday

Record-breaking delay for autumn foliage

How will record temperature in September and sustained warmth through October

into November affect autumn foliage?

This post is what it was like in the past three weeks.

The pond scape shows a little progressed season with yellowish shades of green 

and brown seeds in the late October.

Muhlenbergia capillaries planted in mass create dramatic dusky pink cloud in autumn. 

Cosmos, written as 秋桜 (autumn cherry blossoms),  is one of the most loved autumn flowers.
They have withered much earlier due to the long scorching weather.

Cosmos atrosanguineus, or Chocolate cosmos, has velvety deep crimson flowers.

Leaves have been changing colors very slow.

Leaves survived the extreme heat of summer.

On the 3rd of November, my daughter's family and I walked along the loop trail

running through the Kasuga-yama Primeval Forest.

The forest has remained virtually untouched as hunting and logging has been prohibited 

since the Kasuga Mountain was revered as a divine mountain since the ancient time.

 The forest was off-limits to the public until after WWII.

 

The contrast of light and shadow

Japanese Maples were still all green

It's relaxing to walk in the forest hearing the sound of river.

This trail leads to the top of the Mt. Wakakusa. We turned back halfway.

Another part of the loop trail is Takisaka-path, which I reported in Takisaka-no-michi Path.

M's Shichi-go-san celebration & hiking in the forest 

Currently Sakura (Cherry tree) leaves are beautiful. 

I love autumn leaves of Sakura, which are as attractive as it's spring blossoms.

Now we are in the first cold spell of the season but it will get very warm next week.

I have mixed emotion to think about the fact that there is this warmth

behind the more and more violent weather events.

Linked to Mosaic Monday