Wish you and the world PEACE, LOVE and HEALING

水仙 Suisen, Japanese Narcissus, are the first bulbs of the year to emerge 

as early as January or a little before.

They are called "雪中花 settchuka", flowers in the snow, as well.

They are different from "trumpet narcissus" blooming toward spring.

Dainty snow-white flowers and slim blades are from vigorous long-lived bulbs.

As 水仙 literally means "water nymph" and "narcissus" reminds of Greek mythology,

they often bloom around water front.

At the Hannaji Temple, they play around stone Buddhas and join in prayers 

like white candles with bright yellow flame. 

Suisen bowls are offered to the Buddhist statues.

They look like candle light.

Hannyaji Temple is a small temple famous as “a temple of flowers”, 
especially for cosmoses in autumn as is called "cosmos temple".

The precinct was sunk in silence in the chilly air a little before the gate was closed.

I enjoyed that ambience.

 

 Last but not least, I hope you've started a nice, peaceful new year.

While I enjoy the slow pace of life after my families went back to their homes,

the livelier beat has returned before I know it.

The mosaics are a part of the new year cards reached on January 1st

from my relatives and friends.

I'm catching up with old friends whom I haven't seen in years in person,

which is going to be one of my nicest things this year.

As I feel uncomfortable looking at the computer screen,

I'll be away from the laptop till late March when I have cataract surgery.

Linked to Mosaic Monday

Hope and resilience

January

For the past weeks, it has been so difficult to hold back sadness and rage 

for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While various different forms of aids as well as economic sanctions are expanding world-wide,

it feels helpless and hopeless that no one, no country can stop the insane, appalling attacks,

leaving the people desperately, impatiently waiting for the end of attacks.

Japanese Narcissus, Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis, from end December throughout January

Snowdrops, early February

What helps you to restore peace of mind recently?

Plants are coming through the ground.

Hepatica nobilis var. japonica f. magna

Buds are constantly swelling to bloom.

Primrose

Ume, Prunus mume, is halfway to their full bloom.

The color of pond water is changing.

折鶴 Orizuru, Paper Crane, a symbol of hope and resilience

Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper.

People create paper cranes praying for someone.

When folding a piece of paper into a crane, you’re sending prayers to it

through your fingertips.

"Peace to Ukraine Now!"

Linked to Mosaic Monday

Warmth and joy in the coldest winter in half a century

Hello, dear my Friends!  

It’s been a long time since I posted the last post. 

Then again it also feels like only yesterday as I write now. 

Time is a magical thing. 

So belated, but I hope you welcomed in a happy New Year 2018.

In my part of the world, this winter season has been the coldest in a long time.

When the cold loosened its grip a little, I went to Hannyaji Temple, 

where Narcissus were blooming around Stone Buddhist Statues 
clean and fragrant.  

They flower as winter turns into spring.  

As you might know, the disruption in the Polar Jet Stream brought snowfall
even into Florida and to Japanese southern parts.
Outrageous 4 meters high snow was recorded in a region along the coast of the Sea of Japan.

What matters to me is not how cold but how "long" the cold has lasted
with temperatures hovering between -3 to 4 degrees C.

There were many days when my garden was covered with frost in the morning

 since mid-December which is like late autumn usually.

As I have written every year, it rarely snows in Nara no matter how cold it is.
However the city was blanketed in snow a couple of times.

These photos are the first snowfall of the season which soon melted into rain.

February 1st

More wonder of nature due to the unusual cold wave.

Feb. 12th

My fourth grandchild, M, was born in such a record cold winter. 

About one month later her birth, we celebrated her “Omiyamairi” at Kasuga Grand Shrine, 

the first visit to shrine to pray for the baby’s healthy growth and prosperous future.  

We were so fortunate that the day was one of the few warmer days.

Mid-December to late January

As it is nearing to March, temperatures have come to rise over 10 from time to time.

Ume blossoms, the floral harbinger of spring, started blooming one after another.

Happy with the fresh feel of the bracing cold air in sunshine.

Narcissus in the sunshine with the backdrop of early-blooming pink Ume blossoms.

Linked to Mosaic Monday
Our World Tuesday

Floral harbinger of spring

When I saw common snowdrops, Galanthus, blooming in profusion, 
the landscape reminded me of the carpets of white in European woodlands I had seen in the photos.

I was captivated by these little white fairies with green markings inside.

Snowdrops also reminded me of a fairy tale,The Month-Brothers, by Samuil Marshak. 

A little girl is ordered to find snowdrops by her cruel stepmother.

The child knows that the spring flowers do not grow in the middle of the winter,

but in the frozen woods she comes upon twelve magical brothers who make the impossible task possible.

I’ve learned from my European blog friends, how snowdrops bring forth hope for spring.

They are among the first to raise their heads from the ground.

In my country, Japanese Narcissus start to flower year-end and continue throughout the winter until spring. 

However, snowdrops to Europeans' heart would be like ume, Prunus mume, or Japanese apricot, to the Japanese heart.

Ume is one of the earliest fragrant bloomers to harbinger spring.  

When you find only one or two ume blossoms in the biting cold, your heart is warmed up.

Buds on the verge of flowering

It feels like weather becomes warmer with each new bloom.

The modest, lovely flowers inspire power of life by surviving through the piercing cold  
and emanating pure fragrance in the midst of winter.

When you see ume blossoms in full bloom at last after a couple of weeks later,
you can't hold back your excitement spring is on its way.

In my garden,  white-eyes have been coming since the time much too early for the ume blossoms
of which nectar they are fond of.
Ume in my garden is blooming soon.

Narcissus at Chihaya-akasaka Village

Chihaya-akasaka Village is only one village in urbanized Osaka Prefecture with the population of about 6700 people.   It is located in the mountains of the Kongo-zan (1125meters high).  On the terraces at the hillside, about 50,000 narcissus bloom from mid-January to February.

 

Not only flowers but also blades are beautiful in the light.

Although many were laid down by the wind storm of the previous night, they were still radiating sweet fragrance.

 

 

Dark green blades and white faces were shining bright in the sun.   In spite of the very cold air, I wondered if it was winter or spring. 

This is "rural Osaka" in urbanized Osaka Prefecture.  Traditional Japanese countryside is preserved just an hour drive away from busy Osaka City.   The winding paths run through trees, terraced rice paddies, and  houses.

A general Kusunoki Masashige (1294-1336) was born in this village.  He took Imperial orders from Emperor Go-Daigo and raised an army at Shimo-Akasaka Castle. He is affectionately called as “Nanko-san”.  The monument, The Birth Place of Nanko, was built by Okubo Toshimichi in 1878.  The momument is under the gigantic camphor trees as his name “Kusunoki/楠” means “camphor”.

 

If you are interested, please have a visit to Narcissus Fields at Nada-kuroiwa in Awaji-shima Island  where 5,000,000 narcissus bloom one after another on the mountain slopes facing the Pacific Ocean.