Katriona's Diary

My rabbit Krurun loves relaxing under the armchair. This is which I sit on mainly when I read book. It has 5 legs and Krurun likes lying between 2 of them, or sometimes lying over one leg.




I have used this armchair for over 20 years and cover of one armrests was worn-out, so recently I’ve had this armchair picked up for repair. And Krurun seemed not to be happy about it XD




"Where is my hiding space?"


The repair would take about a month, so I have brought a sofa from the living room as a temporary replacement. Though Krurun does not seem to be happy under it XD XD

When I visited the former stone-mine near Utaunomiya, one of the most impressive things in that vast underground space was the patterns on the stone walls. Many walls were covered with fine horizontal striations, they were beautiful under the coloured lighting.








Though I heard that those striations were all pickaxe marks, made by the workers many years - maybe about 100 years? - ago.





On some walls there were regularly spaced deep grooves made by the machines (cutters) - the stone cutters started to be used around the time of the last war, still it must have been harsh labour.





These endless repetition of fine patterns, subtle change of colors of stone surface were impressive and beautiful I thought. The beauty of natural formation of rocks or layer of soils strikes me often, but the human's longtime and earnest labour could create a similar effect...

Today it’s fine. The sunshine was warm, the air was fresh and comfortable with the subtle scent of chrysanthemum flowers in the garden. In the morning I did the weekly house cleaning, then in the afternoon I took kaki - persimmon fruits from 2 trees in the garden. Not many fruits this year, though each fruit looked bigger than usual instead. It’s better than having many small fruits X) Unfortunately many fruits are on the high branches - too high to reach, even with the scissors with long handle, I could not get them. Still I got about 60 fruits. Tomorrow I’ll try the other tree n the backyard.







The garden was in the bright afternoon sunshine, and the air was full of the subtle chrysanthemum scent. Peaceful day. I felt thankful for that.







The garden cat also enjoyed the sun…

On Tuesday, I took train from Yokohama. 2 and half hour train ride took me to Utsunomiya, a city which is the prefectural capital of Tochigi, in the northern Kanto region(Greater Tokyo and some areas around it). I visited a big shrine in the midst of the city. I have expected enjoying some quietness there, but this day was a national holiday and Kendo tournament of the students was being held in the shrine ground, thus there were many people and it's rather noisy XD




A big shrine in the towncentre.




The main shrine building at the top of the long flight of stairs.




Kendo match in shrine ground.







Small Inari (the sprit of rice or fox) shrine in the big shrine ground.


In Utsunomiya, Gyoza dumpling is quite popular. It's the cheap but delicious food. So for the late lunch and light supper I enjoyed Gyoza in a small but very popular restaurant near the train station.



Lunch.




Supper.


I stayed in a hotel near the train station to take the local bus from the station rather early next morning. The purpose of my trio to Utsunomiya was not Gyoza XD but visiting Oya history museum which features a small museum introducing the area's stone-mining history and the vast underground former quarry. It's about 30 minutes bus trip from Utsunomiya town centre to Oya...

Late autumn. Or early winter. In our garden now chrysanthemum began to bloom, though this morning I found a flower of summer…




White lily was blooming in the cool autumn air…

Sunday. It's generally fine. A cool. quiet, comfortable day. Thought this world and society are full of terrible news and in helpless situation, I have my garden, chrysanthemum flowers, and garden cats... I often think how fortunate I am.





Some persimmon fruits looked ripe so I took some, and tasted one.







It did not taste good enough, I should wait for a few days, it seemed. X)

Today again it’s cloudy, gloomy day. No rain, but the sky was covered with thick clouds. And it’s chilly. I know now we are in the late autumn, soon winter would come here.



In the evening I turned on the floor heating for the first time this autumn.

Until recently my rabbit Krurun has been in shedding season, a lot of fur was coming out. So I brushed her on the bench outside of our entrance door almost every day (and now I can do it anytime, weekend or weekday! I like the retirement life XD).　Though Krurun of course does not like it XD

Yesterday I took her out of the house, sat on the bench, put her on my lap to brush.. and noticed not much fur fell out now. Her shedding season seemed to have ended.





The autumn is deepening, it's becoming cooler. As always, this cool air somehow makes me feel anxious or unsafe in spite of the comfort of the mild autumn weather. The world, and the society are full of so many anxious, terrible news.





This morning we have bright sunshine ... after some rainy or cloudy days. One of our garden cats, the white one with black spots, was relaxing on the wooden verandah in the sun, and her white fur was shining :). This warmth cheers me up :)

Today it's cloudy and chilly. Rather a depressing day. Though I woke up early and left home, took trains and bus to visit some hot spring with mother. It's a small, traditional Japanese style inn in the woods. Its building looks rather shabby but the quality of its water is really good, and they serve very nice meal. It's about 2 hour travel from my house, I go to this inn every year to enjoy the hot spring and food :)




The entrance of the inn.




The view from the inn room ... just woods, and the sound of the nearby stream ... very quiet.




The lunch was also good ... though it was ... too much for me X) I was really full when I left there and the hot springs - though it's very relaxing still - often leave me feeling drained (as if the fatigue comes out of my body) - so on the return train journey I fell asleep X(

The security camera, at the entrance of our house, often captures our garden cats walking into or out of the garden during the night. I like looking at those footage, so I often check the video. Sometimes the camera captures the bigger animal... like this.




A raccoon! I knew there were some raccoons in our area but it's rare to see them, even on the security camera footage. It's fun to see how it walks...