a small restaurant

Last Sauturday we ate out at a small restaurant in the suburb.
I found it these days (yesterday I hard it was open in this May.), because it was near my favorite sweets shop.
But the outside is curious. I thought the owner must be an young man.
So I was hesitated to go there with someone or alone.
(Usually my women friens like stylish, quiet and conservative restaurants.)

And I went there with my husband.
What the owner was like? Can you guess?
The owner was a woman who has 2 grandchildren.

She loves growing vegetables, and cooking, and the most happiest thing is to serve meals she cooks using her vegetables. But unfortuntely her children and grand children seem not so happy, they take it as a usual thing. So she decided to open her restaurant.

The meals are usual home cooking. BUT she grows and cooks verious vegetables. Now it is a season in potatoes. She grows 4 kinds of potatoes. (sorry I forgot the names). Every potatoes has different taste and yummy.
I' was really impressed. And she was also impressed with my comments, and we talked very much. She served other things that were not on the menu. She served FUKI miso, RAKKYO, etc.
Do you remember? I also made some of them.

These days my husband also begins to show intereset plants that we can eat, so he joined us.
The main manu is the same for one month, so we'll promise her to come next month.

Now the restaurant is not so crowded, but probably in this year it must be famous, though I wish it were not so popular.
Anyway we found a good restaunt where my husband and I easy to go.

Homemade ----

This week I got some vegetables my friends grow; nice rhubarb, cucumbers, and strawberry jam.

As I told you, I have liked rubarbs since last year. And now my husband also like rhubarbs. It is an unusual thing that he's intereseted in "vegetables". What makes him intereseted was "rhubarb pie". He likes the sour taste.

And the cucumbers; I pickled them with SHOUCYU(kind of SAKE) , sugar, and salt. (I don't use vinegar).

And the strawberry jam; this morning I baked pastry with the jam and rubarbs. Some of them were our breakfast, and the others are going to served for today's adult students.

Father's Day and rainy season

Yesterday, it was Father's Day. Our daughters came back to celebrate the day, though only 5 hours staying. He looked really happy. When our daughters stayed with us, he used to calim for free-Sunday. So our daughters have presented him one-day-free chicket for tennis.

But yesterday, he canceled his usualy schedul (playing golf and tennis), he stayed home to share the daytime with his daughters. I understood that not only I but also he feels lonly after his daughters left home. At night when they returned to TOKYO, he said heartily "it was a really good day today".

And I understood, these days he often contacts with his mother by himself. Now he seems to understand that "it is happy to get call from her or his child.".

Well, now in Japan it is rainy season, though today it is fine so I dry FUTON up.

And my friend sent her homemade pickled shallots. Can you see two bins? The shallots are from different area. One is from TOTTORI, they look a little bit small and young. So the taste is sour and sweet. Another one is from KAGOSHIMA, they look a big. So the taste is sour and hard. Both of them are yummy. I'm really happy to get her pickled shallots every year. I'll overcome humid rainyseason, and humid and hot summer eating these shallots.

And I change the entrance home. What do you image hearing rainy season. snails and hydrangeas are typical thins in Japan, I think. The day before yesterday I went to MOTEGI to make this woody work.

My husband and I had a full weenend, and really we were realy happy.

One trouble thing is --- I had to do house chorse more than usual. (It was a usual thing until 2 years ago.)

A pro is a pro.

Yesterday , a woman came to my house, though it was just one-hour stay.

Did I tell you?

My friends (including my husband ) and I are going to hold a concert at the tea room KARAKU in August. ( The memberas are called or called themselves almost last in our 40's .)

And now I go to TOKYO twice a month to take English pronoune lessons.

As you know I've studying English for many years, and what is my goal?

Probably I don't have a goal. But these days I'm rearlly intereseted in reading picturebooks in English to others. Now I have a job to teach English. But when I'm in my 60's, what can I do? what makes me intereseted? I thought if I were AUNT-MIEKO who loves to read picture books to others.

So I started to take pronouce lessons in TOKYO. I'm not sure, I will be able to continue, because of my health condition and budget. Anyway I go as much as I can.
And the teacher comes to my house yesterday.

She is going to join the concert as a reader. a kind of a staff meeting.
We arranged music, books, and other thing for the concert. And my husband joined us, of coure he is going to play the bass at the concert.
It was the first time for him to read picturebooks to him in English.

He understood, what I wanted to do.
Though he doesn't deny what I do, he often says "is it enough to study Enligh?"
He worries my health condition, and buddget.
But after the meeting, he said.
Hang in there, we have little chance to inveset mony in ourselves.

He encouraged me.
And he also said
I also put "some"money in myself to participate in senior golf tournamnet when I'm in my 60's.
Well---- the biggest thing that makes me worried is ---- money.(big sigh)
I found a caterpillar in the garden.
and
suddenly yesterday my younger daughter came to my house , she said "I dond't nothing, I want to do without anything."

According to her, on weenends she is always busy to do house chores. It's OK to do nothing in my house. But next ween she is also coming back to celebrate Father's day. And lastend week she went out with us. When she (and her sister) does house chores (especailly wasing clothes and cleaning a room.)?
Anyway she stayed untill evening, so I baked chiffon cake, and she took most of them as today's breakfast.

Rhubarb

Anyway I got some "thin" rhubarb from my garden. (Probably I put more fertilizer in the garden to make them bigger.) And I cut and put them into the dough of butter cake directly.

Though they sank, they keep the green color and taste "yummy".

Today I served it to my adults students. They seemed to enjoy and to be intereseted in "rhubarb".

We went to TOKYO

We went to TOKYO.

At first in the morning I went to an exhibiition what was held by my friend. She loves handmade works. When I met her, she was just a lover of handmade works. And one day one of her works was on the magaine, and she was asked to sell her works. She sent some works to some shops, and started her shop on the net. And finally she held an exhibition and one-week-shop with her friends.

And in the afternoon I went to my elder daughter's first exhibiton (though it was held with 10 her friends). She is a student in solid-art (3-D art?), and now her speciality is paper. This time she showed three big works made by paper that she made or she processed. Of corse al works were good. But I was impressed that she made "big works". Her height is only 146cm (though she said "I didn't have any complains.) But I was really worried about her heigt. (And I was also really worried about my younger daughter's atopic dermatitis.) Now she deals with big things. I'm really surprised.

All members went to see her works; my husband, my mother-in-law, my mother, my younger daughter , me and my next-door neighbor's daughter. We had a good time.

Tokyo is far, and a big city. And I'm a housewife (though there is only two members in my house.) My husband and I dropped by a depertment store to buy "expencive" and "unusual" (it means we can't buy at a depertment store in this town) Delitatessen (including cake.) We enjoyed "wonderful" dinner at home. (If there are 4 members, I probably will cook dinner or buy inexpencive OBENTOU for all members.)

Actaully I feel realy lonly these days, but sometimes I enjoy being with only my husband.

Anyway I had a good time in TOKYO.