Irish recorder

Yesterday, a friend came with this small recorder -- the right one in the picture.

I used to be into playing the recorder, and still now I've kept this tenor recorder.

Though there were three alto recorders in my house, one was mine and the rest were my daughters', I donated them to a high school a few years ago.

And a soprano recorder ( I don't know whose it was) is in Ah-chan's toy box.

 

 

 



The friend try to discard things in her house ( in Japanese "I" call Dan-sha-ri), and she asked me whether I needed or not it. I said "yes". so she visited me.

 

I prepared lunch for us, my HB made a good dough, so I baked pizza.

 

She also brought some oranges and sweet.

So "we" did  that thing.

 

I put the peel of an orange and baked it with grill.

 

Of course I pours some water into the tray.

Done! Perfect.

However-- this time I used "oven", not grill.

Anual big event finshed.

This year annual event of " Let's enjoy picture books in the world" finished with a big success.

Since this event started 10 ? years ago, I have joined it as an assistant.

 

This year, people who come from Taiwan, France, India, Sweden, Mexico, and America introduced their country and read some their picture books in their language.

 

Compared to 10 years ago, here in Utsunomiya city many foreigners come and "live".

This event was held at the library, so it was easy to get audience.

Most of them were children and their parents  and some adults came to watch us.

It was really exciting time for me.

 

Well, luckily I got this piñata. It was broken, but not so bad. So I mended it and hung it. 

Now Christmas month has started. I have to change the decoration -- you see, dried persimmon has decorated yet.

Chatting

It was snowing yesterday, but it didn't accumulate. And today, it is a sunny day.

Yesterday, as I told you, I was sticking my house, and --- yes, my next-door woman came.
So we talked together while having lunch.

I baked brad ( not me my HB baked it) , and cooked potato gratin.
She and her husband has already spent their retired life, so I invited her husband. But he "politely" declined.
It's OK.
He must have eaten something for his lunch, anyway she took the rest of our lunch to her house.

The snow stopped in the evening. So my students were able to come as usual. I did usual lessons.

 

Well, this week I don't go to a gym yet, so from now on I'll go.

Before going there, I already baked pumpkin pudding for Yuki  and my snack of this weekend.

Yes, today, it is the last weekday of this week.

 

And this Sunday I will attend and help a big event.

After the event my Christmas season will have started.

 

 

Snow

It's snowing, even though it!s still November. 

Luckily  Yuki had the tires of his car changed last weekend, so Yuki was able to commute safely, though the roads must be very crowded.

Anyway , he went out ealier than usual, so I prepared quick breakfast, spicy toufu and egg plants bowl.

Why is it snowing??

It might be caused what I did yesterday.

It was rare thing that I organized the garden alone.

Now it is covered with snow. So, it was effective to organize garden before snowing. 

Today I won't go out anywhere,even  to go to workout.

I will retreat in my house. Shall I call my next-door woman?

Winter flower basket

First, to readers. Thank you for coming my blog. And sometimes I get comments though it a really miner blog. However, unfortunately these days I get some junk comments, so I changed the configuration of the comments. Just Google users put their comments on my blog.

The other day, my friend came here with this basket.
We have been friends more than 30 years, it means she is the first friend when I came to this town.
Coincidently we are same age.
She decided early retirement and since then she has been into gardening.
And this fall she won a prize at a flower contest. And these days she sometimes open workshop of basket flowers.
And --- usually after the workshop is finished, she brings her sample basket and "put" it on my entrance. -- Lucky me!!!!

 

She is my friend, so I know I don't need to owe her, however--- she is my friend, so I want to do something.

 

I made my original hot-wine.

 

And additionally I made Yuzu-citron & ( organic) honey , and anti-virus spray with my bottles of aroma oil.

 

It's barter.

 

She is a really busy person, however on the day she had time to have quick lunch.

So we went out to eat ---

Is it a quick lunch? Yes it's a woman's quick lunch.

Colorful leaves and beef

I'll tell you our last Saturday.

 

In the morning it was a day for me to do voluntary reading at the library. This time I asked two junior high school students to read some English picture books. So I just assisted them.

Then finally we went out to hunt colorful leaves.

We did about one and a half hour drive into a mountain.

 

 

Then we "dropped" by a butcher, or you can say, "we dropped by a mountain and finally we got to a butcher".

They deal with TOCHI-beef.

 

 

Of course our dinner was grilled beef.

 

If M and Ah-chan stay with us, we need more more amount of meat. Usually when we grilled meat together, we buy meet at a nearby supermarket.

It means yes, the beef was a little bit expensive , so it was "our" luxurious dinner.

Winter tires

Monday has started, though it  is almost finished.

Well, last Saturday, I did usual things.
First I discarded 15 things --- you might be surprised that after refurbishing I continue 15 discard task.
Actually we revised all things in all closets in my house.
We steeped the next phase. We have to decrease some overlapped things.

For example, tools.
Yuki has already a wonderful (I don't know whether it's useful or not) tool kid.
However here and there we can see tools in each drawer.
So I "anyway" discarded 15 things without Yuki's permission. (there were not in his tool kid box)
 

Next I cooked pre-cooked dishes for this week.

The right one in the photo is baked tofu & cheese cake.

Then  -- we went out for --- not eating.
We went to a car shop & café nearby.
It is a kind of car factory, however it also runs a café.
So while Yuki had the tires of his car changed into winter tires  and the oil replacement, we had lunch relaxing.
 

 

Next time I have to have the tires of my car changed.

 

Then " we" took a golf lesson. I try to take a golf lesson once (or twice)  a month. Once Yuki tried to teach me, however, as you know --- it was not effective. He was not a good teacher for me, and I was not a good student for him.

And we asked Mr. M to become my coach. He gives me 40 minute lesson.

----- it's too long for me.

So I asked him to give golf lesson for us. I take 10 or 15 minute lesson and next Yuki take 20 or 30 minute lesson. It's really reasonable.

 

Our Saturday was a usual Saturday.

 

With Ah--chan

Akari is called Ah--chan, and she calls herself Ah--chan. More correctly she insists like this "this is Ah--chan's". Instead of mine.

Though she might sound selfish, what she often says is "whose is this? " So we often says "this is for e erroneoun".

Last Sunday, while M was attending the wedding ceremony  on of her friend, we played with Ah-chan.

We visited Ina garden center. There we could play with small animals, though it took long time formAkari to touch animals. She doesn't seem to be challengeable or you can say, she seems to be prudent , or cautious. 

Then we visited the south library , there a festival was hold.

We had lunch outside and

We enjoyed a free concert performed by local high school students.

Concerts which allow infants to listen to them are few, so it was a good opportunity for Ah-chan. She was able to sit quiet and enjoyed their performance. 

At home last week

 

 

Anyway the big task is finished.

While refurbishing, many workers came in and out in turn, so the place I could stay in a house (and I also couldn't go out to check and talk with them about refurbishing ) was -- kitchen.

 

So I scrubbed glasses -- in a way which was introduced on a TV program.

 

Prepare cling wrap and spread it. Pour some cleanser on it. hold it, and scrub grasses with it instead of sponge or other things.

 

"Perfect" and "Easy".

 

 

Of course I cooked some things for Akari and her mother who came and stayed with us last weekend.

It's Thursday, isn't it. All pre-cooked food has gone.

Refurbishing has finished.

The luggage comes back.

From the living room.

From the hallway.

Yuki's new cave. Though you might not believe it, the amount of his gadget got 40% less than before.

And new tatami mats. The smell is wonderful .

refurbishing is going on

 

The closet in the living room is

 

And now it is opening to the hallway.

 

 

The upstairs cave of Yuki's is installing new wallpaper and new wooden floor.



 

 

I'm hiding in this temporal cave.



 

Home made sweets?

Probably for you  Brie cheese might be familiar, however for me it is expensive, and it was hard to find one at nearby supermarkets. The other day I found one at a nearby supermarket. These days wine is booming and various kinds of cheese are getting familiar. So Brie cheese is one of them, though this cost 1000 yen.
Anyway I bought it.

And I grilled slice of it with spicy mango jam. It was a good appetizer for wine.

And for our breakfast I grilled brie cheese, potatoes and the last basil leaves growing in our garden.

And I made another sweet,  a grilled apple. It was really simple. I just removed the core and put butter, unrefined sugar and cinnamon  in it, and baked it in the oven for 40 minutes. Perfect!! 

And -- though it's not my homemade, I had this sweet potato cake which was made by the owner's wife at Karaku tea room.

Yesterday it was the day for me to become a pianist. Unfortunately we didn't have the consecutive third full, we had enough audience. So I could play the piano in a relaxed and tense way.

P.S My friend told me this site.
body

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/17024/appetizers-and-snacks/cheese/baked-brie/
Thanks.

 

Before refurbishing

This weekend, we did that -- moving furniture into another room, and discarding "some" ( not lots) things.
--- And I plowed my energy into it too much. Sunday night and yesterday I was in bed.
Today, it's not so bad. I'm going to the KARAKU to play the piano, and after that I'm going to take an  acupuncture and moxibustion treatment (not so inexpensive).

Anyway from the day after tomorrow, refurbishing will be started, and the final day M and Akari will come again --- because M is going to attend her friend's wedding ceremony  and her husband seemed to nurse Akari.  --- So, Yuki, I and "Akari" are going to remove furniture together --- though I can't image. It might be fun or it might be commotion.

Good bye my stamp book,

This "was" my stamp collection book. Finally I let go of it.
I used to collect stamps -- probably when I was an elementary school student.
My uncle used to work for MPT, and he is my mother's youngest brother. ( He is 10 ? 15 years younger than my mother, additionally she has three brothers and two sisters and fortunately they are still fine.) When he was single, he used to visit us to us, and we shared it, So in this  book , you can see, there are single stamps.
I had forgot its existence a year ago. When I visited my mother, suddenly she handed it to me.

What should I do?
I used them as much as I could, I applied for some prizes sending a postcard with one of these stamp.
---but there were too much,
And additionally I collected used stamps.

 

Though it's difficult to explain, let me try to explain more.

In Japan the posting fee by a post card is 52 yen, and the posting fee by an light envelope is 82 yen, it means, we need 1 yen or 2 yen stamps. In my collection book, there were few such stamps. So I put 60 yen stamps on a post card, or bought a 2 yen stamp and put it with my stamps which totaled 50 yen  to send a post card. --- it was troublesome.

 

So I decided to discard and sell the stamps.

At a post office, they can change old stamps into new stamps but they charge 5 yen per a stamp.--- Most of my stamps were 10 yen stamps.

I took them to a kind of discount shop which deals with jewelry, brand bags and so on.  -- for me it was the first time to go such a place, so I chose a shop which is in front of the big department store.

And--- I'm surprised, they bought a bag of used stamps for 100 yen ( I was going to donate them) , and they also bought my stamps at about 80% of total price.

-- so I got "just" 1700 yen.

 

I was going to drop by at the department. However I was flooded with nostalgia? or strange feeling. I didn't use money quickly. I dropped by a nearby supermarket and bought eggs, fresh cream and bananas.

 

I wanted to make something as a old type house mother, serious, or down-to-earth housewife.

It's really difficult to explain my feeling. Anyway Though I didn't care for my stamp book, it didn't seem to be true.

I made a banana roll cake as my snack. Of course the rest of it was our breakfast.