Happy Equinox!

Hooray! It is the equinox! That means I can shave off the beard!
Or so I thought. When I mentioned it at the table at dinner, the whole family said "No! We like the short bearded version better than shaved!" so I remain with fur on the face until it just gets too hot to bear.

In other equinox news- here in Japan, it is a national holiday! How about that! We made pizza, planted my potatoes and cleaned up the yard a bit. A very satisfying equinox.
How was yours?

Spring

Panorama Park in 2010,  and a preview of coming attractions

For years now, I have been stubbornly sticking to the definition that Spring in the Northern Hemisphere begins on March 20 or 21, the vernal equinox. But that does seem to skew the seasons. It is definitely spring like by the first of March here. We still have frosts, but not as deep, the birds sound different, and the air feels softer in some way. 

So this year I decided to call Spring from March 1 to May 31, making this the shortest winter in my personal history. 

Japanese Maple Syrup

I love maple syrup. But the price of it gives me some serious sticker shock. We could buy artificial flavor, indeed, we have in the past. But I just feel safer with something natural.
When I was a boy, my Grandfather tapped some local sugar maple trees one year and made some syrup. I wished that I had planted some sugar maples years ago, and went on wishing for syrup.
Then it struck me- my house is surrounded by Momiji- Japanese maples. Some of them two feet in diameter... So I decided to give it a try this year. I cut some bamboo pipes, cut a small flap in the top of a large plastic soda bottle, and bored a hole near the base of a momiji. Sure enough, out came a steady drip drip drip of sap. I tapped in the pipe, fastened a screw above the hole to hold the bottle on, and let it flow. In about 2 hours, it had about 400ml of sap! How about that!?! It was clear as water, and smelled a bit like watermelons. I brought it back to the house, put it in a pot on the stove, and boiled it down. I ended up with about 10ml of momiji syrup. It was fantastic! Sweet, and nutty- kind of tasted like hazelnuts.
Then I took the baby upstairs to put him to bed. While I was upstairs, MY WIFE THREW OUT THE SYRUP IN THE MEASURING CUP!!!!!
To be fair, it didn't look like much, and she didn't know it was syrup. Was still a heck of a shock though.

Spring Blues

Kind of a love-hate relationship with spring.
Want to garden- can't garden because the 20 degree (celsius that is) days were all back in winter, we are lucky this past week if it gets up to 4-5 degrees.
Everywhere I look I see fresh green- but it is only about 2cm tall... Cutting more bamboo for goat fodder.
Warm enough for the winter cabbages and other brassica to bolt, too cold for new transplants to grow.

At least it will be over soon and I can get planting and transplanting.

Yep. I love to hate spring.

Plum Blossoms

Ah, March is the season of "ume" plum blossoms here in in Japan. Well, to tell the truth, they are actually members of the apricot branch of that tree (pun intended), but that doesn't matter. They are pretty. I took this picture at the "Forestry Tree Breeding Center" near our house. They have a whole orchard of hundreds of plums, all different species, some weeping, some erect, some spreading.... and all of them just a little bit different. It really makes you feel that spring is coming.