Here is the 'mystery bird' that was in the persimmom tree. Thank you to K-san for telling me its name :)
There are some wonderful pictures of other Japanese birds. It seems to be a group that shares bird-watching photos.
There are two fruit trees in my garden. Before you feel envious, let me tell you that NEITHER of the fruits can be eaten ...
Oh, if you are wondering, there are quinces in Australia but a different kind. Karin are 'Chinese quince' but the quince I know can be eaten. They look kind of the same, but you can cut them up and cook them like apples. When they are cooked, the flesh becomes pale pink! My father really like stewed quinces. I wonder if I could try cooking Chinese quince?
The second tree is a persimmom tree. Of course you can eat persimmom, but the fruit on this tree are bitter. Despite that, the birds love them! A family of Japanese crows sometimes visits the tree (I don't like the awful noise they make) and yesterday a flock of beautiful birds came. They were about 30cm tall, with white/beige bodies, black heads and pale blue/grey tails. I hope those birds come back again. I tried to take a picture but my camera's zoom isn't powerful enough.
Last week one of my English classes changed into a flower arranging lesson! One of the members is studying to be a flower arranging teacher, and everyone else asked to teach us how to make a simple arrangement - in English!!!
M-san's class was really easy to follow. She had prepared a handout with the basic design, and after we finished that part, she said "Now you can add flowers as you like". I was happy with this idea because we could make our own original designs.
It was interesting because even though we had the same flowers, everyone's arrangment was a little different to the others. What do you think of mine? (It was my first try ...)
Flower arranging is quite relaxing so that night I made another arrangement at home to use up the flowers I had left over.
Do you remember on June 10th (please see the archives to the right of this page), I started to make ume miso dressing? Well, last weekend I could finish it.
So I put it in a stainless steel saucepan and simmered it on low heat for about 5 minutes. You have to be very careful to stir it constantly so it doesn't burn. Next I sterilized some jars with hot water and then white liquor. Finally, I poured the hot dressing into the jars. You can see the end results.
A frog that was sitting on the top of the washing pole, about 160cm from the ground. I caught it and put it on the grass, but it climbed back up immediately! I was annoyed because I wanted to hang out sheets, but I guess it was annoyed because it was enjoying its sunbath. Finally I left it on the end of the pole and it stayed there all day!
A cricket. There are lots of these and they make a lovely sound at night. I can also hear bell crickets but I haven't been able to find them in the daytime. I love the sound of autumn insects but as it gets colder, the singing gets weaker and soon it will be silent.
This week I heard something very funny but a little unkind.
If you want a nice shopping experience, please go to Kojima Denki. I really like the staff there who are very kind and helpful. The choice of products on display might be limited, but please ask them if you have something you want to buy. Some shops do have stock but not on display. For example, recently I went to the Gakuen store but the IC recorder I wanted was out of stock. The clerk said she could order it, or I could try another store. She gave me an advertisement showing maps to the other stores in the area. I knew that the model I wanted is the most popular now and is out of stock in many places (not just Kojima), so I called the other stores by phone. I could get the recorder from the Ushiku store even though they didn't have it on display. (The Ushiku store is small so display space is limited.)
Pumpkin muffins cooked in the barbeque. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that I've also cooked bread in the BBQ because mine has a lid so it becomes like an oven.
And lastly, I bought chicken bones from Marugen Meat to make my own chicken stock. The chicken is brand name chicken from Iwate and tastes great! I didn't add any salt or other seasonings, but put in one large onion and half a carrot. I simmered it for about 1 hour, skimmed the skum (aku) off the top, let it cool, then put it in the freezer.
My other decision was to only buy expensive milk. There are so many news stories about the strange foods and medicines that farmers give cows! And I also want to know how milk can be kept in a carton for over two weeks?
This season G-clef cafe has a wonderful dessert - kind of like a soft pudding with caramel sauce. I went there for their delicious curry but couldn't resist having sweets afterwards. 
'Dessert' is a word that can be understood where ever you go, but I am guessing that Americans and Canadians don't know or use the word 'sweets'. 
Last week my arm was injured. The muscle around my elbow suddenly began to hurt and then one night I could feel a nerve pinching in my inner arm. My whole arm, hand and two fingers hurt so much I couldn't sleep.
1. Coffee tastes much better made with a gold filter. If you use a paper filter, the coffee oil is soaked up by the filter and doesn't remain in the coffee. In addition, I don't know how the paper filters are made. Bleached ones have chemicals in the paper and even brown ones have been made somehow in a factory. I worry about the manufacturing process of paper filters.
Chinese Dumplings
I used 'gyoza' wrappings from the supermarket but made my own filling. I minced a chicken breast fillet with nira, negi onions, carrot, garlic and a red chilli pepper. Very healthy! The ones in the half moon shape were lightly fried in a little olive oil, and the star shaped ones were boiled in chicken soup.
Scones
I often make scones rather than eating bread from a bakery. These ones are flavored with yuzu citron jam.
A tiny baby lizard - there are many small lizards in my garden. I don't know what kind they are but they are really cute! This one is the smallest I've seen.
A stick insect - crawling up the window frame on my veranda. It didn't move even when I opened the door. Then again, it's defence is camouflage so remaining still could save its life. The foolish thing was that the background was white so I could see it perfectly well!
The sky after the typhoon - clouds after a typhoon are often beautiful, and then it becomes fine and hot.
Pierre Marcolini is one of the world's best chocolatiers and his creations are superb! They should be too, because one tiny square of chocolate is about 300yen! In this picture you can see a box of plain chocolates (75% cocoa) from various regions in the world, and two flavored chocolates that I bought seperately.
