Thursday 10 December 2009

Late autumn


I won't argue if you says it's winter, but we're definitely still in an autumnal mood around here. We've been having lots of bright, sunny days with temperatures reaching 16 or 17 degrees, interspersed with cold, wet days where it struggles to get to double figures.



When I first came to Japan it was summertime and I was quite disappointed at how early it got dark in the evenings. In the winter though I definitely prefer Japanese daylight hours to British ones. If you get up at a civilised hour (ie after 7 o'clock), you need never get up in the dark. Today I was up at 6.30 to go to university, and it was the first time this season it was still dark when I got up. It soon became light though and, as next week is my last university class this month, I'll probably only have a couple more dark mornings before the spring.


Gardeners - anyone know what that plant/tree above is? It is in our garden but I've no idea what it is, and I noticed this lovely bunch of brown berries on it for the first time the other day. Meanwhile, the sazanqua is covered in blooms...



Looking at the whole tree from our upstairs balcony, you can see just how many flowers there are. You can also see next-door's cat, who entertains K by wandering along the wall at the end of our garden.



And in a rather unrelated note, I've seen a weasel on that same garden wall, and in the field beyond it, several times in the last few weeks. He pops up on his back legs and checks out what's going on, just like a meerkat...



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