Spring??

Last Friday was Setsubun. Mid-way between the shortest day and the spring equinox, it is supposed to mark the beginning of spring. This was how the day began...

Hmm, not really my idea of spring. Actually, the weather was worse the day before. When I took K to pre-school on Thursday, it was snowing heavily and everything was just, well, white. I couldn't really see the road. Or the traffic lights. Or other cars. On the way, at 9am, the roadside thermometer read minus 4, and even on the way back at 3pm it was still minus 1. Brr...

We had more snow through the day and overnight, but on Friday it soon brightened up. Unusually T had a little nap in the morning so I showed K the sledge I bought secretly the other day and we headed out into the garden...

I pulled him round a bit, and he had a little slide down the tiny slope. It doesn't sound very impressive but he loved it. He tried pulling me but that didn't work out, although I did go down the slope :-)

As well as playing in the snow, we did a couple of little Setsubun things too. An oni (demon) came round, but K was there to throw beans at it and scare it away. H came home just 10 minutes afterwards and K was quite disappointed that he'd missed it. K wasn't at all scared; he told me it was 'just a fake one', although he didn't connect it to H's arrival minutes later :-)

Another tradition is to eat sushi rolls, facing a lucky direction and without speaking. K and his classmates made them at pre-school on Thursday and I, with another mum, went along to help. It was fun to help the children make their sushi rolls, and also to spend the whole day there and experience K's school life. T was with me too of course; he's quite well-known at K's school now and the kids all enjoyed playing with him at lunchtime :-)

Anyway, the snow has all gone again now, but there is more predicted for the next few days. I think we'll have to wait a bit longer for spring yet...