Cherry blossom

I finally went to see cherry blossom last Saturday.
It has been one week since I took photos though...
But I want you to see cherry blossom!!

I love cherry blossom!
I was waiting for blooming them since last March.

But they kept me waiting for a long time, because the cherry blossoms were later than expected.

And now, most cherry blossom are gone.
I hope to see beautiful blossoms next year!

Wow, the thunderstorm is approaching here(T_T)

I have to turn off my laptop!!

Reuse!!

I made it a few days ago!!
It is reuse...isn't it?
Flowers in Japan are very expensive, so I didn't want to throw them away when they were withering.
And as I mentioned before, I had made dried flower and I made it with the dried flower.

Now, I am drying a yellow rose which I used once when I took the lesson of IKEBANA now.
I have only one rose, but I don't want to throw it away.

When I think like it... I mean, when I hesitate to throw something away because I might be able to use it, I always think it is "Mottainai".
Have you ever heard "Mottainai"?
It's Japanese language and I can't translate it into English correctly.
But the mind of "Mottainai" is important for us, I guess.
Please read "Wikipedia (about Mottainai)" if you have time(*^^*)

Do you remember?

I've been drying these flowers for 3 weeks.
Have you seen them??
Yeah, I used them for IKEBANA before and I'm drying them now because I want them to be "dried flower".

Luckily, they are best dried flower, so I didn't have to throw them away.
I am going to put dried flower in a small container or something.
And... I want to put it over our front door(*^^*)

Flowers!!

I went to a park that is near my house with my husband last Saturday.
There were a lot of flowers in the park!!
Yellow flowers are rape blossoms and pink ones are cherry blossoms.

I love spring!! Because I can see beautiful flowers.
I also like gardening, so I'm always busy during spring.
But it's OK because I always enjoy doing them, so I don't get tired easily.

Spring and my gardening are far from over!!

Scones I made (*^^*)

I baked scones with chocolate chips.
I had wanted to have scones since I wrote about afternoon tea.
I prefer them to bread... actually, I don't like bread.
Because bread sometimes contains a large amount of fat and sugar.
In contrast, scones are very simple. It's good for me.

But my husband doesn't like them. He always says "too powdered and I'm getting thirsty!!" when he has.
He may be senescent... hehe

Plum Blossoms

I went to see plum blossoms with my mother-in-law yesterday...not cherry blossoms.
Because the cherry blossoms don't bloom around my area yet.
The cherry blossoms usually bloom after plum blossoms.

Japanese people originally had enjoyed viewing the plum blossoms.
But now, "Hana-mi" means "to go to see(view) cherry blossoms".
Literal translation of "Hana" is "flower and blossom" and literal translation of "mi" is "see or view"　in this case.
That's why, "Hana-mi" doesn't originally mean "to go to see cherry blossoms", but "Hana-mi" reminds many Japanese people of "cherry blossom"




a plum tree with reddish pink blossoms








a plum tree with light shade of pink blossoms

a plum tree with white blossoms





Which one do you like? --- I like light pink one!!

Inari-zushi

I made INARI-ZUSHI for dinner last night.
It's a kind of SUSHI.
And according to my dictionary, it's a pouch of fried bean curd stuffed with vinegared rice.

I think it is a grab-and-go meal. I want to go to see the cherry blossoms with it and eat it under the tree when the cherry blossoms are really beautiful.

I can't wait!!

Wheatears

I went to my parents-in-law's house to take the lesson of IKEBANA on Friday.
I used 5 wheats and a subdued red freesia this time.
Sometimes we use a thing that is not flower as a main stuff.
It is not important that main is flower... The main is seasonal, it's very important for IKEBANA.

It will be time of the wheat harvest next month in Japan.
Well, do you think it is too early to use wheat?
Most Japanese people don't think so.
In fact, we always think "smart" and "refined" about it.