Once upon a time, there was a slightly older female who moved to a new country, with her husband, to start a business. Things began slowly but steadily, and it looked like things were going in the right direction. Then, something very unexpected happened (very unexpected) – the world turned upside down and most of the countries closed their gates, so they could keep out anyone who didn’t live there. One country, in particular, decided to keep their gates closed, even while other countries started to slowly re-open their gates; a little at a time. Fast forward two and a half years, and the slightly older female, and her husband, were still waiting for their business to have the opportunity to restart. Such is life.

Summertime, and the living is mushi mushi (very humid). It seems that despite the fact the weather bureau said the rainy season had ended late last month, the weather gods weren’t listening. So the weather for the last few weeks has been mostly low to mid 30s and very humid, overcast and with rain falling on the majority of days. On those few sunny days it has been hot.

In anticipation of the hot humid weather, we bought a blow-up pool a while back, and it really has come into its own now – although, the rain has restricted its usage somewhat. While I knew it was at least two metres wide, I didn’t really think about how big that was and, in fact, it turns out it nearly fills up the open area of our small backyard. Also, we didn’t realise just how sloped the area was, so we have a shallow end and a deeper end. Still, having found my bathers and overcome the shock of putting them on again (after around six years), sitting (and lying) in our little pool has been most pleasant.

Apart from the relaxing moments in the pool, we have been quite busy looking after our new daughter and grandchildren. They are now just over three months old, and have become little creatures of chaos and destruction. On the day they turned 10 weeks old, Zara (aka Dora the explorer), decided it was time to find out what was on the other side of the dining room pass. She had seen mum go up and over and, as she has a way of doing, she studied the objective and worked out how it could be conquered.

The morning I discovered they were able to jump onto the table – a full roll of kitchen paper… What fun!

Once Zara had found the way, the other two (Buchi and Akashi) followed her lead and also made it to the counter. Given the floor on the other side is much lower than the dining room floor (and all other ground floor rooms), she then had to find a way down. At this point I decided that, in the interests of their safety and mindful of their determination, it was better if I made it easier for them. What this meant is that every time we went into the ‘big’ kitchen, we had to be careful when opening the door, walking around and making sure they didn’t get through the door into our area. We also realised that we had to clear all breakables and dangerous objects from benches, since they quickly learned how to jump up to higher places.

Of course, trying to keep them limited to the dining room and kitchen didn’t last long, because once they got this far Tahlia decided it was time they were more fully integrated into the family, ie meeting the other fur children and having access to our living area. It is quite obvious where the kittens get their determination from, and also obvious that we were essentially powerless to stop them. So now they are confined to the dining room/kitchen area at night (food is a great motivator), and then we let them into our area during the day – except when I am doing my exercise/ballet sessions. A grand battement to the head or body would not be good for any of them.

Buchi vs Zowie – even though Zowie is three times his size

Akashi and her lightning bolt tail!

Nothing is safe

Our beds are comfortable!!!

Other than having the agents of chaos and destruction in our area (Craig calls them the little terrorists), we were finally able to get Tahlia to the Vet to have her de-sexed, and we also took the little ones to have their second vaccination. Yes, many visits to the Vet and there are still more to come, as we will have to take the grandchildren to have their ‘special’ operations in a few weeks. While undertaking these long drives, I have amused myself by taking some photos out of the car window – there are some very interesting things to see when you really look.

Note the fluffy slip ons…

Keeping birds off your crops

Hairmake POLISH?

We haven’t been doing overly much in terms of going out, aside from shopping trips, simply because it has been raining a lot, and if it’s not raining, the sunny days have been very hot (walking puddle weather). We did visit our local temple (Chishakuin) to see the hydrangeas, however, because that is always worth the effort, and it’s close. This time we were there late in the day, so the light was nice and the hydrangea area was out of the sun.

The other main outing we had was last Friday evening, to see the Gion Matsuri festivities. It has been two years since the actual processions have been held, due to The Virus, so this year it is being celebrated to the full extent. The first of the two processions happens on the 17^th of July, and the second on the 24^th. On the three nights leading up to the processions, there is a huge multiple street party held, called yoiyama, where the whole central area of Kyoto is cordoned off to traffic, all the floats are parked out in the streets and there are many stalls set up on the streets selling float paraphernalia, food and alcohol – lots of alcohol.

Many thousands of people make their way to this area, with many dressed in traditional Japanese summer clothing – mainly yukata. We had never been to one of these nights, and since we hadn’t been out at night for months, when our friend down the road suggested we go on one of the nights, we said yes without hesitation. Friday night was the only night when there wasn’t likely to be much rain, so we chose that night.

We also decided to have dinner in town for a real treat, although it took three goes to find a place that was open and staying open until after 7pm. After dinner, out in the streets, it was extremely crowded, and most of the people were quite young. I don’t recall seeing many people over 40, except the police and security guards, who were in place to direct the flow of pedestrians in an orderly manner.

There were some clearly intoxicated young people – ok, quite a few – and we were only there till around 9pm. Rubbish stations were set up in the main food stall areas, which had people staffing them to ensure rubbish and recyclables went into the right bins, but I imagine the streets would have been quite messy at the end of the night! The first big party in over two years and they were clearly doing their utmost to enjoy it 😊.

Cheers for now

Motherhood

The floats were all covered in case of rain

Wildlife in our yard

View of Pan from the pool

This robot chased us around the supermarket

Herons staying cool in the river

This heron went back to its usual spot after the restaurant was knocked down and rebuilt!

Clouds of summer

Jewels of rain

Some of the many types of hydrangeas

Water Hyacinth – gorgeous