Entry 13 : Memory

Knitted blue beret to New Zealand

Knitted blue beret for me

Fresh from the needles

Sending it to New Zealand

I'm prompt to write seeing how beautiful the date is today. 22 Feb. 2022 or 22-2-22. Isn't it beautiful? There won't be another date like this anymore. So, it's best to write about it.

So, today is a special date for loving couples and best friends. 

After I've completed knitting a blue beret, I put it on during a lunch occasion with the family. Of course, I posted some of the scenes on Facebook. It caught the eyes of a friend in New Zealand. She likes it in blue and so I knit the same pattern and sent it to her. 

We were neighbours back in 1993, (31 years ago). The family went together when my husband got transferred to Wales. I remembered, her daughter, knocked on our door every morning to walk with my two girls to school. I've made many good friends with other people in the neighbourhood but Sally and her family were closest to us. 

After Wales, my husband work got him transferred to Malaysia, Sally's family made a big move by going to the north island of New Zealand. 

We still keep in touch, almost every day now. We've entered our senior years. My only wish (I'm sure hers too), is to meet again while still able to move about. 

Good friends are never forgotten. Any attempt at meeting again only shows (without words) the bonding of comfort and love.

Haiku

Her blue eyes sparkle

deepened by the blue beret

field of daffodils.

 

Entry 12 : Neighbour

 We've two papaya trees (at the moment of writing), one in our courtyard and the other on my father-in-law's front gate. The image of this papaya is the one taken by my father-in-law front gate. 

This tree has grown too high for us to reach for its fruits. We have to stop this tree from producing more fruits, so we've to cut off the leaves, leaving the fruits to mature on their own. When the fruits are ripe, we pick all of them and cut off the branch to a reachable level.

My neighbour saw our effort and volunteer to help with the tree cutting. This neighbour resides in front of our house, with rows of three other residence building. Then we've next door neighbour on the left and right of the house. There is a large stream behind our house, which has been converted into a large cemented drain and beyond that is a house by the rear. This means our house is surrounded by residential building in every direction we look. That sound daunting, more to unnerving.

The thing is if we want our neigbour peace-loving, cooperative, helpful to us, then we have to be just the same to them. Our house has the most trees and plants in this cul-de-sac. We make sure that the leaves from our plants do not drop or fly over our neighbour's plot. They have pets. But, I don't hear their dogs making irritating barkings. We've proper parking spaces. I see our neigbours have friends dropping by sometimes but there has never been any parking intrution. We all do our part to make sure our neighbour have peace of mind and vis-a-vis. 

Things we should do for our neighbour and they to us.

Keep noise down.

Proper pet-control.

House guests do not impose on neighbours parking space. 

Respect boundary/fence/wall-do not grown plants on common fence, do not place flower pot on top of common wall, make sure the leaves of your house place do not flood the negibour's plot. 

When staying on multi-storey apartment, to make sure the laundry do not drip below, do not flood the common walking corridor when watering potted plants. 

I suppose these are basic manners we expect from our neighbours, friendly environment and peace of mind.

Haiku

My papaya tree

too high for my hands to reach

looking up drooling.

Entry 11 : Lunar New Year. Tiger 2022

End Jan 2022/Feb 2022

End Jan 2022/Feb 2022

Feb 2021

Feb 2021

Our sakura tree doesn't bloom abundantly this year. It looks poorly and pitiful. This must be due to the cutting my houseman made on one fork of its main branch. We saw white ants gnawing on that particular fork. Digging deeper into the branch, we saw the inside was just dry dust. It was eaten away internally. If we let it be, the white ants would have taken over the other fork as well. It has to go. This year, left with just one side, the tree seems to struggle into blooming, forcing itself to follow the flow of the season. Anyway, the top 2 images show how hard it struggles this year.

One particular characteristic of the sakura bloom in Okinawa is that it always coincides with the Chinese Lunar New Year. This means whenever the sakura blooms in Okinawa, it opens the spring season for the Chinese people. 

There is no public holiday in Japan for the Lunar New Year even as there exist fishermen villages and communities that depend on the sea for their livelihood. The community of the fishing villages on the southern part of the main Okinawa island celebrate Lunar New Year or they called it 旧正月 or Kyu shogatsu. This makes me believe that Lunar New Year is a cultural event rather than a religious ceremony. The fisherman community here base their daily sea activity on the cycle of the moon, in fact, most calendars printed in Okinawa jot down the cycle of the new moon and full moon.

In another 10 days, our sakura blooms will wrinkle and fall off its branches. If you want to know about the cherry or sakura blossom in Okinawa, this link should be good for light reading.

Here's wishing friends who celebrate the Lunar New Year. Hoping the symbolic strength of the Tiger will win over the coronavirus and return back our travelling freedom again.

Haiku

On Lunar New Year

Tiger and Omicron War

Long fight of two years.