Enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of first-time parenthood. Progress on the vegetable garden and other ramblings of a gaijin in Japan’s least populous prefecture.
Over the New Year we visited the nearby Kiyomizu Temple. Recently rebuilt, it not as impressive as the one in Kyoto (of the same name), but we came for a different reason, as did hordes of other people. I only got rough idea of the history and have since forgotten most of that. Over 1200 years ago some holy lightning appeared above a mountain. A temple was built at the site to venerate the god(dess) of mercy; bodhisattva Kannon. During the Edo period the temple was enlarged under Lord Matsudaira. There has been a history of fires, hence the reconstruction. It forms part of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.
I thought I would be uploading a photo of a pristine snowfall taken from an upstairs window. I must have been awakened a dozen times as a slab of snow slid off the roof and landed with a weighty thud on the veranda. Returning back with some milk, Kento bore the brunt of an earlier flurry. Sitting behind the handlebars on the bike, he got most of it in the face as I peddled hell for leather with my own kind of snow blindness. The milk was soon put to use, and he was soon jigging about like Michael Flatley cum Stevie Wonder spinning out mudrās.
By the time I lumbered out of bed this morning there wasn’t much left outside but a wet mess. It is still cold.
I meant to post this the middle of December. The current garden developments only add support. Reading through last years notes the brassicas seem to be about six weeks behind. I think the hakusai are of a different variety as they have bristly trichomes along the veins and seem to be squatter in shape. The latter could be a difference in the weather my wife suggested.
In my idleness, putting off erecting netting for the peas has turned out a good call. Only about a fifth of one variety has made an appearance. I guess being laidback doesn’t always work; I should have got them sown earlier after giving them a longer soak.
On the upside, the garlic, onions, carrots and beetroot look strong. The spinach has been a success as has the mizuna, the potatoes given up for lost, came good in time for Christmas.
I hope I’m not jumping the gun.
The last couple of months have been far from the pick of the year. Perhaps the icing on the cake was the latest laptop misfortune, hence the lack of posts.
Some black vertical lines appeared on my screen whilst knocking up some New Year cards. Having rebooted the best I could get was the BSoD. After a few exchanges with Dell, the best they could come up with was a repair in their factory - fit a quickly superseded graphics card. For which I would have to pay dearly for, in both cases, and they would also not be liable for any damage caused etc.
Although difficult in Japan, I eventually found someone with a separate screen to test the output. Despite concerns about the motherboard, I pushed them to sell me a graphics card since you can’t buy them elsewhere, but to no avail.
Well there is always eBay. For a quarter of the price (again) I got the newer card I was after. It has two heat pipes and is currently running with the fans off, about 15 °C lower than the old Go 7800 with the fans on high. While I was shopping I got some thermal grease for the CPU, probably do the card as well when it gets de-furred before the summer. That will be the overheating test.
