Moon Eclipse

November, 2021: We had a lunar eclipse at and around 6:03 pm on November 19. It was said that the moon would rise already in eclipse around 5 pm. I know many places near-by where we can see the west sky, because I chase the setting sun onto the top of Mt. Fuji, but I don't know the places open to the east sky. In the afternoon, therefore, I visited several places by the car to locate the ideal place. At 5 pm, however, the sky was covered with thick cloud and I was disappointed and have given up. At 5:40 I got out only to give up finally and saw some stars shining. I hastened Sue and began to drive to the destination. When we drove only 50 m, I saw the eclisped moon between roofs. I parked the car in haste and set the camera in the near-by park. At 5:55 this photo was taken. But at the height of the eclipse at 6:03, the cloud thickened and I couldn't take any better photos. But I could be satisfied by this photo.

11月19日の月蝕の写真が撮れました。

Water Mill

October, 2021: It was the season of cosmos flowers in Showa Memorial Park in Tachikawa. The wheel of the preserved water mill was turning slowly. This must have been a common scenary decades ago in the rural outskirts of Tokyo.

昭和記念公園の郷愁の風景です。

Century Plant in Japan

August, 2021: To our surprise, we saw a century plant flower stalk in Japan, actually in a garden of a resort house in Izu, near ours. Allegedly it flowers only once in a century. We have seen it in Caribbean and other southern countries, but never in Japan. The century Plant is a kind of Ryuzetu-ran in the Japanese language. It lives for decades, and towards the end of its life it grows the flower stalk 8-10 m tall and dies out, but a young plant grows at the same place.

Century Plantの花を伊豆の別荘地で見掛けたので驚きました。