Snippets

In between the rain:

an afternoon at Nakajima koen

 

An example of how they "prune" trees here... they just lop off the top?

 

Enjoying the times I get to spend with Elisabeth and her chunky thighs and crazy antics.

 

A quick walk before the rain to seishin park on Elisabeth's FIRST birthday. 

 

What becomes of the cherry trees. No cherries!

 

Always making me laugh with her silly expressions. :) 

Gotta love those teeth!

I'd share photos of Elisabeth's little birthday party downstairs (what a debacle baking cakes were! Ack!), but they're on Kevin's phone... yeah, too busy to take "real" photos. Either way, it was a lovely little party with some of our neighbors and we had pizza, chips and cake. :)

So nice that they wanted to celebrate with us. :)

Seishin and Tenjin

After my dad left for Finland, we spent time doing the things I've mentioned in the last two posts of Yurigahara koen (work and plan). 

We had a heat wave pass through, which was amazing and horrible at the same time (lol). 

The lilacs and wisteria began to fade, the dandelions were puffballs and everywhere was covered in willow.

Beautiful to watch it fall from the trees like snow. Hard to capture though!

Seishin riverside park has really grown in and become so lush!

 

After Seishin, we decided to eat lunch at Tenjin-yama koen. Another favorite park. 

The red maple and the orange and red rhododendrons are so intense it's hard to even describe. Or take photos of!

Elisabeth entertained us as we ate. :)

 

...and then she fell asleep and we meandered around the park looking for quiet spots to shit and chat and give her a chance to snooze in peace... harder said than done!

We went and explored a quiet shrine tucked away in a corner of Tenjin-yama. 

The road was lined with blooming lily of valley. 

 

Also, this little variety of iris. 

 

I love how she was sleeping...

The little prayers at the shrine.

 

We sure ended up missing that weather! (it was followed by about 10days of rain!) ick.

Yurigahara koen

Hello? 

Is anyone there?

I have pictures to share! 

Sorry it's been a while....... a long while. We are now in our last week and after an unintentional hiatus from blogging, I feel the urge to share the backlog of photos! We have been busy cramming in the last things with my dad, busy with lab work (Kevin anyway), busy with planning a business (yeah, I'm nuts I know), and cursing the never ending rain! Argh! Seriously, enough already with the rain!!

So here's a glimpse of the past... It's a picture heavy post and I'm just gonna split this into parts, ok? :)

I feel generic using the same line but sue me ;)

 

The rest of Yurigahara koen. 

Before we even ventured to find the muscari walk, we stopped to eat lunch. My dad bought a whole fish from the supermarket near the subway station. :D We ate under a patch of blooming wisteria. Beautiful! 

After the wisteria, we found muscari walk. 

Then when we left that slice of heaven, we just meandered and found the flower shop and some gardens. 

These hanging baskets outside the flower shop were some of the most amazing I've ever seen!

Tulips and pansies. 

You see why this place was heaven for me, right?!

 

There was a conservatory/greenhouse but we opted to skip it and instead we just got a coffee and ice cream from the vending machine in the front. 

We passed this tree, the rose walk (no blooms) and found the lilac collection. 

 

My dad and I were impressed by this tree.

 

Then we walked through this little herb garden into the heather garden and rock garden. 

 

I'm afraid to say, this is it for yurigahara koen pictures. For now. The place was gorgeous, so excited to go again tomorrow! 

I'll leave you with a picture from the fountain at another corner of the park (which was paid entry of about $1.50), the world garden. (also really cool).