lydamorehouse: (ticked off Ichigo)
white lilac for Midwestern hanami
Image: white lilac

I'm at least always reminded on a Wednesday that maybe I should go on over to DW and at least drop a line about what I've been reading. As has become typical of me, I will also attempt to catch you up on the rest of my life. But first, since it's probably the least interesting, I'll start with my reading.

This has been a banger week for me.

I finished Nghi Vo's The Chosen & The Beautiful, which I probably would have appreciated more if I were a fan of The Great Gatsby, which I am not. I didn't hate Vo's book, however? I liked the magic far better than any of the people, but I'm pretty sure, given what I know about The Great Gatsby, that was likely by design. Then, I have been absolutely CRANKING through The Singing Hills Cycle, which is Nghi Vo's loosely connected series of novellas about the wandering scholar-priest Chih, whom I adore. This week I listened to The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, and Into the Riverlands. I have Mammoths at the Gates queued up and ready to listen to! I don't even know how to explain how awesome these novellas are, but if you are at all a fan of C-Dramas I guarantee you will *love* these. I could not be happier to see that another in this series is up for a Hugo this year. Thank all the gods my friend [personal profile] naomikritzer is up in a different catagory or I'd have a real connundrum on my hands.

Also, because there was a day when I could not get the next Singing Hills novella, I listened to Remote Control. another novella, this one by Nnedi Okorafor. I have to say? These two hour audio versions of stories are amazing--like popcorn for the brain! 

The rest of my week has been a lot. Much of it fun stuff, but a goodly chunk of it being preparation for heading East to watch Mason graduate from college. (I know! It doesn't seem possible to me, either!) To be fair, Shawn is doing most of the actual planning. But my job is often to do much of the fetching, as it were. Plus, with this crazy heat (it's been all the way up to 90 F / 32 C), I've been trying to keep the ground moist for my baby seedlings that are coming up in the boulevard garden. My bouelvard, like anywhere that I attempt to "grow" grass, is an absolute nightmare. I would be summarily kicked out of any gated community for my inability to keep grass of any sort alive. However, I am attempting to make up for that this year by having a stunning boulevard garden. So in amongst the perrenials, I dumped a literal ton of "butterfly garden" seeds. Things seem to be emerging? Of course, we are also poised to be out of town for a week and a half. So, I may come back to a lot of dead things. 

Which I guess also goes with the grass aesthetic, I guess. 

Sigh.

At any rate, the fun thing I did this week was spontaneously go on a "Midwestern hanami" with the above-mentioned Naomi. I have long told her how jealous I am that the Japanese actually make a holiday out of flower viewing (which is what hanami translates to--actually technically it's just "flower" and "to see.") In Japan, of course, what people go out to look at are cherry blossoms. We could do that here, but cherry blossoms bloom when it's still a bit "nippy," as we say here in Minnesota, plus there just aren't a ton of cherry trees to be had. Lilacs--even though lots of other things are in bloom--are really to the Midwest what cherry blossoms are to Japan. Like in Japan, lilacs are not native... but you wouldn't know it. Also, people plant them EVERYWHERE and when they bloom, you can smell them on the air. Just like in Japan, you can, if you know where to find them (and I do,) walk through a kind of tunnel of lilacs in bloom.


tunnel of lilacs
Image: On Summit Avenue, there exists a secret tunnel of lilacs two blocks long....

Naomi and I have long talked about doing a lilac hanami, so we finally did. On Tuesday, we set off to Summit Avenue just east of Lexington where exists a lovely, two-block long tunnel of lilacs. It was a perfect spot, actually. Public, but still a little private. 

A dork enjoy a picnic under the lilacs
Image: A silly otaku (me) enjoying a picnic under the lilacs.

We spent the time snacking on sushi and fantasing about a Minnesota where everyone has the week off when the lilacs come into bloom. We imagined all sorts of lilac "flavored" treats people could sell, including some "Minnesota State Fair"-inspired things like a corndog with lavender/lilac-colored mustard artistically droozled to look like a lilac. It could be a thing!

Minnesotas could all wander around with phones and camera out, trying to get the perfect quintessential lilac shot.

lilacs in a row

lilac close-up


lydamorehouse: (Default)
 cherry blossoms
Image: cherry blossoms at the MN Arboretum 

My friend [personal profile] naomikritzer and I were talking about things we would appropriate from other cultures the other day (mostly, we discussed how much better Jewish people do funerals,) and I brought up the idea of Hanami. What I like about the idea of Hanami is that people in Japan will often take time off work to just go look at flowers (specifically cherry blossoms, but if you read the Wikipedia article, you can see that it really applies to any flower.) We don't have anything like this in the US, possibly because there is no single flower that blooms everywhere in the US, since we're such a massive country. I feel like the closest we have to this kind of thing in the Midwest is leaf peeping in the fall. 

But, so Naomi and I decided to have a day of intentional flower viewing. We'd hoped that there would be enough flowering trees of some sort blooming at the Minnesota Arboretum, but, the cherry blossoms, had not entirely popped yet, alas. 

However, the tulips were in full bloom.

tulips
Image: so many tulips!

Naomi brought a picnic basket and had made us both a lovely chicken salad and so we wandered around the arboretum for a long time, checking out the tulip display and some of the other things that were in bloom. Yesterday was a very gorgeous day, with lots of sun (although it got quite warm, into the 80s F / 27 C.) 

This was my second time out at the MN Arboretum and, if you've never been, I have some advice for how best to appreciate it. My suggestion would be to go into the Welcome/Interpretive Center and get a map from the information desk. However, be warned, the maps and signage are fairly terrible. But, they always have a decent seasonal display very near the welcome center (again, ask for directions, because it's not self-evident how to get there--you need to go through the building, up the stairs/elevator, go to the right to get to the door, and once outside go left.) Near here is also the Japanese garden, which, ironically, had no cherry trees, but does have a koi pond.  I would, had I to do this again, wander these nearby gardens for awhile, and then hop back into the car and drive their "three mile road." The drive, which Naomi and I ended up doing at the end, will give you a good sense of what else there is to see in the arboretum. Then, you can decide where you might like to return to and/or hike to.  You can drive the loop as often as you like, so you could go around once just to see what there is to see and then drive it again and park at one of the official stops along the way and checkout whatever interests you. Had we done this first, Naomi and I probably would have stopped to admire the sculpture garden more, the Chinese garden, and the Rhododendron garden. As it was, we tried to walk the three mile walk (not difficult terrain and paved, but... it doesn't have great vantage points, and so) and ended up not seeing the Chinese garden from where we were.  

Anyway, that's my advice. Take it or leave it. If you are a seasoned hiker/walker the three-mile walk is really quite pleasant. I don't regret walking much of it, but I think if I go back I really want to check out the Bog Walk and some of the other less popular destinations. 

Pasqueflowers
Image: pasqueflowers
lydamorehouse: (ichigo hot)
 Kawazuzakura Blossoms in Minamizu, Izu Peninsula in Kamo District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Image: Kawazuzakura Blossoms in Minamiizu, (Izu Peninsula in Kamo District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan) along the Aono River.

Obviously, I did a HeyGo last night. Eriko (and her ever-present mom) are doing a trip around Japan to follow the cherry blossoms as they open. Last night (or rather, their morning,) Eriko and her mom were in Minamiizu town, which is fairly far south (see Wikipedia map, below). Apparently, the blossoms that are open now are a very specific type, Kawazuzakura (that last part sakura, simply means cherry blossom, the 's' changes to a 'z' sound in combination, sometimes,) that were developed in that region. The link takes you to a beginner's guide to all the different kinds of cherry blossoms, but if you scroll down to early blossoming trees, it is the second one listed. 

map showing location of Minamiizu
Image: Minamiizu on the map of Japan. Yoinked from Wikipedia.

Erika is always a good tour guide. Her signal was only pixelated at one point, and, while I was a bit frustrated, I said to Shawn, "When you consider that this is happening, live, right now, halfway around the world, this is actually pretty amazing." And, really, the blip only lasted for a few minutes, tops. I will admit that, since this happened over dinner time, I did not listen to all of Erika's patter. I watched on my iPad and propped it up so Shawn could watch, too. 

In my opinion, the thing that is lovelist about the Hanami (a celebration that translates literally as "flower look") is that really, this is the point of it. To spend time sitting under a cherry tree and just look at it. People bring picnics, of course, and those can become a BIG (commercial) deal, as witnessed by this cherry themed BEER that Erika showed off--

Cherry flavored beer? I hope not, probably just decorated for Hanami
Image: Cherry flavored beer? I hope not, probably just decorated for Hanami

--But, the whole point of it is to slow down, take a breath, sit under a tree and ADMIRE it.

Do we have holidays like that in the US? Possibly the closest we get is Thanksgiving, which, in its purest form, is a holiday about eating something yummy, but there's a bunch of other weird colonial stuff attached to it that makes it less... I dunno, just about something SIMPLE, like admiring nature. 

close-up on blossoms
Image: blossom close-up

Aono River with cherry trees
Image: Aono river with cherry trees in bloom

Anyway, with piles of snow coming down today, seeing cherry trees in bloom has been a lovely treat. 

The only thing that kind of amuses me is that Erika was explaining at one point that the plumes of white smoke we were seeing from the far bank were from sentos (hot springs,) and I suddenly wondered... does most of rural Japan smell like Yellowstone? Which is to say, like a fart?

Apparently, I am not the first to google this because the quick answer seems to be "yes, but it's a light scent." So, maybe not so surprisingly strong like in Yellowstone. I just remember when we went to Yellowstone this was the thing that NO ONE had mentioned. That the entire town of Coby and all of the park smelled like a rotten egg. I mean, it doesn't diminish the beauty? But, it was a detail I was NOT expecting, you know?

At any rate, happy Tuesday to you all. 

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