plants

Shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day

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Today, the 17th of March is St. Patrick’s Day. Saint Patrick was the foremost patron saint of Ireland and his death on this date is traditionally a festival day for the Irish community.

The famous symbol of Ireland is a Shamrock so lots of people wear something green on them. I have seen places where people even coloured the river green for this day (which I’m a little against the idea). However, do you really know what a shamrock looks like? I made two types of Japanese sweets for this St. Patrick’s Day that look quite similar but slightly different. So, tell me which one you think is a Shamrock.

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Visiting RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016

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Chelsea Mathematics

It was ‘RHS Chelsea Flower Show’ week last week. It is the biggest Flower show on earth and people from all over the world exhibit their design and display. I am not a member of RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) but love to go there whenever it is available. Although I was not expecting that would happen to me this year, I got a ticket accidentally so I went to view beautiful gardens.

Chelsea Shop BMy Chelsea viewing starts as soon as I come out from the tube station. The nearest station to the show is Sloan Square which leads to King’s Road with lots of clothes shops. During the Flower Show period many shops around there use flowers as a part of their window display. I always wander around there before walking towards the show.

Chelsea shop A

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Growing Peanuts

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I am a bit annoyed that although it is the middle of November, I am still writing some posts about my stay in Japan in October. I really should hurry up! I try to post something I encountered in Japan that does not occur to me in England. And this was one of those things.

I like gardening and I particularly like growing something edible. I have tried planting various things and some become successful and some are completely failure. As I mentioned before I learnt that Okra/Ladys’ Finger is the biggest No-no plant in London and another I gave up even before trying is this plant.

Peanuts plant

This plant was in my mother’s garden. I was looking forward to being there when they harvest it. Do you know what this plant is?

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The End of Summer and Okra

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Okra6

I am in Japan now. Because of some technical issue (I don’t mean Japan is technically behind though) I have not been able to post as often as I would want to do.

“Autumnal Equinox Day (秋分の日)”

The 23rd of September was our national holiday “Autumnal Equinox Day (秋分の日)”. After this day the length of the daytime gets shorter than the nighttime day by day so this was officially the end of summer.

Still it is quite hot and humid here. The daytime temperature now is just below 30°C so it is almost the same as the hottest summer day in London.

In the garden Okra is still flowering and we can harvest some. Okra is one of the vegetables I wanted to grow in London and gave up after trying for a few years. It does sprout and gets cotyledons – the first leaves but … never reaches to the point having true leaves. So, I am happy to see the plant growing here. It’s been a bit late but some Peanuts plants are also growing in the garden here. I am looking forward to harvesting home-grown Peanuts sometime soon.

One Afternoon

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Sunbathing Clover

Sunbathing Clover

Day 9 on ‘Photo101’ – Warmth & Quality of Light

This photo is one of many shots I took originally for the theme ‘Big’ by hoping to capture the size of Big building behind and a tiny clover flower as the foreground. The Flare of the Sun came in nicely so I decided to select this for the theme ‘Warmth’. Can you feel the Warmth?