実りの秋です。

ご近所あちこちから頂いたりんご(傷で出荷できないものなど)を、ここのところ、朝晩と食べています。いま一番多いのは、秋映という、濃い赤のりんご。

庭のいちじくの木には、固い実が沢山ついたままだったのが、最近の異常なほどの暖かなお天気で、どんどんそれも熟してきました。果肉は血のように真っ赤ですが、皮は渋い赤紫。

 

いちじく - 1
いちじく これはシナモンのような香りがします 庭に生えているいちじくの木の中で、一番おいしい

 

野菜
庭の野菜 母が収穫後、洗って置いてあったもの 梅干し用のカゴもこんなところで活躍

 

Before the birth of our son, my husband and I moved to Nagano Prefecture: a homecoming for me; a new experience for him.

He had spent much of his life in or near large cities. In the Japanese countryside surrounding Nagano things were different. All the usual signposts by which one knows where one is and what is happening around one in the city were lost to him. Adjustment was required, and it proved slow in coming.

While he had been able to sleep with the sound of city street traffic, he found it impossible to sleep well in summer with the din made by rice paddy frogs in the thousands just outside our bedroom window. While he knew well which way a certain street was oriented in relation to his house or apartment, he had no idea where  the north side of our house was, and living where we do we give direction by compass point. In our garden, he could not tell a soybean plant from a potato, and other common plants and flowers were beyond him his experience as well. Even recognizing ambient sounds was a challenge to him. In the city, he would never mistake the sound of a cooing pigeon for a hammer banging, but here he once asked me if my father was using an electric grinder, when the noise he had heard had come from a large frog.

It took some time, and not a little effort, to learn as much as he has now, but learn he did. Now, he can tell without the aid of a clock or seeing daylight from outside, that it is time to get out of bed and start a fire each morning. He does this, he said, because he noticed that at this time of year crows begin to caw around 5:30am, so still a little early to stir, but that by just before 6:00am other, smaller birds begin to chirp, and a fire must be made, so that by the time my son and I wake up it will be warm in our main room and kitchen.

There are so many clues in Nature all around us that told our ancestors when to plant, when to harvest, when it was going to rain, whether the coming winter would be severe or mild, . . .so much information hidden from city dwellers by walls within which they live and work. I sometimes wonder whether the trade offs made necessary by living in more “convenient” cities are worth it. What do you think?

 

そういえば、夫が、「時計をみなくても、朝になると今何時頃なのかがわかる」と言っていました。

鳥の声でわかるのだそうです。5時半ごろにカラスが鳴きはじめ、6時になるとピピピという賑やかな小鳥の声が聞こえるとのこと。その小鳥の鳴き声を6時になった合図に、ストーブに火を入れるのです。私と息子が起きてきた頃には、部屋はもうあたたかくなっています。

長野に来たばかりの頃は、東西南北の方向も、カエルの鳴き声とグラインダー(金属などを削る機械)の音も聞き分けがつかなかったのに、随分と田舎に馴染んだなあ、とちょっと感心しました。ちなみに、狐も鳴き方でオスかメスかも分かるんですよ、、と言っても、私も近年はじめて知ったところなのですが。

長野に住んでいると、皆が田畑を耕して生きていた時代は特に、自然の現象から、生きて行くために必要な情報を読み取って生きていたのだなあ、ということを改めて思います。

 

ケープ用に裁断したところ
ケープ用に裁断したところ イタリア製ウールカシミアの生地  ただ今製作中です