At a much later date: 8/17/17

This was my first blog and since 2012 I had to start a second blog because I was informed I had too much info in this first blog.

Well, I printed out the first blog into books. I added in particular quotes to "end" the first blog, which you can see following this message.

Here's the link to my blog from 2012 till now.
For you and me! to enjoy!!

http://thiataka.blogspot.com/

Some of my favorite saved quotes

 

Look for my new blog... but one last entry here "for the road" WHEN WE WERE IN MONTANA

Okay, I have reached my limit~ This blog update is the last "memory" left to add to it. 

I am deciding to leave this~ to let this blog "Life in Thia's Worlds" be as is

(I I was told I couldn't add anything more here)

I will begin a new blog titled 

"Life in Thia's World part II"

http://thiataka.blogspot.com/

I will start Part 2 with more lovely photos 

from this Montana trip to Mom and Frank's this summer.

Mom and Frank have two of their own horses at home, but the horses haven't been ridden for a while. 

The first day in Montana a woman named Katie was over to shoe the horses. 

It was so cool to watch her at work. 

She also is a chiropractor~ especially helping people learn how to work their bodies, 

and not hurt their backs while doing this sort of work.

I loved watching her with her tools, and how she managed, and cared for the horses along with her dogs around. She's a teacher of this trade, and she told me she's written books about this work as well.

Wild life in Montana~ this little snake ended up sliding down that hole there! It was full of something it ate- you can see in the middle of it's body! S/he hung out there for quite a while- digesting~ in the sun.

We went hiking one day~ and driving to this place called Crazy Lady. Mom told me it was where a woman's family were all killed by Native Americans, leaving her behind.  

When she got home she went crazy on the Native Americans. They took her in and she ended up staying with them. At this location, here~

We hiked with Rosco too... and where the falls were so beautiful. We kept wanting to follow it further down, further along around the next turns. (See Zen's little big body at the bottom of that fall?)

Mom:

...and we got our feet into the cold, COLD water!

Zen and sis! Sheon-chan!

Mom and kids! pooped!

Zen's kind of tired of my photographing them

One day we skyped with Ischin in Japan~ the next day with Naomi too!!

That was a week long with Mom and Frank, and Rosco. 

One of the best trips we ever had (except for not being able to have Ischin and Naomi there too).

Kind of life changing. 

This week was a time I had hoped would start a positive new phase in our lives.

And now, two weeks later, I

 can say that our lives really are on a higher and more positive new course.

August in Santa Cruz

I planted zucchini back in May~ here are some of the first ones. 

The three colors are from one packet of seeds. Pretty, huh?

Last Autumn I planted GOBO- burdock- and they grew a little then died.

But they came back this past spring and look at them now!

 They are so hard to dig out, even though our soil is sandy. I dug down almost a foot...

 but still it broke off, I couldn't get deep enough. It wouldn't let go.

  Burdock- sometimes we buy it at health food stores. When I go through the checkout sometimes people ask me what I do with it. I tell them we use it in either MISO soup or in a Japanese dish called KINPIRA GOBO which is slivered as we do for miso soup, but after it's soaked in water for 10 minutes or so, it's drained then sauteed with slivered carrots and sliced red pepper in MIRIN, SHOYU (soy sauce) and SAKE.

When making miso soup, we boil gobo for 7 minutes or so before adding the other ingredients.

 Often we like to have DAIKON in it too (I'm growing some daikon, but was late starting it so...the homegrown daikon won't be ready until...winter?)

This pot of miso soup I made I used sliced onions, and that then boiled with the burdock for another 4 or 5 minutes? Last, I added tofu and then wakame. Not needing to boil those.

The MITSUBA! It grows SO easily here!!! I grew a small pot to put on our kitchen window sill.
That is the garnish we add to the soup when serving it~ 2 or 3 or 4 leaves, cut up or not.

I dissolve the miso into the soup last, as I watched my Japanese mother-in-law do for the ten+ years we lived together. With a ladle and HASHI- chopsticks to dissolve it.
DO NOT BOIL the miso soup.

Sorry- I didn't take a finished photo of the soup to be served~ maybe I can get one in here another day!

But out in our gardens, the MITSUBA (which means "three leaves") it grows amazingly well. I keep trying to give plants of it away. But I don't know what else to use it for. When we don't have mitsuba to put on our miso soup, we use thinly sliced green onions.

Sheon-chan's been here since Valentine's Day. Sometimes Taka's so fortunate and gets one of her bentos for his lunch!

It's funny to see displays like this in markets. 

And some of the "Japanese" foods like"EDAMAME SOUP!" 

And THEN, this is the second time I got to see one of these seals on a car here in California. I wondered where the driver got it. I missed the chance to catch the first driver I saw with it, but this time I caught up with this guy~ who was all speedy and at a stop light I pulled up next to him to ask him where he got it.

He said at some car races! He doesn't know what it means, just he thinks "driver". I didn't have time to tell him anything else since the light changed and he turned left, we turned right. I do wish seals like this were used here in the States, it'd really help new drivers and the elderly.

That's all for today! We're off to Montana tomorrow for a week. How will my garden grow while I'm away?!