Only a Blockhead

Plum

From 2008

In the frost and cold of January, it's a surprise to see plum buds swelling on the branches. Although still a matter of faith, it’s a promise that winter is finite.

In February if the bitter wind blows a certain way, you catch a sudden sweet scent. Looking up you see, above a garden fence, a gnarled branch covered with the first pink plum blossom.

Then the first buds of white plum open, and as February turns to March the days warm, and by degrees there is blossom everywhere in gardens, parks and orchards. When you know you have weeks to enjoy it, there's none of the urgency of celebration that cherry blossoms bring. (Plus it’s mostly too cold to be picnicking under trees.) Plum is an austere, sparser, cooler beauty and no less a pleasure for that.

Plum blossom, gently scented: delicate points of white on bare branches.

Winter cedes to spring: Beside the bare trees and fallow paddies, orchards (oceans) of plum flowers.

--Julian

Haiku gold!

From 2010

Oh, boy! Full moon AND plum blossom AND snow on the same day? Haiku gold!

 

        Full moon

        Plum flowers, white, red, gently scented

        Capp’d by frozen flakes of snow!

--Julian

In February

At a wayside inn on a winter’s eve,

Warm sake and shared memories

 

Exquisite beauty:

A sliver of moon

On a winter night

 

The morning after the blizzard,

White on white:

Plum flowers frosted with snow

The generosity of hot coffee

on a freezing morning:

warming hands, stomach, heart.

 

--Julian

Sunday

Looking back over 10 years of Only A Blockhead

(photo: M)

Sunday was warm and sunny and we made our way down the coast. On Zushi beach, the locals were enjoying a slow afternoon, picnicking, reading, playing badminton, jogging, walking the dog. We cycled along the water’s edge, weaving around the resting windsurfers and fishing rods. As the sun set, a small crowd coalesced on the sand to witness the colors of the sea and sky. Afterwards, we beat back up the coast in the darkness, past the Enoshima lighthouse sending its beam sweeping across the surface of the black sea.

--Julian

In Sangenjaya

—David

A whiter shade of pale

The pale pink somei yoshino cherry blossoms in the Shonan area will be at their best this coming weekend, unfortunately coinciding with a forecast of rain.

I rode around yesterday, beginning at Chigasaki Southern Beach. The Eboshi Iwa rock, symbol of our town, is the blip on the horizon. That’s a road atlas tucked in my pannier.

From Route 134, Fuji was a ghost in the haze above the Shonandaira Highland.

Turtles basked in the Kanamegawa River near Hiratsuka.

In the afternoon, I found a few trees coming into bloom under the monorail beyond Fujisawa.

And up an alleyway at the foot of Kamakurayama, one tree of another cherry species in full flower; a whiter shade of pale.

--Julian

Winter sunset from Zushi beach

Mount Fuji with Enoshima island in the foreground. (And paddle boarders in the ffground.) The camera tilt betrays the Chigasaki-brewed One on One (by Barbaric Works, their best IPA yet) consumed at yesterday’s vegetarian chili cook-off at nearby Beach Muffin.

--Julian

Winter coat

Across the frozen fields

Fuji in winter garb

under a blue sky

--Julian

Untitled

 

- NC Tate

September 15th

--Julian