ゆ・ゆ・ゆ・ゆ暮らし

そろそろお正月用の柚子かわなきゃなーと思ってたら、 思わぬところで、手に入りました Yesterday, I thought that I'd have to buy Yuzu for New Year's dishes. 主人と歩いていたら、不動産屋さんの前に何やら段ボール箱が。  When I walked to the station with my husband this morning,  we noticed that several boxes were lined up in front of a real estate office. のぞいてみると、中にはたくさんの柚子！ 手書きの１個30円って札がたってます。  There were many Yuzu in one of them, and a sign said "30 yen for each".  I put three Yuzu in a plastic bag and entered the office. さっそく袋に3っつ入れて不動産屋さんの中に入ると、 優しそうなおばさんが、 「4個で100円はどう？」って。 （たぶん10円おつり出すの面倒だったのかも　笑） A smiling old woman asked us, "How about 100 yen for four?" もちろん　喜んでもうひとつ柚子を袋にいれました。  I gladly added one more Yuzu into the bag and paid 100 yen.  100円払ったら、 隣の箱からウコンを一つ取り出して、 「あげるから、食べてみて！」 といって、くださいました。 She also gave us turmeric for free. 小さな出来事だけど、なんかほっこり♡  

結婚以来35年間、毎年クリスマスディナーを作ってきましたが、 今年は次男が作ってくれました。 最近フランス料理にはまっているらしく、 ややこしい名前の料理が食卓にのぼります。 クリスマスディナーのメインは、ビーフウェリントン。 牛肉を、マッシュルームを炒めた シャンピニオンなんとかっていうソースと一緒に パイ生地で包んでオーブンで焼き上げる料理です。 付け合わせは、カブのローストと、 玉ねぎを赤ワインで煮詰めたなんちゃらソース。 （全部カタカナで名前おぼえられない……） デザートは、ポム・オ・ポー。 焼きリンゴの中に、ピスタチオとバナナチップとバターと砂糖を 詰めて、オーブンで焼いて、 熱々のところに、アイスを乗せて、シナモンパウダーをふりかけて いただきました。 どれもびっくりするぐらい　本格的なお味！ YouTube動画だけ見て作ったなんて、 わが子ながら、すごすぎる～ Since I got married 35 years ago, I cooked Christmas dinners every year.  My regular menu is grilled chickens, mashed potatoes, salad,  and chiffon cake with strawberries.  However, I made only salad this year.  Recently, my younger son has come to take an interest in cooking complex dishes.  He cooked the Christmas dinner this year.  The menu was Beef Wellington for the main dish  and baked apples with some special stuffing for dessert.  Both were really tasty!  I was very impressed by his cooking skills  because he learned everything from YouTube videos.  

クリスマスの飾りつけをしてて、なんかグリーン系の絵を飾りたいなぁと思って アルコールインクで作ってみました。 ＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊ When I decorated our room for Christmas with many ornaments and pictures,  I thought  another greenish picture on the wall would be nice. クリスマスっぽい絵をプリントアウトして、  I asked my husband to print out a silhouette of trees and a deer.  白のポスカで、プラバンにトレースして、 I traced it with a white pen on a sanded shrink plastic sheet.  プラバンの裏面をアルコールインクで色付けしました。 Then I colored its backside with alcohol ink.  After drying it, I applied varnish on  both sides.  表から見ると、いい感じにクリスマスっぽくなりました♡ Lastly, I added gold dots on the top surface. 額に入れて、壁にかけたら 立派なアート作品ぽくなって、大満足！ My husband framed and hung it on the wall.  I was quite happy with the result.  

Last Wednesday my husband and I visited my aunt,  who is 90 years old and lives alone.  I brought her some curry for dinner.  We chatted with her for about one hour and left. On the way back home, we had tea at a Chinese tea house  that my husband had found on the internet.  The tea was very tasty, and the owner was very kind.  She treated us to homemade apple pie.  She was Chinese, and I was glad to have a chance to talk in Chinese.  We were so happy to find such a nice place near my aunt's house.  

I found a glimpse of autumn on a wall when I took a walk in my neighborhood.  Look! How marvellous they are!  An artist would have to work hard to express  these leaves' beautiful color combination and gradation just as they are.  Still, these precious art pieces were dangling casually on the wall.  Praise the Lord!  

稲毛市民ギャラリーに はじめて行ってきました。 I visited Chiba Simin gallery with my husband for the first time.   There was Denbei Kanaya Inage villa next to the gallery.     ギャラリーの隣は　ワイン王として有名な　 金谷善伝衛さんの別荘が　ありました。 築104年のモダンな 西洋建築。 Mr. Kanaya was a famous businessman in the Meiji era.  内装は 純日本家屋のたたずまいもあって 素敵です♡ Inside of 104-year-old villa, there are Europian-style  architecture,  yet also had traditional Japanese taste here and there.  特に圧巻だったのは 欄間の見事な 葡萄の透かし彫り！ I was especially amazed by the fine detail of grapes cavings  on the second floor.  こんな素敵な建物が 身近に残ってるのは 嬉しいですね。 It was good to know that such a beautiful villa  still remains in our area.  

The other day, I visited my mom with my family  and made a bonfire in her backyard again.  This time, I brought an old small iron table  to adjust the height of the place where I put branches.  I asked my husband to take off a wooden top table  and place the table on some blocks.  I also used a part of an old laundry stand to hold a hot plate.  I wrapped salmon and some vegetables with aluminum foil.  I placed salmon, mushrooms, and eggplants on the hotplate  and put others directly into the fire.  Everything tasted very well.  We really enjoyed it.  

今月90歳になった叔母の家を、主人と一緒に訪ねました My aunt turned 90 years old on the 4th of November,  so my husband and I visited her after church last Sunday.  途中でステキなお花屋さんで、花束を作ってもらいました。 We stopped at a flower shop on the way.  It was a beautiful British-style house and the owner was very kind. お花たちが、普通のお花屋さんのような冷蔵のショーケースに入ってなくて、 全部お部屋に出ているたので、ちょっとびっくり。 この方が温度差がなくて、お花たちにとっては ストレスが少なくていいのだそうです。 とっても優しい感じのオーナーさんでした。 She kept all the flowers in the room that way it is better for the flowers いろいろ珍しいお花がありました。 予算3000円で、すてきな花束を作ってくださいました。 高齢の叔母があまり水を変えなくてもいいように 長持ちするお花を選んでもらいました。 フラワーアレンジメントのお教室もされてて、 そこの撮影コーナーで写真まで撮らせてもらっちゃいました♡  We ordered a 3000-yen bouquet of long-lasting flowers. 前の晩に焼いたレモンシフォンケーキにロウソク立てて、 ♪ハッピーバースディー♪を歌ってお祝いしました♡ When I presented the bouquet to her, my aunt was very surprised and pleased.  We put candles on my handmade chiffon cake  and celebrated her birthday by singing 'happy birthday to you'.  I felt happy when I saw a beautiful smile on her face.  

Today after I drove my husband to Kemigawahama station,  I came to Inage beach.  This beach became famous as a white-sand beach a couple of years ago.  Chiba city imported literally tons of white sand from Australia.  It was said that the sand costs more than 800 million yen!  Everybody knows that eventually most of them will be gone by winds and waves. Many people complained about it as wasting tax money.  Anyway, I enjoyed the still-white-sand beach all by myself.  I found a sand cake on the beach.  It seemed like someone celebrated the birthday here.  

Last week, my husband and I visited my mom.  I was glad that we made it before  all the cosmos flowers were gone in Akimoto farm, which is only five minutes walk from my mom's log house.  While my husband sketched the scenery,  I enjoyed walking around beautiful flowers and trees.  I felt so refreshed. I walked around the farm for 30 minutes or so and came back to the log house.  I picked up dried branches as many as I could hold on the way back.  Then I started a bonfire in the backyard.  I had prepared bread dough that morning.  I wrapped them with aluminum foil and put them on an iron plate  which I had taken off from an old hotplate.   The bread was tasty.  I was satisfied with the result as it was my very first attempt.  

今日は午前中の学校心電図がなんと10時前におわったので、 スタッフみんなで有名なカレー屋さん「シタール」でランチ。   Today my heart-checking job with an ECG at the first school finished before 10 am. Then I had lunch with other staff at a famous curry restaurant, Sital.  コロナ以来はじめて。 店内もきれいになってた。 バターチキンカレーとタンドリーチキン、絶品！ 夢中で食べちゃって写真撮りそこなったけど、 デザートのマンゴープリンもすっごくおいしかった！ リピ決定♡ Their butter-chicken curry and naan set was really tasty. I especially liked their mango pudding as a dessert. All of us thoroughly enjoyed them. 午後の学校は稲毛海岸に近かったので、 主人に迎えにきてもらって、二人でスパへ。 After that, we conducted heart-checking at another school.  We wrapped up everything around 2:30.  The school was close to a spa, so my husband came to pick me up and we went there. We enjoyed the spa and a bedrock bath for the first time in nearly two years. こちらもコロナ以来、二年ぶりのスパと岩盤浴を堪能！ 感染予防で窓が全開だったから、 暮れなずむ空を見ながら湯船でまったり～ 時にはお昼抜きでぶっ通しだったり、 重い機材を四階まで運んだりと 過酷なこともあるあるのお仕事…… 時にはこんな日もなくっちゃね♡ I sometimes have to work through without lunch break or  carry very heavy medical equipment to the fourth floor