ゆ・ゆ・ゆ・ゆ暮らし

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.