foot spa.....

aahhh perfect after a long cycle....

first sprinking of snow...

ice cold air...love it!!

hold those hills up..

the concrete sculpted mountain sides always fascinate me.....this is driving up the japanese sea side near tsuroka...very glum gray day...in all respects..

spring water dispenser...

just on the outskirts of town, thought this would save me the 40 minute drive up the mountain to collect my water, but i guess that 40 min travel down the mountain in pipes does something to the water, doesn't taste half as good, although it is reportedly the same water........guess it just doesn't travel so well....so it's off up the mountain for me again!!

found one!!

but only one matsutaki for dinner...

orange fungi balls..

growing up the tree..

symmetry..

yamagata city...

choose the red one...

with white bean paste and a nice cuppa tea...

Japanese Sweets

Autumnal themed, great with macha, the thick green tea, so nice to have such pretty food. Which one would  you choose?

christian dior...

is the name of the rose that brightened up an otherwise incredibly dreary staff room...

happy leaf..

don't know why this caught my eye, it just looked so happy ; ) arms up and hands out..

hiking up ryu-zan...

up we went from a beautiful sunny day, into the cloud and rain at the top of the mountain......not the best for photos but a beautiful misty atmoshpere...

nami nami nami WAVES ; )))

inspiration from gandhi....

spent the first part of october reading gandhi's autobiography, what an amazing man who accomplished so much, sticking to his basic tenets of simplicity, truth and non-violence.   through his 'experiments with truth' he came to the conclusion that perfect truth can only come after the realisation of ahimsa (non-violence). to realise ahimsa one must love all as one loves oneself, but to identify with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification......    

simplify, simplify, simplify ..... to live simply, honestly and peacefully, something we could all do with methinks ; )

fun waves.. : D

small, but sooooo much fun...!