Saturday, July 23, 2011

oh....well....sure....but it's gonna be kind of random....okay? okay.

today is the annual hula festival here in nagasaki city.  the new group that i joined a few months ago will be performing this afternoon...there are 60-some groups doing their "thing" today...and probably just as many tomorrow.
from nagasaki city.
that's a lot of hula, my friends.

so....let's see.....
i have the dress...
...i have the lei...
i have the flowers for my hair...
it's all quite lovely, isn't it?
yes....i think it's all very nice...
except....there is one...well....two problems....
those flowers for my hair are clips....HUGE clips...
yeah...i know. i was thinking the same thing when i first saw them, too...
"but....those are for someone who actually HAS hair!!!"
 hmmmmm.  what to do? what to do?
after some experimenting with a couple strategically placed rubber bands, i think i may have figured a way to make it work....at least i hope it works...
send your best hair karma thoughts my way, would you?

**************
it's officially summer here.
the rains stopped....or should i say the torrential rains that we were getting during the rainy season stopped.
we did have a typhoon (#6, she was) cruise into the area this past week, but, she opted for the eastern side of japan, so we were safe.  we did get some absolutely wonderful cool breezes.
but those are gone.
damn.
what is a good way to know that it is summer around the kuroiwa house?
kuwagata....or stag beetles....and more than a few different beetle "cousins" that the boys have found.  which means.....pretty much at the butt crack of dawn every morning the boys are out searching for these bad boys.  on some evenings, they take honey to different areas of parks and woods around here and....honestly, i'm not sure exactly what they do with the honey but whatever it is, it seems to work because most mornings they come back with one or two critters.
which also means that at any time, there could be "battles" in the entrance way, living room, or even on the kitchen table.  i came home one time to find about 8 boys of various ages, huddled in the garden cheering on one particular battle. 
hmmmm.  i wonder if money ever comes into play here.....the boys have got a couple of really mean beetles...we could possibly turn this into a money making thing.....
heh heh heh.
no. we won't.
i'm just thinking that having these critters in the house and knowing that they were kicking some other beetle butt and we were making some cash from their winnings, i'd feel a bit better about having them around.
***************
the best $4 i EVER spent on a pair of shoes....3 years ago....
i love summer and i love these shoes.
(and yes, i know...i really need to clean out the car!...tomorrow!)
*************
fun things we found in the kitchen.....
happy green pepper!!!
we love spinach....and spinach loves us!
finding these two lovelies just reminds us that we need to pay extra attention to the little things in life....see what kind of specialness we would have missed had we just hurried through.

and with that, my friends, i'm done for the morning....'tis time to get my hula on.
.....i hope your weekend is full of special things and
 little things that make you smile.

3 comments:

smalltownme said...

Your purple dress and flowers made my day. But those beetles -- GAG!

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

You and Janet need to start a found heart website!

Those clips were made for that abundant hair that the Japanese seem to possess--I'd be right there with you trying to figure out how to get those things to stay in the wisps that pass for hair on me!

Hula away!

Janet said...

I like Jenn's idea...do you know I saw a book recently that was about hearts in nature!