Tortilla with potato first cropped in the garden farm

Some potatoes were harvested in the garden farm. The very first harvest this year.

Several times of this amount are expected to be cropped for the coming few weeks. 

Using some of this potatoes, I have tried tortilla. It has lost its shape when cooked on a fry pan. It tasted, however, good.

I still regret that this blog has been like regarding only foods or cook! I still would like to maintain it as a highbrow as well as intelligent blog handling politics, economy or history. Reality won't go that way. Never ending struggle between ideal and reality in my mind. Sorry for that. Maybe, next post would do with something more intellectual.

Simmered pumpkin and growing tomatoes

Having bought too much minced pork, I made this simmered pumpkin with Japanese broth and minced meat sauce. It has been years since I cooked this. Forgot the recipe. Looking it up in the internet, I have done with it. A pretty good result.

There are a few pumpkin plants growing in the yard farm. Hopefully, they will bear good pumpkin in several weeks. 

Tomatoes are getting ripe now. I have already harvested some. They were so sweet and delicious. Even in our mouthes, they would retain their shapes since they are fresh. I and my wife express that state like they retain their cell membranes in good shape. Soon, fresh tomatoes will be on the table every day for a while.

 

A 2nd Tonkin Gulf incident?

The tension between the US and Iran is increasing. The US Secretary of State, Pompeo, has declared the tanker attacks were made by Iran as soon as the event happened. The photos of limpet mines were not convincing but might rather seem fake. As the Iranese military top said, Iran could have completely closed the Strait of Hormuz if they wished. In the present situation the US has sent out the 5th fleet into the Persian Gulf, a real threat for the Iranese, together with the military deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, it seems unlikely for the Iranese military to dare to cause a military conflict with the US.

This crisis is directly due to withdrawal of the US from the nuclear agreement between Iran and the western countries. Agreements could never be perfect for each side. But withdrawing or giving it up could cause such a serious crisis as they have there. Why not going on negotiation to make the agreement more agreeable one? I could not help but feeling that the US had aimed to support the side of the countries like Israel which stood against Iran. Who knows there could be a movement for military conflict wherever it might be from the military industrial complex?

Once there occurs a military conflict or a war in that area, it may damage not only the people in the Middle East but also the world economy. News sources say the US government sould organize an allied fleet force together with the other western countries including Japan, which would fight against Iran. It could be a serious threat for our country which has spent the post war years as a country of peace. We could serve the problem with non military measures. And the deficit of oil might destroy our economy. We depend on oil imported mainly from the Middle East. 

Either side should stop playing this Russian roulette promptly. The US government should never cause the 2nd incident of Gulf of Tonkin in the Middle East.

Gardening and cello playing keeping me busy

Still busy at garden and farm. I tend to forget how fast time flies. It is getting warmer or even more muggy. The rainy season may start in the end of this week. Then the struggle against weeds will be even harsher. I would still enjoy doing with them this summer.

I have purchased a hedge trimmer driven with a motor/Li battery. It cost nearly 300USD. But the trimming might be much less laborius than cutting with a gardening schissors. As with printers, surprising enough, a replacement battery would cost 150USD. Too excessive profit! I could not, however, resisit buying it thinking of its handiness.

Before cutting the row of azaleae at the entrance;

After. It took me only half an hour to do it.

Strawberry has finished its season. A bowl of strawberry has been on the table every morning. I haven't cooked jam with it. Strawberry plants will go into a long sleep untile next spring.

Tomatoes are getting ripe soon. Hopefully, we could get harvest them not too long after the rainy season starts. No illnesses on the plants this year so far.

I am still practising cello. Of course, very slow advance if any. I should be careful not to hurt my hands/arms while practising. I would play the 1st movement of OP59-3 by Beethoven at a small informal concert, which I have never done with in the past. A famous cellist used to tell Beethoven's string quartets are the beginning as well as the ending for quartet players. Practising this piece, I recognize what he meant. There is a concert of all Beethoven string quartets by amateur players elsewhere. Some players used to play multiple quartets of Beethoven at a concert. They must be really talented players or even professionally trained ones. I still regret I haven't been trained with cello like them. It is no use crying over spilt milk, as they say, though. Feeling grateful for my company, circumstances and health allowing me to play cello, I still go on practising it. If you would find sopmething intimate and intellectual, try to listen to string quarts especially of Beethoven.