Airplane crash, Crowded Haneda Airport

An info from Lester Price. It might be of concern for those often travelling abroad. The probability of airplane crash or other accidents is quite low compared with that of traffic accidents etc. 

Once we see the disaster of Air India crash, however, we could never neglect this safety rank. 

It might be related with the manufacturer and the maintenance crew of the airplane as well. 

In case of travelling at or transitting through Haneda Airport of Tokyo, the airplane would take off toward north, that is, over the downtown of Tokyo when it is southerly windy. That route has started to be in use since 2020. It sure is not as safe as the course over the Tokyo Bay. They say the flight takes off once in a minute from 3 to 7PM in our local. So crowded! If an airplace should fail taking off and crashes into the downtown, it might be an unimaginable disaster not only for the passengers but also for those living in the area of the the flight course.

 Luckily, I won't have any chance to travel abroad any longer. If I should, I would choose a flight from Narita Internatl airport.

RIP to all the people victimized by the accident in India.

A meaning of elderly

In the end of ourlives, why should we be burdened with such as pain, worry and anxiety? I could not help asking if I have gone through the hard life only for that. 

No answer to this question possibly until the last moment of my life. 

As I wrote in another article titled as "A gift in elderly", living elderly might give us a lot of new experiences. It might be a meaning of elderly, even though it could never be the ultimate answer. It may mean the elderly is the time to get ready free from things in on the earth and eventually to leave it for the another phase.

I am not an eager fan of any movies or movie stars. But the following sentence by Meryl Streep is quite impressive and ascertains an aspect of elderly. I have found this in a post of facebook. It was with her recent portrait. Not like the other most movie stars, she looked to have grown old as she is. No cosmetic suregery etc. I respect her not only as a movie star but also as a human being. 

~~~

 Aging is not for the faint of heart.

One day, you wake up and realize — youth has quietly slipped away.

But it didn’t leave alone.

It took with it your insecurities, your rush to please, your fear of not being enough.

And in its place?

It left you with something stronger:

A slower pace, but a steadier step.

The wisdom to say goodbye without fear.

The grace to cherish those who choose to stay.

The power to be you, unapologetically.

Aging isn’t about losing — it’s about letting go.

It’s about learning to accept, to release, and to truly see:

That beauty was never just in the mirror…

It lived in every story, scar, and silent strength we carried within.

Aging is a gift. Wear it with dignity.

~ Meryl Streep

Harvesting potatoes

It is the busiest time in a year for an amateur farmer. I have been kept busy doing with weeds, planting summer vegetables like pumpkins, long beans, ocras, eggplants, water melons or more sweet potatoe seedlings. Onions have been harvested. Not so good this year possibly due to poor growth of the seedlings.

Potatoes have been on a farm bed prepared with natural farming method. High bed with a lot of grass mulch as a source of compost and a lot of rice bran as not only a fertilizer but also more of activator for the soil flora.

The harvest was like this. A big success. No chemical fertilizer nor pesticides etc. A lot o big potatoes were grown without any damage from insects. I should crop much more from the rest of the farm.

It is interesting that such a vegetable could grow without any chemicals. Natural farming is a movement to ecological agriculture. Not much such as fertilizers or pesticides won't be used. But such as grass compost or rice bran is applied to the farm. Not much plowing. There is a dynamic ecological environment in the soil. Mycorrhizal fungi or the other flora in the soil are proliferated and work to give nutrients like nitrogen chemical to the plants. As little handling of the ground as possible is given to the soil. 

They say it would take several years to have the soil matured, that is, becoming rich enough for natural farming. I might be too late to start with it. But still would like to go on in that method good for the environment and economical without much expenditure for agricultural materials.

I am doing it with only hands and scoop/shovel. Some people are doing farming in this style for their profession and are successful to live on with it. 

Faure's 1st Piano Quintet

As reiterated in the past, I believe Faure's chamber music are all masterpieces. Especially, piano and string ensemble works. Probably 30 years ago, or even further back in the past, I have bought the CD of his two piano quintets played by Jean Hubeau, piano, and Quator Via Nova. It says it was recorded or the CD was manufactured in 1985. Their performance is not only lyrical but also passionate. One of the classics for these pieces for me as well as for the classic fans those days. Compared with the other modern perormances, it is still brilliant and touching.

I love his piano trio, string quartet, piano quartets or piano quintet Nr2. Hard to compare with them, piano quintet Nr1 is still the most favorite one for me. It was composed at the boundary of style in his life between early lyricism inherited from the Romantic school in Belle Epoch and later style succeeded to modern music, complicated, bitter and serious. It may be when he has started suffering from the auditory abnormality, which sounded higher pitch lower while lower pitch deviated to higher. With that dysunction lethal for a composer, he struggled to go on bringing forth the series of real masterpieces in his last chapter of life. I have not studied precisely about his pathography regarding his hearing abnormality but believe it was around the time of composing this quintet that he started suffering from it. It has, in my view, profoundly influenced on the composition.  

In 2008, I had a chance to play the 1st movement of this piece with friends of mine in Tokyo. On the arpeggio, as with the other piano involved chamber music, the 2nd violin starts singing impressive lovely melody of simplicity which is transferred to cello and later the other instruments. We were just playing it for enjoyment but not for performance before audience at all. Still, what a joy for me! I only wished we had had more than a couple of rehearsals we actually made. I am still thankful to the gang playing it with me. An irreplaceable memory for me.

I wished to play it with some friends. Seemingly no chance ahead. I have handed the part scores to a good friend of mine, a violinist, hoping she and her group may realize it to rendition some day. It is the score of dream for me. Luckily, the CD mentioned above is not deteriorated like the other old CDs. I will go on listening it in the rest of my life. A piece to farewell to youth in my life as well.