My paddles

Paddle is a big concern for CW operators.

 

I have 3 paddles so far. No intention to add anyone to them. Though each is not perfect yet, I am always using Chevron. From left to right in the photo below, Chevron, Mercury by Bencher, Profi by Schurr.

 



 

 

I believe there are 3 major factors which determine the quality of a paddle.

 

 

1) Contact:

The contacts between the lever and the fixed column side should be perfect. This won't be a major problem with these paddles. But Chevron sometimes has a contact problem between the column and the screwfixing the contact. Applying contact grease at the screw, I rarely have this problem. It is still sometimes annoying. Without this problem, this Chevron is the best.  Chevron has upgraded to a new model, which might have been solved with this issue. Another paddle I used to use years ago has had a contact problem at the pivots of the levers. When contact seems not perfect, we should suspect of not only the problem with the contacts surfaces themselves but also the other parts described here.

 

2)Weight and resistence:

The lever weight and the mechanical resistence at the pivots of the levers should be as light as possible. The tension should be maximized when the lever is pushed as well. The movement of the levers are most important for paddle function. It should be as smooth as our hand. Yes, it should be an extention of our fist. From this point of view, the lever and the associated structure should be as light weighed as possible. It will minimize the motion resistence as well as the inertia. This is, however, contradictory to the following factor. The magnets make the characteristics of the tension ideal. The spring for tension as with Schurr is not ideal. All 3 of my paddles are pretty satisfactory as for this point. 

 

3)Rebouncing sensation:

I was pretty happy to have Mercury at first. It won't take me long to realize that it causes an uncomfortable sensation of rebouncing with that paddle. I guess the lever is so light that it causes a fine vibrtion proper to the system due to its striking to the fixed contact. That vibration should be felt as a rebouncing sensation. Increasing the tension and narrowing the contact spaces, it could be diminished to some extent. But it is not perfect. I guess the light weight, whether it was designed or not, should be the cause of this problem.

 

I still love these paddles.

 

No, I won't buy any more. Possibly.

Murasaki-shikibu

Murasaki-shikibu is a woman novel writer in 10 to 11th century in Japan. She has written the famous "Genji Monogatari", a long epic of love romance among the aristocracy in the Heian era. There is a plant with her name here.

The original name meant piled purple fruits. Murasaki-shikibu was close to it in pronounciation and was converted to this plant's name. Her name seems suitable for this plant with not gorgeous but elegant beauty, like ladies in good old days in Japan. The academic name is Callicarpa japonica.

It has been drizzly today since a typhoon has been passing by in the Pacific ocean right now. No gardening today.

Murasaki shikibu naturally grown in our garden.

Expecting daughter coming home...

This is a special dinner for our daughter coming home tonight. Chirashi Sushi. Cooked rice is mixed with vinegar and various materials. Then fresh raw fish, boiled garden pea and fried egg are put on it.
When adding vinegar to rice, we should blow it with a fan. This is a key point to have rice look shiny.  It was me who mixed them while my wife blew it.  The rice grains on the wall of the wooden bucket doesn't mean we have already eaten it but it was due to mixing.

 

 

This is boiled pumpkin seasoned with sake etc. This pumpkin was a hravest in the garden farm. The other pumpkins were not very successful this year. A bit watery and less sweet. But this one tastes great like chestnut.

 

 

 

All the dishes are ready. But the guest won't show up here.

 

 

 

 

When I called her on the phone, she answered to me with vivid voice from her apartment. Yes, it is next week end when she has planed to come home.

 

 

The issue is whether two of us could finish all the dishes. I should have made less sushi...

Pilgrimage around Shikoku

 

Centuries ago, people have started pilgrimage around Shikoku. It was, they say, after a great teacher in Bhuddism named Kukai who had lived in ascetic discipline in Shikoku district in the 8th century. Pilgrims go around Shikoku worshipping 88 of the temples scattered all over.

 

In the beginning of its history, they say, pilgrims were those who could not live in the homeland due to various reasons, mostly ominous or criminal, or those with serious illnesses. They prayed for their relieves through the pilgrimage. Or they could not live in the other ways than this pilgrimage. Having been supported by people along the roads of pilgrimage, they have walked all the way on their feet. Doing charity for those pilgrims with giving foods, water or even accommodations has been believed  to mean doing something good in Bhuddism. 

 

At present, a number of people, young or old, are still going for this journey. They say most of the modern pilgrims want to know who they themselves are or would regain the power to live after having got tired from their own lives. A part of them still walk all the way on their feet as in old ages. It takes them longer than 2 months to walk through the entire pilgrimage for nearly 700 or 800 miles.

People along the roads are told to be still very helpful to those pilgrims.

 

The pilgrims wear white cloth with a wooden stick on a hand and a straw made hat on head. It was until I had heard about it from a taxi driver in Takamatsu city, one of the largest cities in Shikoku a few years ago, when I knew their dress meant they could die anywhere on the way of pilgrimage. I was almost shocked to hear that there had actually been many pilgrims lost theri lives on the way. The white cloth was for the funeral for themselves. It was not for fun but for a real discipline to look for the reality in life.

 

Recently, I have read a book about this pilgrimage written by a retired journalist. He used to walk all the way in his forties one time. It was for writing an article as a journalist. He said he wanted to walk for pilgrimage itself apart from his profession. He made it true at the age of 70 after retirement. He has described how it moved him through walking in the nature and meeting people on the way. It's a pity, as he said, some roads have been paved and have had much traffic with cars. It has ruined some parts of the pilgrimage. But, in the other portions, the great nature was still preserved and has reminded him of the ancient pilgrims who had walked the same way. He has also described a lot of impressive chance meeting with many people, Bhuddism priests, pilgrims and people doing charity for him. 

 

Giving every routine in my life aside, I would like to go for this journey by myself in the future, not far from now. It might be a good chance to reflect myself and to consider how to live the time left in my life.

 

This photo was taken on a beach in Shikoku, near to my wife's homeland, in this winter. There was a temple for this pilgrimage close to this place.  

 

 

Variation

It's already fall. As I repeated in this blog, the chamber musics of Brahms fit this season. Especially, the last movement of his Clarinet Quintet is worthy of listening to at quiet night in fall.

 

It is a variation. The theme appearing on the strings is really touchy. It could not help making you think of your past. The melody will undergo a variety of changes and will be sung by different instrument in each variation. As a cellist, I should recommend listeners to listen carefully to the 3rd variation which cello sings an impressive melody. In the middle, the mood gets warmer, which reminds me of sunshine in winter before it gets stormy. In the next variation, viola sings a music as if it hastened us to the climax. In the coda, the very beginning theme of the 1st movement is recalled in imperfect manner. Following clarinet climbing to the height in a fashion of cadenza, it descends in the motif of the same 1st movement. This variation is quietly closed with a dreary chord. This ending sounds as if Brahms had reflected his life in this music. When I played this piece with friends of mine in my student days, I always felt that way.

 

The variation is not only a technique in composing music. It rather seems to me like a way of expressing our lives with music. Our lives are a kind of circulation. We live around own center which we, consciously or subconsciously, value on. Even if it appears in different shape, there is a center in our lives. This variation style may express it by music. Brahms has left us great variations as I already mentioned in this blog.

 

 

Fried tomatoes

Yesterday, it lit in my mind when I found unripe green tomatoes on tomatoe plants in the garden farm. I should try fried tomatoes as a few friends in the US have suggested. At first, honestly speaking, I was rather skeptical about that idea. But there are only few chances I could try that menue. I gotta try!

 

As a result, it tasted freshly rich, sweet and slightly sauer. This is it with a few fried sweet potatoes. My wife could not guess what it was. She was surprised to know of that and liked it very much. We knew why some friends of mine had recommended this menue now.

 

 

 

I have prepared fried saury as well. This was also very good.

 

 

Am I talented in cooking? Should I have lived as a chef leaving a paddle and a stethoscope? No, it's not my talent but is thanks to my friends' advice!

 

Actually, I should go for the parttime job not as a chef today.

The latest figures of trees and plants in the garden

It is getting much cooler especially at night here. It is breezy all the day. One of the best seasons in a year. I am getting things tidy in the garden. Weeds and lawn grow slower now. I should pull the former before they shed seeds. Planting fall vegetables is another project:I have already planted radish shown below, lettuce also sprouting, cabbage and spinach. I learned fresh radish harvested in the garden is so good this summer. The growning ones may be good material for saucepan cook late in fall and in winter.

 

I was stimulated by my wife starting taking flute lesson yesterday. I looked for a class for cello lesson and would attend there if it allows me. Completing cello sonata e minor by Btahms is another project. I wonder if time left for me will permit it or not.

 

Fall deepens here in this way.  

 

 

A plum tree with fresh leaves. In the summer, they were once eaten by bugs, which were got rid of with a chemical.  No other ways to do with that nasty bugs.

 

 

A Higan Bana, which stands for the flower in autumnal equinox. It is a bulb flower, which comes out punctually right at this time of equinox every year. Someone dislikes the artificial outlook of this flower. It surely tells, however, the season is coming around and it is the time of pleasant harvest now.

 

 

The radish sprouting in the farm. Lovely, isn't it?

 

 

A zelkova tree in grand outlook in front of my parents' home. It always flourish with so many leaves. My father used to complain it got too dark and damp in the house. But, without it, it was too hot in the daytime in the summer. The leaves will start falling in several weeks.