Excessive vine growth of sweet potato and a dish of the hypertrophied vine

Plants' growth are told to divide two phases, nutritional growth and reproductive growth. In the former phase, a plant grows individually at its trunk, vine or leaves. In most cases, the latter phase follows it. It leaves crops or fruits. 

The former growth is accelerated with meteological factors and low carbon/nitrogen ratio in the soil. High nitrogen from too much fertilizer is often a cause of this phenomenon.

In the excessive vine growth with the sweet potatoes, the latter, that is, too much fertilizer won't be the cause. Regardless of the remnant amounts of fertilizer, it has occurred in the same manner at different fields. Another evidence that the weather, most likelily the hot spell in the past spring/summer, may be the fact some of Marie Gold planted at different places of the garden, of course, without any fertilizer has shown the same excessive growth of the trunk/leaves. They have bloomed very few flowers. The typical case is shown in the following photo. The two trunks have grown large in unusual way while some flowers are out in the other few plants. I have never seen this overgrowth in the past.  

This is only a hypothesis that global warming is influencing our tiny garden/farm. But we should be careful about such a thing. We are the crops brought by the reproductive growth of the crops. If those crops grow only in the nutritional growth but not in the reproductive growth, it may cause famine.

Last night, I have cooked the overgrown vine of sweet potatoes with chicken as this photo shows. My wife at first prejudiced that it could have been like a menu people used to cook in the war time without much food. But she was pretty happy at this dish when it was cooked. This recipe was published by a lady in Shikoku, my wife's birth place, as an old one from ancestors.    

 

Failure of sweet potato growth

It is the time to harvest sweet potatoes now. As a conclusion, the crop was not very good this year. 

Excessive vine growth has occurred. They say it is due to excessive fermentation and/or too much rain. One of the fields was due to hyperalimentation due to the remnant of fertilizer for the previous vegetable. I am not sure what has brought the problem at the other fields. A climate issue? It is beyond my capability to avoid this excessive growth in such a case.

Some of the poorly grown fruits were bitten by bugs. Vegetables or generally any plants have a system of immunity against such infestation of insects. Those subnormally grown ones are liable to the problem. 

The other day, I was surprised to know, in the case of famine or of war involving our country, our government had a plan to have golf course or school grounds converted to farm and to grow sweet potatoes. The self sufficiency rate of food is only 38% now. Considering of importing the farming materials like fertilizer and its resources or seeds etc, it drops below 10%. This fact has not well known to the people. The government won't do with this subtle crisis without such a terrible plan to grow sweet potatoes. 

As my experience with growing sweetpotatoes this year tells, it is not easy for amateur instant farmers to grow such as sweet potatoes which is told to be a rather easy crop. I would propose the administration officers/politicians to grow sweetpotatoes at the garden of the Diet by themselves.

Now some people are aware of this issue but still only a minority. Food security issue is going on in our country in subtle and serious way.

The over grown sweet potatoes's vine.

 

A T shirt and hectic days

It was 1991 when I visited Cambodia for ham radio operation of XU0JA, usually regarded as DX pedition. After a Hungarian team had operated there, the station was managed by a girl named Sokun, personnel of PTT. I happened to know her operating XU8DX by hersel n 15m SSB. She did not know anything of ham radio. It was necessary to support the station XU8DX there. In 1990, I asked Atsushi JF3NRI and James 9V1YC to visit there and to bring some support items like the PA tubes of the amplifier etc. They have done a good job. It was my turn to visit there a year after. I have spent a hectic as well as pleasant week over there together with a couple of JA friends, JH1OJU and JH0FBH. It was only a few years after the civil war had ended. There was curfew in Phnom Penh. I still remember the streets were vacant after the curfew from PTT to the Hotel Cambodiana where we stayed. I have already written about our trip there a few times already. 

Some friends were supportive to us. Eric W6DU, the president of NCDXF, has prepared T shirts with the logo of NCDXF for us before departure. We have worn it all the time throughout the trip. Mine has been found deep in a drawer recently. This is it;

My call as XU/JA1NUT was printed above the NCDXF logo. But it has disappeared in this 3 decades. XU0JA QSL is here. 

It was the days when I was crazy with DXing. With some free time and finance, I could spend much time for ham radio. This was one of the events I devoted to those days. 

Honestly, I sometimes wonder if it was a right decision or if I should spend time and energy for the other things in the middle of my life when I was able to do anything I wanted. Such as restarting practising cello earlier and so forth. I know it is of little use to reflect the past in that way but such an idea of reflection still often comes up in my mind.

I find myself trying to balance my mind convincing myself it was meaningful for me to have had good company through ham radio. Eric was one of them. Blood boiling experience in ham radio was also priceless for me. In this chapter of my life, the other pleasant things like farming or listening good music are being prepared for me. I should never complain of the past.

Now this T shirt is worn by me while I work in the farm. Another hectic days. 

Life's most important task

This is a poem a german missionary of Catholic, Hermann Heuvers, has introduced in his autobio. Heuvers has stayed in our country as a teacher at a university pastoring a church from 1920s through 1960s. When he once returned to homeland, a friend of his gave this impressive poem to him. In 1977, while he served Mass on wheel chair, he developed acute heart attack which lead to death. 

It sure leaves a lasting impression on me. I was going to put this into the previous post titled "The beginning of real retirement". I was too shy or even scared to compare our lives to this way of in devout belief. 

It is still an excellent wisdom of life in old age. I would share it to you here, not in relation to the previous post. I still would spend or try to live the retirement ahead with the motto this poem depicts. This translation comes from a site by Nobuko Muth.

Quote~~~

 What is this life's most important task?

To grow old with a cheerful heart,

To be still even when I would like to be active,

To be silent when I would like to talk,

To have hope in times of frustration,

To carry my cross in humility and serenity of heart,

To put aside envy even when I see younger people walking God's path full of health and energy,

To humbly accept help from others when I would rather work for the sake of others,

So when I can no longer be useful for others because of frailty I need to gently and humbly accept the heavy burden of old age as a gift from God.

I have an aged heart that has been in use a long time and now God is giving it a final polishing so that I can return to my true home all shining.

To gradually release myself from the chains that bind me to this world is indeed a wonderful work.

When I cannot do things let me humbly accept these circumstances in humility.

However for my closing years God has kept for me the most important work of all, and that is:

~~~End of quote

This translation is ended abruptly leaving a few more sentences untranslated. I dare finish it in my way as follows;

My hands could do little to the others

Only I could do until the end of my life is to join my hands in prayer

Praying for God's mercy over to all the people I love

When I have done all I could do, I may hear God telling me in dying bed,

"Come here, thou, you will never be abandoned."

~~~

I have learned about this poem from my sister 4 years elder than me several years ago. As I and the folks are getting older, this beautiful verse hauntingly comes up in my mind. My sister and borther in addition to my wife and myself are stepping into the elderhood. May all of us spend the last chapter of our lives as this poem indicates.

The beginning of real retirement

It is the 72nd birthday for my wife today. It's been a year since she closed her business. Things are settled down and regular routine is formed for her as well as for me now.

Signs of senility are looming to each of us whether we are aware of that or not. It is a reality. She has worked hard as a wife, a mother and a doctor for decades. I owe much to her. I would support her from now on, even though it might be me who should ask for her care. Who knows?

Wishing her peaceful and healthy retirement days even if it is only a brief period of serenity.

We have celebrated this day with a piece of cake last night.

Always the same photo. In the honey moon in 1979.

  

Mahler 9th Symphony and Claudio Abbado

Before going to sleep, I have listened to this symphony for a few days. 

I have posted about this music 8 years ago; here.

Getting older, I feel the theme of this music is getting more familiar or pressing to me.

This is the performance I listen to; Lucern Festival Orchestra conducted by Clauddio Abbado. It was 2010.

Abbado has suffered from gastric cancer in 2000 and has survived it successfully. I wonder how he was doing at this time of the concert. Later, in 4 years from this concert, he has succumbed from the same illness. Was it reccurence or another illness? Whatever health condition he was in at this time, the issue of death must have occupied his mind, I suspect. Once, he used to tell death is existentially an aspect of life. 

In the end of this performance, he has set a time of silence in darkness for a couple of minutes. It seems he has casted a message from the nether world. Reading too much into it?

Cool breeze is coming into the bed room. In otherwise completely silent environment, I listen to this music at midnight.

Obon

As I repeatedly mentioned, it was the season named Obon in the mid August. A lot of people have returned to their hometown from big cities and have gathered with their folks. In a tradition of Bhuddism, they were accepting their ancestors at home. Bon odori, that is, traditional dance in Obon, was performed to welcome their ancestors. A lot of festivals were held for the same purpose. I believe only few people were commemorating Obon in this sense. Getting together with family members or old friends is itself a precious event in our life. 

 https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2286.html

Our family is not concerned about this event. I have been pulling the weeds in the farm and garden. Doing that, I was recollecting my parents, an aunt who has started a tuberculosis sanatorium at this place and the other people who have passed. There used to be a lot of pine trees in the sanatorium. Breeze has gone through those trees. As already wrote somewhere, such breeze coming through pine trees is my oldest memory in life. Now, as a typhoon has passed by, it is getting cooler at least at night. I was surprised to have cool breeze touching my face while working in the garden this morning. Fall is not far from here now. This is the way I am spending this Obon.