Rainy season setting in

It's getting muggy. The weather forecast says it's already in the rainy season here. The crisp atmosphere has gone away. Too quick. I miss it.

I have been busy harvesting onions like this. Another batch would follow soon. They are either small or big, rather mostly small. They have grown with minimum amount of fertilizer and could be storaged long possibly for several months. They will be hung under the eaves to get dried.

I have also harvested dozens of potatoes. Even more are ready to be harvested when it is fine. A dozen or a bit more of garlics are brought under the eaves as well. 

Broccolis are budding like this. Some worms are eating their leaves but not a big trouble. The buds may grow big and will be one of materials for salad very soon.

On behalf of spinach, garland chrysanthemum is richly growing and cooked with spicy dressings. 

My wife has been to her home in Shikoku and has seen her mother. She has been bedridden with dementia and often sleeps long. At age 98 years, anything could happen to her any time, I am afraid. I should have gone to see her with my wife. But inevitable duties have prevented me from doing that. My wife has found her in a stable condition, even in weakness, at a nursing home. She came home uneventfully last night. 

I have been reading a book regarding the human rights written by a researcher studying in UK. Our country has accepted very small number of refugees from foreign countries in the past. At an immigration office, a Srilankan lady, deemed as an illegal stay and interned for a long time. Eventually, she has died without appropriate medical care there 2 years ago. Despite of such an event, our government has sent in a bill of "reformed" immigration law. It is against making the immigration process more transparent in order to keep the human rights of foreigners and of refugee asylum seekers. 

The book tells me our country is behind the international standards for the human rights, either for foreigners or for compatriots. The governments won't hesitate to say the international human rights treaty has no legal force. Unfortunately, the enforcement of the treaty is quite questionable here. In addition, a group of ultra right faction insists that the immigration should be even more strict for those seeking the chance of refugee in our country. They never question on the immigration system and power. We should be more conscious of such a problem because disrespect of the human rights for those people could come on us in sometime together with fascism.

So that's how I am spending this a bit unpleasant days in the rainy season. While it gets fine rarely, I would work hard in the farm. It is still a fan for me.

A catastrophic accident impending at the disastered Fukushima nuclear power plant

An ominous news on the disastered nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

At the first reactor there, the pedestal structure made of iron reinforced concrete turned out to have been damaged by the melted nuclear fuel in the accident in 2011. This video clip shows what has happened there. The concrete in the base has been dissolved and only the remnant iron structure receives the load. The pressure vessel weighs 450 tons with the height of 20 m. It seems such iron reinforced concrete receives the compressive load with the concrete portion, but not the iron structure. Without the concrete portion, it might be much weaker against the twisting load as well. 

The schema given below, even thouth the caption is in Japanese, shows the pedestal base almost totally destroyed with the melted nuclear fuel. RPV stands for the reactor pressure vessel whil PCV for primary containment vessel. The destroyed pedestal base, located below RPV, is colored red. The RPV on the damaged pedestal structure could easily fall down with earthquake. 392 pieces of the used nuclear fuels cooled in the pool, upper left of the RPV, colored blue, could fall and scatter around. The melted through nuclear fuel, that is, nuclear debris, under RPV as well as this used nuclear fuels in the pool could not be cooled and might reach a critical point for fission reaction. It would be a severe accident happening, possibly, more serious than that in 2011.

A researcher of seismic design of the nuclear power reactor has warned the government of the impending danger depicted above. However, he was told by a government high official that they won't take any action until the power line company proposed anything about it. 

I have already discussed about a part of this issue in another post. Here. The power line company, the central part of the nuclear power community described in the post linked above, would hardly respond to such a problem presentation. So does the government. Irresponsible and incompetent people and organizations. The government is enthusiastic for military expansion. But the country would be collapsed with such an accident, not an external force but an internal crisis. What stupidity! 

Peaked activities in the garden/farm

An hour or two earlier than the sunrise, I always wake up. I can't stay in bed any more. With a cup of coffee or preferably of tea nowadays, I come into my room. Surfing around the net, I check the weather forecast. If rain is not expected, I plan what to do in the garden/farm. It is the time for me to plant vegetables on pots or on soil. A lot of things to do.

The farm work is not the major task for me. Pulling the weeds and mowing lawn occupies most of my outdoor work. Knowing the same chore comes back to me in a week or two, I sit on a small chair at certain spot in the property and start doing with the vigorously growing weeds. Natural farming tells us not to cut them but let them grow because they are the source of fertilizer and of the prowing effect with their roots in the soil. I am not brave enough to let them grow in the garden yet as they want. I try to pile the cut grass on the ground, which will become natural compost in several months.　

Potatoes are growing with flowers. In a few weeks, they will be harvested. Only small amount of organic fertilizer seems to work out well for them. I have a list of family members and of friends whom I would send them as soon as harvested.

A few pumpkins, which have been grown from seeds collected from the fruits last fall, are planted on the soil and vividly growing, even though curcubit leaf beetles　

are nibbling a bit of their leaves. Not necessary to cover them with insect repellent sheet yet. I will try vinegar mustard and garlic to prevent such insects.

Pumpkin is a good material for boiled vegetable and are necessary until as late as possible in fall. I would plant them in July and expect them to go on maturing until winter solstice.

Onions are also growing. Dozens of them are expected to be harvested in a week or two. 

Kidney beans are sprouting right now. They will take over green pea soon. 

Broccholi are vivid. No insect damage so far. Left of them, some okras were planted. But the cool temperature might have bothered them growing well. In the coming days, it will get much warmer and may help them grow better. So far not successful for me to sprout them from the seeds taken last fall yet. It seems pretty temperature critical. 

On rainy days, not much work to do. I am spending the day reading books. I was impressed at a book depicting the history of slavery since the age of enlightenment. Oh, have I mentioned on this book in this blog? Karl Marx has elucidated the metamorphose of slavery into veiled slavery. In the modern time of neoliberalism, it seems still alive as irregular employment which is quite common in our country. It was an exciting story on the labor/capitalism history.

So not bored without outdoor activities. I would hit the sack in order to work with vegetables tomorrow now.

 

An old man's story on health

 Getting through the healthy life expectancy of age 73 years, I still have had a few health issues, even though they are not serious at all. I didn't like to listen to what aged people talked about their own health issues related with aging anywhere. But, for myself, I am tempted to write about it here. What an irony of aging!

The other day, as usual, I got out of bed at 3 AM. Too early to have breakfast. I have prepared a cup of coffee without milk. Having had it for half an hour, I felt very bad stomachache and nausea. I wondered what had happened to me. Abdominal emergency? It is one of the main causes which bring sick people to ER. I returned to bed. After dozing off for an hour or two, I found myself almost free from the symptoms. I concluded it was the coffee that caused it. A functional gastric dysfunction. I have never had such a bad condition from coffee even though I have sometimes had discomfort of mild peptic ulcer in the past. The symptoms were much worse than that and sure reminded me of something emergent. I should be careful not to take strong coffee especially in hunger. It is only a trifle but reminds me of my present age.

The other thing was improvement of backache early in the morning after exchanging the mattress of bed. I used to have mild but steady bachache on bed when getting up. I thought it had been a sequel of the intervertebral disc herniation on lower back which I had episodes of for several times since young days. Now that the disc might be old enough to be stiffened and not causing the herniation, I have not had that episode for a decade or so any longer. It could have been the cause of that dull pain on lower back early in the morning. But it has gone when I started sleeping on a new mattress with harder elasticity. The last one was almost 30 years old and has become too soft to keep my back straight when asleep on it. There could be various causes of such back pain. I won't generalize this finding to every case at all. But if you feel that dull pain on back early in the morning or after long sleep on a "soft" mattress, it is worth trying to exchange it to a harder one.

That's all. I would promise not to repeat old man's remarks on health any longer.

One of the best seasons in a year

Green pea is in good harvest this year. It is hard to catch up them grown on a few plants. I have cooked them with simmered eggs. I am chuckling at myself looking for a new recipe for vegetables in good harvest. Very easy cooking and tasty as well.

German iris, rose or peonies is in full bloom right now. 

As I often say, the growing weeds are keeping me so busy. I could concnetrate on pulling or cutting them for an hour or two at one time without much backache now. With bright sunshine, cool breeze is blowing gently through my face while I am doing the routine work in the garden. It is a joy. It is rather dry all day. I believe it is one of the best seasons in a year. Seventy four years ago, I was born at the very same place as we are right now. In such a hardship and poverty after the WWII, my parents have given me a birth and have raised me. Now it is the time for me to remeber of them again. At my age, I could fully understand what they thought of me in my young days. No more gratitude to them for their efforts and love toward me.

I will turn to be 74 years in a week.

 

"Brahms from Hamburg...a Genius"

On this day 190 year ago, he was born. This article linked below is interesting. It elucidates why he was so self critical to his own works, even though his poignant criticism toward his own compositions in young days may reflect his character. It took him decades to complete his 1st symphony and to compose his 1st piano trio from the draft, even though the latter sounds great iteself.

Here.

On the way from shopping today, on my car, I happened to run the recording of his 1st string sextet. I felt again thankful to him. He has filled my music experiences with such a joy throughout my life. 

Farm and a scout

Nowadays, it's like early summer in the daytime while it gets quite cool early in the morning. Preparing seedlings and farm, I am mowing lawn and pulling/cutting weeds. A lot of work at the same time. It will last until fall. 

The compost made from residue of vegetables and pulled weeds last year is working fine to grow various seedlings. I knew the poor temperature control has caused failure to grow seedlings indoor in this spring. Still learning a lot from this tiny farming. 

Green pea is flowering. Some peas are being harvested and become material for salad.

It seems potatoes are also successful this spring. Three kinds of seed potatoes were planted. All are growing well. It is surprising that even old wrinkled ones, which had been over 1 year old and not seemed edible, are growing. They have vigorously budded. It seemed they were trying to leave offspring by any means. 

Strawberries are growing without any care. Of course, the weeds among them are sometimes pulled off. They are still bearing fruits.

Such fruits as the strawberries or vegetables could be eaten by birds. These days, birds won't visit our garden farm so often as before. This reconnaissance scout named Hikaru might prevent them from approaching here. He often comes around to me while I work outdoor. He won't help me working in the farm but patiently wait for me to come inside home.

My brother and his wife will visit here and go to the grave of our parents tomorrow. I will prepare rice and curry for the lunch for them. Another fun reunion.