beyond the snow bowed

beyond the snow bowed

black pines, nebulous blue twilight,

Fujisan's presence

First act on awakening, open shoji, greet Fujisan. This morning, fog, a nebulous blue obscuring the space beyond black pines bowed with snow. Fujisan's presence, hidden, yet ever present.

strolling through a garden

strolling through a garden

cloaked in snow, feeling the space

between dark and light 

Gentle flurries of snow continue to fall the day after the blizzard, individual flakes rising up in spirals near the house. The scenery reminds me of the snowy month I spent in Japan. In the little town of Oshino at the foot of Fujisan, Kaneyama Hotel has a lovely strolling garden with tea rooms perched on the banks of a mountain stream, Kaneyama, which feeds into the larger Hirayama near Sensei's house. 
          As we wander through the snow-covered garden, I am intrigued by the rope tipis placed over each black pine to protect it from the heavy snow, and the woven trunk guards to protect the tree from insects -- such careful attention to the welfare of every object, animate and inanimate. A group of stones in the central pond look like they are soaking in a hot springs. A waterfall cascades over boulders bordered by shiny holly into a little basin where a bamboo ladle beckons you to bend down, wash your hands and cleanse your mouth with the clear mountain water. Everything looks completely natural, yet it's all carefully arranged. 
          Sensei tells us that it is not just the arrangement of trees and stones and water that makes the Japanese garden, but ma, the space between objects. Each gap creates an interval of time between thoughts and feelings that defines the experience, then releases it. "Ichi go ichi e," she says, "one time, one meeting." This phrase is particularly significant for the tea ceremony. Every moment is unique and fleeting, so savor it and then continue on the path.

arctic blizzard sculpts

arctic blizzard sculpts 

sand snow into ridged dunes,

miniature zastrugi

First blizzard of the year roars in during the night, driving snow into drifts in sheltered nooks and scouring open spaces. In the morning the cats take one look through the crack of the front door and refuse to go out. All day the high wind continues to blast the growing drifts with sand snow, sculpting the dunes into miniature zastrugi etched with ridges and grooves. The ground blizzard piles up finger drifts that stretch down the west side of streets and whips sinuous streamers of snow across the highway. Bit by bit the blizzard buries everything, from bushes to bicycles.

still life in the woods

still life in the woods --

silver ice, copper leaf,

verdigris lichen

Freeze, thaw, cold by night, warm by day. The woods are still, seemingly lifeless, cloaked in camouflage splotches of browns and grays. The least spot of color snags my eye: lacy silver ice edging the creek, spotted hazel leaves glowing like burnished copper sails in the late afternoon sun, a verdigris lichen clinging to a tree trunk, the iron ore husk of a hickory nut, a bowing congregation of gunmetal gray oyster fungi on a fallen tree. 

an ostrich-egg moon

an ostrich-egg moon

floats in the pink arch between

blue and deeper blue

Before dawn the waning full Moon hovers in the pink arch above the golden arch of the dome. No longer perfectly round, the Moon appears oval, like a giant white egg.
          Twilight gives a double gift, whether it's early evening or early morning. In the half hour or so after the Sun slips below the horizon or before it rises above the crown of the Earth, its light is refracted by the Earth's atmosphere. The sky nearest the Sun is suffused with a golden glow, called the twilight arch. In the opposite direction, the twilight wedge appears on the horizon, a blue band with a pink band above it. The deep blue band is the Earth's shadow, while the pink band is the sky illuminated by the sunlight. In the evening, as the Sun sinks lower, the blue band rises higher until the pink band disappears and the blue shadow blends into the night sky. The opposite happens in the morning.
          We know that the Moon appears full when it is opposite the Sun, rising as the Sun sets or setting as the Sun rises. This morning it is slightly higher in the sky than the Sun, floating in the twilight wedge, like a pearl on a pink velvet band, a gorgeous gift to start the day.

golden sun pillar

golden sun pillar,

sky molten gold, purple cloud 

wing fanning the fire

One dramatic sunset after another, every evening since the beginning of 2012. This one features a solar pillar shooting straight up from the setting sun. The next moment the whole sky turns golden, reflected in a lake between dark hills in the distance. But the lake is just an illusion formed by the sun setting behind a cloud bank which is hovering just above the horizon. A dark altocumulus cloud looks like a purple wing fanning the conflagration in the west.

collector's auction

collector's auction --

treasures of a lifetime sold

to the highest bidder

"You have to have a number to bid," the lady sitting at the entrance to the convention hall says. "I just want to look around," I reply. I've done enough bidding to know I'd better not take a number.

          It's a two-day collector's auction, combining several estates. As I walk around the long tables spread with collectibles with my friend, we're both saying things like, "My father brought me a doll just like that from Switzerland," or "I remember when I won a set of yellow carnival glass plates," or "I've got an old glass milk bottle, but it has a little bulge on top for the cream," or "Whatever happened to my marble collection?" 

          And then of course I realize that this is probably what will happen to my accumulation of a lifetime. It will end up at an estate auction, passing into another person's life and then another and another, until what? Maybe a museum, or maybe the local dump, where some archaeologist in the far distant future will unearth the remains of ancient treasures and wonder, "What on earth did they use that thing for?"