Flowers... 'Standing wave', borage、azalea, lilac, black-eyed susan, sumomo...

Note: Am dedicating this post to Malar, who had graciously nominated this humble blog for the 'Versatile Blogger Award'... 

Had been 'itching' for a while to post these flower pictures...

Some of them have been sitting in the hard-disk for many moons now...

This is a wild flower found in the surrounding hills... 

The scientific name is Scutellaria indica...

What a mouthful... again, prefer its Japanese name, タツナミソウ、literally, 'Standing wave' flower?

A member of the sage family...
I took back a specimen to plant it in our potager...

Borage is like, every where in our garden...
Not to say I am complaining...

In fact, I cannot get enough of their pretty flowers...

Mountain azaleas are also thriving in our garden...
They mainly come in colors of pink although some are whitish while others are somewhat orange...

The lilac never fails to bloom in early spring...
They are quite prolific, so to say...

And black eyed Susans... they have very much 'settled' down in a corner at our garden...
I actually prefer them to the sunflowers as cut flowers...

And finally, this series of pictures of flowers of our Japanese plum 'sumomo'...

We pruned this plant last autumn...

In spring, the blooms were plentiful...

And for reasons still unknown to us, the plant decided to die out on us...  sad...

Heaven, I'm in heaven...

Yes, as is so beautifully sung by Ella and Louis in 'Cheek to Cheek'...

How not to feel so when you can see flowers of blue right in your own space?

Yes, the borage has got to be one of the most fascinating flowers I know...

They self seed in our potager and we do nothing but enjoy its beauty... 

And of course, its taste too... 

Likewise, the poppy self seeds just as well...

It has adapted very well to our potager... 

The 'wild' oxalis is a tiny flower...

And a very pretty wild flower at that...

The lilac flowers never fail to bring joy to us each spring...

Such a lovely 'feminine' pink... 

My missus was attracted to this flower from the hills...

She brought back a plant and woah...

The Japanese name is 'Uma no ashi gata'...

Literally, 'the shape of a horse foot', apparently from the shape of the leaves...

In English, simply Meadow buttercup... 

Was taken aback to see this clinging on a tree...

Wing-span was about 10 centimeters as it is...

Apparently, one of its wings was chipped...

Which meant that I could take my time to record its beauty... 

Don't you just love the colors of the swiss chard?

Chards belong to the same family as spinach...

We have several colors... white, cream, yellow, pink...

Think the white and cream ones taste the best... 

Now, what do you do when you have to harvest all the remaining carrots because you need the space for the next crop?

The answer is here...

Flowers to chew on...

This pic shows a salad mix prepared by my suweeto-haato...
The usual stuff like peas, red turnips, onions, cucumbers...
Plus, edible flowers like the blue borage, the red nasturtium, the sinewy, beige (?) rocket, the pink geranium... and the yellow chrysanthemum...
All these (except peas and onions) were from the garden...
Tossed in olive oil, they were quite a delight for the senses...


Ages ago when I first landed in Tokyo as an airline crew, I had my first taste of 'hiya yakko'...
Cold tofu, that is... and so, a summer dish...
It shocked me, actually, to feel the cold of the curd...
But you get used to it...
Here, combined with that green stuff freshly plucked from the garden, and spruced up with sesame seeds and soy sauce... hmmm... oishikatta...


Am blessed, thinking that I can enjoy home-made bread each morning...
This one, pizza-toast, should I say?
Onions, bell peppers, shredded cheeze on wholesome bread...
Topped up with dashes of tomato sauce...
And toasted to perfection... (well, almost...)


And, one of my all time favorites...
Tomato-based spaghetti... preferably combined with seafood...
This one was meat, though... but still with some sweet basil leaves thrown in...
Wooh, equally yummy...