Pockets of Sunshine

Flower festival at the zoo!

One of the many things I love about the zoo, besides how convenient it is to our house, is that the grounds are bursting with blossoms nearly year-round.  I don’t know how many gardeners they employ, but they do an impressive job.  And then comes the flower festival where they really pull out all the stops!

We showed up just after the rain.  You can see the water droplets here and, if you look close, also on the pansies above.

There were flowers in almost every color imaginable.

And a few shaped topiaries as well.  (No, the bear isn’t missing an ear; it’s just a bad angle.)

  Nestled among the more familiar varieties (daisies, hibiscus, etc.) were some more unusual specimens (SG?).

Nice spot for a picnic.

Speaking of picnics, we found this sign next to the pig enclosure.  Don’t know how we never noticed it before.  (And yes, the pig’s head is considered to be edible here; it’s not at all uncommon to see one sitting on a countertop at the market, staring at you.)

We haven’t been to the petting zoo here in ages.  Don’t know why we stayed away or how we resisted the fluffy angora bunnies.

So tell me, what do YOU think about life outside the egg?

All kinds of animals to pet.

  One final flower picture for you: this is actually one of the weeds in our front yard but I like them :)

Guess who

In case you haven’t seen enough of these little guys . . .

Logan instructs Naomi in the fine points of helping Mom do laundry.

Stories are even more fun when shared with friends.

The puzzle master at work.

If you must be woken up early, then this is definitely what I want to see first thing in the morning.

And if you follow the previous smile with some of this . . .  Well, then that just makes it all the better.

Of course, if these smiles appeared an hour or two later in the morning than they do, then that really would be ideal, but I suppose you can’t have everything :)  So I praise God for what I do have and try to make the best of it.  Hope you can do the same.  Love you all and miss you!

Setting vs. Subjects

I have two adorable children but some days they just aren’t willing to play along.  This particular adventure, while fun, did not result in the pictures that I had hoped to get, but I’ll show it to you anyway :)

The setting was good, and I thought I had it timed well in terms of naps, meals, etc. but . . .

I should have known that their urges to taste the flowers and play in the dirt would be irresistible.

We enjoyed walking around for a little while and I did make a few more attempts at photographing them.

They were actually more cooperative when I put them together, but then I could never get them both looking good at the same time. 

So I decided that was enough and we went to a playground instead (where I didn’t bother trying to take any more pictures).

Tsunami

Addendum to the last post, concerning the devastation in mainland Japan: In case you haven’t seen the pictures, check this out.  It’s like a magnadoodle wiping out huge sections of cities/towns.  In the event you are looking for a way to help, our church recommended this organization.

Sefa-Utaki

A few comments on the earthquake/tsunami before we begin.  First of all, in case you haven’t gotten the message, we’re fine.  Okinawa didn’t feel the earthquake and the tsunami was negligible.  We are literally a thousand miles away from the epicenter.  Second, the destruction in areas of northern Japan was obviously much more severe.  You’ve seen the pictures, I’m sure.  And then there’s the threat posed by damage to nuclear power plants . . .  They could certainly use our prayers.  But third, consider how much worse the devastation could have been.  An earthquake of that magnitude hitting almost any other major city in the world and the death tolls would have been catastrophic well beyond what has occurred here.  You’ve got to be a little bit impressed with Japan’s architecture, infrastructure and emergency preparedness/response planning.

Now for local (non-disastrous) adventures.  We completed our tour of UNESCO World Heritage Sites on Okinawa—there are eight of them.  The last on our list was Sefa-Utaki, a sacred religious site of the former Ryukyu kingdom.

 
Honestly, it consisted mostly of lots of REALLY big rocks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

linked by paths made of smaller rocks.

Plaques identified where specific religious ceremonies took place.  This one was for the ordination of priestesses (the spiritual leaders of the kingdom were all women).

There were moments when the natural majesty of the area really was impressive.

“Holy water” drips from the stalactites into waiting containers and/or hands.

   
This unusual rock formation serves as the entrance to one of their most sacred altar sites.

Logan looks over the altar and out towards the ocean.

A bento picnic lunch on the way home completed the outing. 

Sakura Season

The cherry blossoms are gone now, replaced by the bright yellow-green of spring leaves which, frankly, look kind of out of place among the evergreen hibiscus and evergreen everything else here.  Things change and grow so fast around here, especially these two wonderful kids of ours.

 
Logan has developed a severe case of Uncle-Luke-syndrome (always having his eyes closed for pictures), but occasionally you can still get a good one of him.  Naomi, on the other hand, is already starting to figure out how to mug for the camera!

We were doing a whole lot of this a couple weeks ago.  He’s cut back some—from twice a day to twice a week or so—in favor of his new favorite activities: PUZZLES!   Preferably puzzles that still feature trains :)

Exploration further back in the street markets off Kokusai led us to a pottery village/enclave and museum.  This shisa guards the entrance to the museum while the pillar behind it shows off different types/colors of pottery glaze.

Not far from Kokusai-dori is a park where they hold one of the island’s cherry blossom festivals.  (Henry and Janet—remember that park next to the library where we took our bento when we were supposed to be on our way to the tug-of-war?  That’s the one.)  We were there the weekend before the festival when there were still lots of blossoms but far fewer crowds.

Family see-saw time at the playground.

 
Birds among the buds and blossoms.  (SG—the first picture is a couple of Japanese white eyes!  The second, I have no idea.)

It’s also fun to observe the other people as they enjoy the cherry blossoms. 

Just a final smile to send you on your way!  Have a great day!