Over the weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) Fujii-san has been here, and she is now working on her first project for the catalogue. The Kunimasa test prints she made the other day looked very promising, so I gave her a small stack of real washi, and she's now having a go at making an edition for sale.

I took this quick snapshot just as we were wrapping up the paper after her day's work was over; these will now sleep in the freezer until she can come back next Saturday to do the rest of the colours. Look at that nice rich brown! It took me years before I could do that! (Sob!)

Today (Sunday) was a beautiful day - probably one of the last pleasant days we will have before the muggy tropical weather arrives for the summer. Fujii-san and I spent a bit more time than we probably should have sitting out on the river embankment. The banks are stone walls built - so I'm told - back in the Taisho era, when the little road that passes in front of the house was actually an important route between Tokyo and Yamanashi Prefecture. We're not talking about Daimyo processions here, but it was clearly important enough that the infrastructure was carefully configured.

Anyway, the embankments now make a very pleasant place to sit and watch the wildlife ... We had a visit from a couple of the 'regulars':

As usual, all they can think about is searching for food:

Do they eat the little crabs that are under there? Or is it just algae and stuff that they want ... I don't know.

Our seat up on the embankment gives us a unique viewpoint!

One group that is very happy to see the ducks arrive is the local fish school. The ducks stir up mud and stuff, and the fish seem to find this full of little morsels ...

This next shot is actually from a few days ago, when printer Miyashita-san was here. After we had our picnic, I put my dish into the river ... and it was soon sparking clean!

I wanted to save the best wildlife shots for the last, but it's going to be the other way around. Real wildlife photography is difficult!

Here is all I could get of a very nice Aodaisho (Rat Snake) I bumped into on the embankment yesterday.

I had been climbing up the other side of the river bank, and when I reached over the top to pull myself up, my hand grabbed this guy. I'm not sure which of us was the more surprised, but it was probably me - these guys have a tail that rattles, and when I felt the snake under my hand, and heard the rattle at the same time, I was plenty startled, and let go and jumped backwards down into the water ... The aodaisho aren't poisonous though, and are only dangerous if you are a mouse or a frog ...

And for the grand finale of our photo tour today I give you this picture I took as the kingfisher streaked past, flying a few centimetres above the surface of the water.

Well ... I tried!

[Update: see comments below for info about this video clip ...]

Just wait until we open the Mokuhankan Café! I can see the headlines now ... "Mob scene in Tokyo! Hundreds scramble, fighting for scraps of David's muffins ..."