cook

It takes time to build a house.  This corner of our garden took years.   I used to go to the south of France every year on business and bring back these cicadas. One for each visit. They are suppose to bring good luck to a house. Each cicada is hand painted. I have one that sings.  I could have collected a couple dozen of these figurines over the years  but some years I didn't buy any.  i gave away a few. I have ten on the wall. That's plenty. 

I grew up listening to cicadas sing in the summer time in Kamakura.  Most of them sing so loud, they can be a nuisance. But there are small cicadas that sings a melancholy song. Whenever I heard them sing, I would pause to listen.

Hoh shih tsuku tsuku tsuku 

Hoh shih tsuku tsuku tsuku 

Cicadas spend most of their lives underground as larvae; then they come out of the earth to mate .  The songs we hear are their mating songs.   

On this wall, there is also a rusty chain. It belonged to our dog Stinky.  He died about 8 years ago. His ashes are buried in the garden.  

When we leave this house, this corner of the garden will disappear and someone else will fill it up with new memories.