Being in the midst of a farming/fishing community 

neighbours tend to overload us with the latest crop or catch. 

There are still chunks of octopus in the freezer

from some benefactor last year.

 This is last weekend's collection. 

I wish they grew something useful like apples or rhubarb.   

What does one do with so many cucumbers?

An easy answer is the classic, English cucumber sandwich . 

(Perhaps a dab of mayonnaise ?)

Mama Mia!

Seems that Mama Turtle just made her annual visit to our beach, 

looking for somewhere to lay her eggs, and met a  wall of garbage.  

I've not had chance to clear up since I came back. 

After a wander around she decided to look elsewhere.

So there goes my plans for an Eggsperiment (see March 31st blog). 

Laying season is almost over.

There are surprisingly few egg sites on the beaches this year. Last year

there were at least a dozen along this bit of coast, this year only one.

All of the beach garbage (or at least 99%) is generated by fishermen.

Those darn PET bottles arrive in their thousands on the beaches, 

flung into the ocean from the numerous 

small fishing craft along the coastlines

of Japan, Korea and China. 

The black floats are usually Chinese. 

Hundreds arrive every year. 

Someone should teach them how to tie knots .

At last!

The Marmite drought is over.

Handy sized plastic jars were available at Tesco's in the UK.

Very likely an Australian product, as the label is printed

upside down, but tastes the same.

Bit of a struggle to get through Japanese customs and the 

forklift truck was costly, but well worthwhile.

Should be no problem with yeast deficiency for a few months.

Back in Japan after three weeks in Italy and the UK.

Delightful to see family and old friends again.

And delightful to get back to my oldest friend - the sea.

Here she is on my first morning walkies with Duke. 

A rainy season dawn, humidity hanging heavy in the air.  

Four egrets winging north.

    And a fat Duke (what has he been eating?), glad to be back in the hunt for crabs.

Guppies love the sunshine and crowd the the edge of the pond where

the shallow water is warmest.  Looks like they all survived the warm 

winter this year so we could be heading for an overpopulation problem. 

I'll let nature sort that one out. 

Friday was a holiday for Yoron islanders.

A time to celebrate the low, low spring tide.

A good day for farming families, who enjoyed a day on the beach.

A bad day for beach crawlies.

Anything that hadn't scampered to safety 

went into the pot for the evening's festivities.

Morning Glory