Shimekazari

I just returned from celebrating Hatsugama in honor of O-Shogatsu with my tea friends. O-shogatsu means "New Year" and Hatsugama is the first tea ceremony of the year. My friend Tara served tea chabako style. Chabako is a picnic style tea ceremony, or "Tea in the wild". All the tea tools are a bit smaller and come in a wooden box. It was beautiful in her tea house with both the sun and the cold.

I love the decorations used to celebrate the New Year in Japan. I remembered that I bought a rubber stamp of a shimekazari when I was there. Shimekazari are hung over the doorways and signify that the home is a temporary residence of Toshigami, the divinity that brings good luck at the beginning of the new year.

Piñon

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On Saturday, Louie and I drove to the top of the Sangre de Cristo mountains to see the aspens that had turned bright yellow. It was raining and there was some snow at the top so our hike didn't last long. Half way down we stopped to pick piñon (pine nuts). Louie roasted them in salt when we got home and spent the rest of the afternoon munching away like a squirrel.

Pink twist

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This one isn't autumnal, but I couldn't resist drawing its shape.

Autumn sweets

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I discovered these sweets at a shop in Kurashiki, Japan. Kurashiki is famous for Bizen-ware, a type of earthy, unglazed pottery in many shades of deep brown. It was three years ago that I was there, but I saved these sweets and now they look like little jewels. Persimmons, chesnuts, and maple leaves....autumn in Japan.