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More than one month and a half passed since I started to avoid outings due to coronavirus. Now I go to work by car three days a week (and I work from home two days) and go grocery shopping once a week. That’s all.

But meanwhile, I take a walk near my home on weekends. It has rich natural surroundings. There are low mountains and a river with shimmering water quietly flows before my eyes.

When I walk along its embankment, wild flowers are eye-pleasing. There are dead branches on paths between rice fields, which are very dried. Then, my imagination began to wonder that I could make a large fire, or bake a pizza if I have a pizza kiln with the branches. Perhaps, it is a habit of ancient agricultural people that I want to collect branches, isn’t it?

At any rate, under the current situation, walking in the unchanged nature seems to be a luxurious time. The cherry blossom season is over and brisk May is just around the corner. Although virus threats are right over there, plowing up rice fields is going steadily, let water flow to the rice fields soon and rice planting will start again this year as if nothing happened. (H.S)

Hino River

Moss phloxes on the bank. It seems that the moss phloxes started blooming earlier than usual.

Took a closer look.

Unfortunately, it is raining, but along the street called Sakura-dori (cherry blossom street) in front of our office in the center of Fukui City, cherry blossom trees are nearly in full bloom already. So they will be in full bloom as early as the beginning of next week.

It will be already April next week, so it's not surprising. This year, it was a record warm winter and we had almost no snow in Fukui, a heavy snowfall area. So I didn't feel like winter, but nevertheless, the cherry blossom trees did not bloom much earlier, one month or so than usual, and did only a few days earlier.

There may be a mechanism that even if the temperature rises, they wouldn't bloom simply. It's interesting.
T.S