hatsuhinode

明けましておめでとうございます！

Happy New Year to everyone from me also! Unfortunately I got hit by this dang bug right as the year came to a close. What was annoying is that aside from the hacking cough, sinus pressure and itchy eyes, I feel pretty much ok. The cough has subsided but sinus pressure increased. Ah well, such is life. Anyway, this is my 初日の出 image of this year. Yes, I was lazy and although I woke up early enough, I stayed at home and just went out into the front yard. Had ambitious thoughts of riding up Koko Head, the weather was perfect, but the way I was feeling it wasn’t going to happen. Oh, and as an intersting counterpoint, here’s an image of, I’d guess you’d call it hatsutsukinoiri. I understand this is pretty rare occurance having a full moon on New Years. First I’ve seen and made for a nice photo op.

Hope every one had a good year and have a better new one! Hard to sum up my year. Wasn’t sure how this New Year’s was going to be, so close to the anniversary of her death, and not having her around made even more apparent by trying to figure out what to do for the usual New Year’s osechi. Ended up buying some small prepackaged stuff, and broiling some Kauai shrimp. Did my best to do ozoni in the style my mom did, which came out pretty well. It’s a pretty simple deal, so I could handle that. I guess that kind of sums up how it’s been this year.  Been dealing alright, and with some work occasionally being able to do an acceptable job of some meals.

Still messing with some occasional adventures, I forgot to blog about my attempts at yuzu marmalade to deal with our bumper crop this year. First batch I boiled for too long, kept the bag w/whites & seeds in too long, and insufficient fruit, so although it was ok, it didn’t have a lot of fruit flavor and was more Brit style with a fairly strong bitter bite. Second batch didn’t watch the temp and ended up just barely burning it. It actually came out tasting pretty good, but it’s not really marmalade. It also set off the fire alarm!

Anyway, Mom, I don’t know how you did it all, you’re amazing. We miss you, but we’re doing all right. We’ll be ok this next year too, so rest assured!