on the way home from grocery shopping...i think the sunset makes not so great scenery, beautiful ;)

買い物の帰りの信号待ち。夕日ってあんまり奇麗じゃない景色でもビューティフルにしてしまうのが凄い！笑

saw a pretty rainbows after the all-day rain. it's very subtle but there were 2 rainbows, you can kinda see it on the outer edge.

朝からずっーと雨、夕方にやんでくれて虹がみれました。見えにくいけど外側にうっすらとした虹がもう一つ。

it's that time of the year and i see these yellow flowers around the neighborhood again.

また家の周りで可愛い黄色の菜の花が見える季節になってきた。

daniel brought me home a bouquet of flowers from work the other day.

先日ダニエルが仕事で使わなくなった花のブーケも貰ってきてくれました。

this is the whole bouquet ;)

これが全体のブーケ。

when i was driving, saw a light colored sunset sky and had to take a picture! i was very lucky that i had my camera with me ;)

運転していたら薄い色の奇麗な夕日と出会ったので思わず写真を撮ってしまいました。たまたまカメラ持ってて良かった〜　＾＾

sometimes, it gets really foggy outside in the morning and you can't really see a block away! it looks pretty + serene but it kinda dangerous to drive :P　it goes away by around 10 am.

この辺ではときどきやたら霧が多い日朝があります。玄関から外に出てをみるとこんな感じ。なんとなく空想的な雰囲気がしちゃうけど運転する時はすぐ先が見えないのでちょっと危ない　＾＾；　でも１０時くらいにはもう霧はなくなっちゃいます。

sorry for the lack of posts lately...but now that kai's b-day party is over, i can really get back on it now!

最近新しい記事がアップされてません...でも今日カイのバースデーパーティが無事に終わったのでこれからまた開始しま〜す！とりあえずお知らせまで！

almost end of fall time with lots of leaves and acorns on the ground.

茶色葉っぱとどんぐりが地面にいっぱいで秋ももうそろそろ終わり。

kai was busy collecting acorns on the ground ;)

カイはどんぐり集めで忙しかったみたい　＾＾

my parents' friend makes these pretty moss balls and teaches classes　in tokyo. we went by his studio to check out these beautiful moss balls! i totally wanna make some now :) one on the picture is with a pink pearl tree.

父の友人の鳥居さんは苔玉の先生です。あまりにも素敵なので見に行ってきました！　私も一つ作るのにトライしたくなりました。＾＾　これはピンクの真珠の木苔玉です。鳥居先生のウェブサイトはこちらです。

orange orchid moss ball.

オレンジの欄の苔玉も洋と和のコンビネーションがいい感じ！　＾＾

japanese maples are turning color, such a beautiful deep red color, simply amazing!

今年のもみじの紅葉はかなりビューティフル！

went to a field where my parents grow some veggies. kai found edible japanese lantern and he found...

この間畑に行ってきました。海は食用ホオズキを見っけ！あとは何を見つけたでしょうか...

a huuuuuuuge zucchini! the length is about 16 inches long and 6 inch diameter!

巨大ズッキーニを発見！長さは40cm位（海の胴体よりも長いかも)で直径は１６cm位かな？　（正確には計りませんでした。＾＾；）

kai liked the zucchini a lot but he was having a hard carrying it around! ;)

海は巨大ズッキーニがお気に入りでがんばって持ってました。でもちょっと大変だったみたい。笑

the grass we planted last weekend in our backyard started to sprout now!

先週末庭に蒔いた芝の種の目がでてきました。

i happened to have my camera in the car on the way back home from errands. i got lucky and took some beautiful sunset pictures from the freeway.

たまたま買い物の帰りにカメラを持っていたので帰宅途中に夕焼けの写真をとりました。これは裏道のハイウェイからとった綺麗な色の景色...今日はラッキーな時間帯に帰りました。＾＾

loving the pretty colors...blues, greys, and yellow ( i think that what i'm gonna use for kai's 2nd b-day party color scheme :)

このブルー、グレーと黄色の組み合わせがすごく好き！　カイの２歳のバースデーパーティの色のテーマはこれでいこうと思っています。（この色の恐竜テーマかな？）

we have tons of windmills on the hills around the house to make electricity. they are prettier to look at during the sunset rather than during the day for sure!

家の周りにある丘には風力発電のための風車がすごーくたくさんあります。もちろん、夕焼けのなかでの風車のほうか昼間にみる風車よりもずっと綺麗です。

spotted this dragon fly in the garage, what pretty colors... terquioise and chocolate brown (like our wedding color scheme). i haven't seen this big of a dragon fly in a while and makes me really think that fall is coming soon (even tho it's super hot outside, 104 F!!!).

ガレ–ジのフロアでトンボを発見！　ターコイズとチョコレートブラウンの色がすごくキレー！（ちなにもこの組み合わせはウェディングのカラーコンビネーションでした＾＾）　普通のこの辺でよく飛んでいるトンボより、かなりサイズが大きいです。トンボを見ると秋がもうすぐそこなんだと思うけど、この熱さでは（今日は４０度）全然秋という感じがしません。ーー；　それにしても今日はあつー！

on the way home in the car, saw this weird, almost mysterious looking sky.

帰宅途中にちょっと妙な空をみたので、車の中からパチリ。

there's many wild fire around here and this one came the closest so far! we can see it from freeway exit over the hills and there's lots of smoke in the sky. i took this picture with my iphone so i couldn't zoom in :P

やっぱりこのあたりは太陽が強く、ドライな気候で風もあるとの事なので夏の間は山火事があちこちにあります。これはいままでで一番近くにあった山火事（でもこれは丘だから丘火事？）。フリーウェイの反対側の丘でした。iphoneでとった写真なのでズームできませんでした。＾＾；

bought some cantaloupes today at the grocery store 'cuz it was on sale for 77 cents each!

キャンタロープがスーパーで１個７７セントというセールをやっていたので買ってきました。かなりお買い得でした。　＾＾

i cut them up, put them in the fridge and gonna eat them for snack with kai after his nap :)

カットした後は冷蔵庫で冷やして、カイがお昼ねから起きたらおやつとして一緒に食べる予定です。＾＾

we went out to dinner on saturday with the family and on the way there we drove over the san mateo bridge. when we were driving on it, over looking the san francisco bay, i noticed the pretty colors in the sky. i kinda like the contrast of the beautiful nature vs. man-made tower in this picture.

i see this intense pink color flower on a tree blooming around the neighborhood lately. it's very pretty and looks interesting how it gets all clustered on a tip of a branch and has wavy textured flower. this is another mystery flower/tree that i don't know the name...anyone know?

we got new trees in the front yard 'cuz the other one died and HOA finally replaced them! yay :) but they didn't replace with the same tree and this one has small purple flowers (a little smaller than 1" in diameter) on them. they are pretty but i have no idea what they are called, does anyone know?

i love this wild sunflower, i'm saying "wild" cuz they are just blooming in the dirt field or side of the road around here. it's pretty cute, not big like the usual sunflower, it's only about 5" diameter (13 cm). i kinda want them in my backyard...maybe i can get some seeds when they are done blooming? hmm...

spotted pretty white agapanthus on a walk today. i do see the purple/blue color one a lot more than i see white around the neighborhood. i think i like the white one better...looks almost like fireworks (especially when it's fully bloomed!) on the side of the road :)

2 different colors of lilies are planted in this neighborhood, red and yellow ones. in our front yard, we have this red one (but ours are not blooming yet...actually not even close :P). like the richness of the red, very pretty!

happen to see a lady bug hanging out on this yellow one so i had to take a picture! this lady bug don't have any black spots on the back!?! interesting...don't they usually have some kind of spots? i think in japan, they always have 7(?) spots on the back...i think...

it was already kinda late to go on a walk today but went on a quick one anyways. i spotted some flowers that are kinda like nanohana (or rape blossoms in english) but in different colors. like pink ones, white ones, and some yellow ones all mixed in this one area on a side walk.

it's been raining and kinda feeling cold here in east bay area. deedee hasn't been too happy about not being able to going on a daily walk. all she does is sleeping on the nice fuzzy blanket that she is not supposed to sleep on (don't know why she just doesn't go to her bed!)

anyways, i've been noticing these shiny rain drops on the lily leaves in the front yard when i go get the mail in the past few days. i finally got around and took some pictures today with a macro lens.

i see a lot of lavender around the neighborhood. i guess it's very suited for the climate around here. i think i want some lavender in my backyard when we landscape (whenever that is...hopefully some landscaping this year?!?!).

some flowers that i noticed when we went on a walk cuz they have such a pretty, vivid colors to them.

i don't know the name of the tree (*update* my mom found a name for this tree and it's called platanus) but i thought this was cute tree cuz it has red fuzzy balls on them.

this is what you see a lot around here...those yellow "nanohana" flowers, palm trees and mountains.

this is our number 1 favorite fruit! housui asian pear that we got from japanese market last weekend. we gonna eat it for dessert tonight, yum!

found nanohana field (i guess they are called rape blossoms in english, yes, very odd name...) near the park we go to. it was pretty big area full of these flowers in the undeveloped area of our neighborhood.

as you can see, it goes on and on for a while. must be very pretty to look out the window to see a field of "yellow" if you live in those houses back there.

saw this patch of yellow flower (or just some kind of weeds?) right across the street from our house. i thought they are cute and lively.

when we went on a walk, we noticed this very intense purple color flower that's growing on the neighbor's fence. i have no idea what this flower is called (does anyone know??) but it caught my eye for the color and the uniqueness of it. it almost looks like clustered baby orchids in vine form...

since the season is changing, i see more and more flowers blooming around the house and i started to appreciate the beauty of the nature. i see some weeds on the side of the road but some of them have such pretty color flowers! anyways, i'll probably taking more pictures of the nature, so stay tuned...

daniel brought home some veggie plants he got for free at work. one of it says "burpless cucumbers" which i never heard of (hope it will be good...) but the other one is a complete mystery. he says it's some kind of pepper plant but i don't know about that... does anyone know what plant that is?

it hailed for like 10 min. here today around 4 pm. it wasn't too cold (think it was around 48F/8.9C) but i guess it was cold way up there in the sky? just amazed me cuz it was raining here and there today but hailing seemed like it was out of nowhere!

(this is a pic of door mat to the backyard)

after hailing, we got this amazing, beautiful orange-y sunset in front of the house. it was still raining a little bit but wow, don't see that very often!

went to visit kai's grandma this weekend and on the way home, we decided to go shopping in the city. golden gate was super foggy, we thought it was a wild fire and smoke coming out, but it ended up being a fog! totally crazy to see how fast fog was moving in such a massive amount!

pretty colors.