Mother's Day 2015 - Blueberry Picking at Underwood Farm

Late post for Mother's Day.

We went blueberry picking in Somis for Mother's day taking along my grandma as well. She loved it so much!! Fruit is so expensive in Japan, it was a treat for her to be able to pick and eat blueberries. It was lots of fun and they were really big and sweet too. The strawberries were fun picking too, a little harder since you had to search for them. The blueberries were so abundant, you could just stay at one bush or one row and be done. There were lots and lots of blueberry bushes. The day started off cloudy but eventually the sun came out and it turned out to be a humid day. My heart was not into this wholeheartedly because of Little P. This same day, we took him to the vet after blueberry picking so I was worried the whole morning. Nonetheless, we had a fun time picking and everyone got their share of blueberries (and I felt a bit more humble towards farmers and pickers who pick and harvest fruit, it's tough work!).

(The Man picking blueberries)

(Beautiful bushes of berries)

(Aisles and rows of blueberry bushes)

(My sweet grandma fooling around with her hat as she picks berries)

(The Lady and her grandma)

(Grandma and my mom)

(I love this photo of these two)

(My grandma was full of energy that day, she kept picking and picking!)

(Super sweet strawberries!)

(I love my grandma's happy smile)

(Selfie with grandma!)

(Strawberry picking! Was a bit harder since it was low to the ground)

(Bento lunch time!! Courtesy of my mom and grandma: onigiri, tempura, tamagoyaki)

(We went to the Flower Mart in DTLA together and bought some beautiful orchids)

(Three generations!)

Thankful,
The Lady

Little P and The Garden

My little P....thank goodness he is a fighter too. What a strong boy he is. It's been about 1.5 since we discovered his growth and took him to the vet. The incision made by the lousy vet is now healing up nicely, but the growth is still very prominent. He's been refusing his antibiotics too. In the beginning, he used to take it quietly without protest, but lately he's been fidgety and frantic. I guess he is "genki" again (which means well in Japanese). He has about the same amount of energy, jumps around everywhere, eats normally, drinks normally, sleeps well. He just has that weird growth on him, which I'm hoping doesn't affect him too much. I love him the way he is, and I hope he stays with us for a while.

In other news, the Garden has been thriving beautifully!!! I'm so happy to see so many green tomatoes!! And for the first time, we have PEAS!! Yay for our little veggie garden! We have 2 small pods of peas right now. I hope they continue growing. Cilantro's doing well except there's small white flowers growing on them and the squash is still growing, no flowers yet.

(small pod of peas)

(so excited to see this!! Yes peas!)

(gorgeous cluster of cherry tomatoes)

Feeling Happy,
The Lady

My Grandpa, the fighter

My grandpa is a fighter. 

And leaving is always so hard. So emotionally difficult. 

I had the pleasure of spending a week with him this time, which I am eternally grateful. I would accompany him to his home or hospital where he would get dialysis for his kidney. I would bring him lunches on days off from dialysis and watch him eat, try to talk to him and watch him fall asleep. I hope he enjoyed my company as well. He would mostly cry when he saw me, and after a while, he would just be quiet and stare at my face.

He was never much of a talker, my grandpa. He never really told stories or how he felt like my grandma. My grandma is very transparent (which I appreciated) and my grandpa a bit more reserved. Moreso now, he doesn't talk. But he tells me he is happy to see me with his tears and his eyes. He doesn't have to say much to express that. I know that he wishes he wasn't in this condition and that he could come back home to LA with me, just to visit a while longer. 

Old age and getting old is terrible. I wish I could stop it. But the most I could do for my grandpa at this stage was just to hold his hand and be by his side. I hope he continues to fight and stay with us as long as possible.

(Grandpa eating lunch at his home)

(He loved the bagel I brought him. He loves bagels, especially onion bagels. I'm glad
he enjoyed it)

(On my way back to my aunt's house, I would pass the Hankyu train station. This trainline has so many
memories tied to me and my family. I love this burgundy color train.)

(Outside the terminal at Itami)

(ANA check in counter at Itami)

(I don't quite remember this airport but before KIX was built, this was the airport we used a lot. My dad
has fond memories of this place)

(Waiting area at Itami)

My Bachan's bento are the best. Like literally, all of her children (my mom and aunts) rave about it. Still to this day, they are adults but love having her make their lunches (bento). Likewise, my grandma's grandchildren (The Lady and my sister) love her bento too. She makes the BEST tamago yaki (sweet egg omelet) and I love her onigiri. This was a fantastic bento, my kind of bento. Tamagoyaki, onigiri, hanpen and Japanese sausages. My goodness, it was glorious. When we got to Haneda, we finally got a place to sit and a few minutes before we had to board, so we ate our really late dinner together.

The pros of traveling with an elderly woman is getting upgraded. We were upgraded to Economy Premium and were right in the front row seats. The leg room was fabulous, plus we got little cool things like slippers to walk around the airplane with. I love flying with ANA!! However, this seat did get slightly annoying because I had no where to put my feet again. It just like danged in the air (because I'm short), I wish I had an ottoman or something.

(My grammy, all set and ready to go! I can't believe how lucky I am to still be
able to travel with her!)

.........................And we're back in LA. Wow, big jump. The first few days are always such a culture shock to me. It always has been, ever since I was a child. Coming back is depressing and usually takes me a week or so to get back in the norm of things.

The Man made progress on the ceiling and rushed to finish this all up by the time I got home. The ceiling drywall was screwed in and the lights were installed. We're still missing the two surface mounts, but the recessed lighting is in. Ceiling looks great! Again, the Man has proven he can do anything! (and thank you to the Man and his mom for cleaning up the disgusting mess before I got home).

Caught In Two Worlds,
The Lady

The garden state

Well, a week being gone and some if not most of the veggies were just destroyed by pests and insects!! The butter lettuce, gone. Absolutely obliterated. Basil, non-existent. Kale, goodbye. Cilantro is doing okay, but needed some TLC. The peas were half eaten, some are surviving but it's not looking too good! So sad!! The only thriving plants are basically the tomatoes. Lesson learned about this......there is no such thing as organic planting. One cannot grow veggies without using some form of pesticides or pest control :(

(At least my tomatoes are thriving, if nothing else)

In other news, of course I've been enjoying my grandma's company while she is here in the States, as well as her home cooking. She's the best cook ever! I love everything she makes, including her world famous (just kidding) Potato Salad, which the Man loves as well, her Kinpira Gobo (burdock roots and carrots) and Shirae (tofu mixed with spinach and sweet miso). All my favorites!

(Chikuwa brought from Japan!)

The Man also finally finished (well almost) his work table project, which we started in February. It came together quite nicely but it's heavy and sturdy as heck. It took both of us to flip this table over.

My grandma loves organizing and one of her things is cleaning up the unwanted weeds and growing plants. She basically took off all the fern on the shared fence so the tomato plants could get better sunlight.

We also planted more basil since the original ones got all eaten up. I also brought back some Shiso seeds from Japan which we also planted. Hope they come out well this time!

Green thumbing it,
The Lady