More than 1 meter of snow!

Hakuba Goryu & Hakuba 47 ski slopes have gained totally more than 100cms of snow up there. Most of slopes are now available except a few. Enjoy your 3 days holiday from tomorrow!!!

Hayaokidori website

Gaining some bunch of snow!

Had not gotten enough snow this season yet but finally we got some!! Snow removing bulldozers are wor ing! Pangies in our garden are under the snow as you see.
Weather forcast says it'll be snowy all day long today, seems winter has come. Grand-prix course at Hakuba Goryu ski slope will be scheduled to get available today, check it out Japanese only though... :(
Looking forward to meeting you here in Hakuba,especially at Hayaokidori :)

Hayaokidori website

Hakuba Goryu &47 Today

Hakuba Goryu & Hakuba 47 ski slopes are partially available. Goryu panorama course, 47 along Line-E lift are.
Here's a live cam
Here'sGoryu ski slope report

Have fun at Hakuba!

Hayaokidori website

Ski slopes open for 2011-2012 season

Hakuba Goryu & Hakuba 47 ski slopes will be partially available from tomorrow Nov. 26th 2011.(This pic is the one taken at the panorama course at Goryu in March 2008)


We provide some valuable plans with ski passes.

Twin room

Quadruplet room

We look forward to see you again at our place :-)

Hayaokidori website

Chervil

It has been hotter or colder than usual this year, a bit strange weather here and there in Japan. Everything seems to be harvested less than usual, our black beans in the tiny farm have not been ready yet. But chervils in some of our pots grow alright. As you see, they look sensitive and weak but actually they grow well you provide everything they like. They survive in the snow! Most herbs love strong sunshine but they are one of a few exceptions. They prefer cooler place where there's some shades like just a bottom of big trees. They prefer moist and fertilized sand. We put some leaf mould for it to keep them that way. If it's November, strong sunshine like in summer never kills them, so sometimes we put them in sunshine to grow.
They smells good in your mouth, just slightly though. One of our favorite herb for cooking :-)

Hayaokidori website

The old JNR/JR express trains running the layout.

A family guest enjoyed running their own trains in our layout the other day.

Good to see long trains running the layout slowly!

Hayaokidori website

The typhoon 15th(Roke) is hitting entire Japan

The typhoon 15th (Roke) is now hitting entire Japan. Regional goverments inform inhabitants to escape to shelters. We hope everyone is alright there.

Hayaokidori website

Tomatoes 2011

Maybe because of the much rainfall and lacking of sunshine in the last half of this previous August, tomatoes had not grown enough much. Look as if they were mini tomatoes but not. Beans also look smaller than usual. I believe it firmly that sunshine is really important to grow vegitables. How about your house farms?

Hayaokidori website

Peach pudding

Tried to make some peach puddings and done :-) Expected a lot more beautiful in color, but tastes good because enough much cream were used. Also tried some cups for it. Small ones for individual demands and large ones for party size. The one in the pic here is served from a large one by adding a couple of mints.

Hayaokidori website

Our online shop is now available.Click hereAt the moment, it's only in Japanese. Have to find a shopping cart which works with English as well. We will add goods little by little. Thanks for your concern.

Hayaokidori website

Japan won at the women's world cup soccer!

Japan won at the women's soccer world cup 2011 held in Germany.
A good news after a long interval for Japanese people! Pitty it was around 3-4 a.m. when the game was broadcasted here in Japan. I was not able to watch it due to sleeping. Thanks for encouraging us all.

Hayaokidori website

Echium bluebedder is now in bloom.

I have tried to have some echium bluebedders get in bloom this year as well as I failed it last year. I found some are in bloom today, yay! As the name says, I guess it would be very beautiful if a lot many more are in bloom, but just some for now. Blue flowers like delfiniums, echium bluebedders are in bloom one after another at this moment in my place because our house is painted in red, so red flowers can't look gorgeous in front of our house :( This could bother us sometimes.

Hayaokidori website

Fireflies at Snowharp

Hayaokidori website

What's the name of this flower?

I felt it lazy to transplant flowers every season every year, so I just seeded "wild flower" in which some kinds of flowers seed were. One of them still gets in bloom every rainy season at this time of the year. But I have no idea the name. Does anyone know the name of this flower? Thanks in advance.

Hayaokidori website

Delfiniums against strong wind

It's rare to have this strong and warm wind here in Hakuba. I guessed maybe a typhoon was getting close but it did not seem like that when I checked weather forecast.
But anyway this strong wind would hurt delfiniums especially tall ones. As you see, some are now taller than 2 meters tall but poles are only 1.8 meters and some part of them - probably 30cms - are in the ground. So I can not help being kinda nervous when the wind goes strong. I have already moved delfiniums in pots to my house side to avoid wind.

Hayaokidori website

How to grow delfiniums

People sometimes ask me how I grow delfiniums. Not an unique way, just how people do when they grow flowers. I seed some delfinium seeds in autumn ( I used to seed some in spring before ). And transplant them again and again to do #8-#10 size pots or into flower beds. This pic shows the pots I seeded some into last autumn. Depends on each and ever delfinium, some grow faster and some do slower, so some of them still stay in the same pots even now.


Transplanted once into a bit bigger pots. I did it in this spring.





Some that grow faster are already transplanted into #6 size pots. Probably they don't get in bloom this rainy season yet, but may do in autumn. More than 1 year needed for delfiniums to be in bloom after being seeded judging from experience here in Hakuba. In average, let's say 2 years needed for it.
In cool place like Hakuba, delfiniums survive for some years, but they are not strong enough for hot and humid weather, so if it's along the Pacific ocean side western than Kanto region, they survive less than a year. Every year you will find some of them don't germinate, maybe 20-30 per cent of them don't.

If you would like to seed some delfiniums, pay attention below.　
#1- Choose when it's around 15-20 C, it's the best temperture for delminiums to germinate, but if it's over 23C, they don't.
#2- Their seeds don't survive long enough.

With reasons above, if you can get some fresh seeds, I recommend you to seed them in autumn. But if you "buy" some from seeds shop etc, probably it's harvested at the previous year, so maybe you are to seed them in spring.


Hayaokidori website

Delfiniums are in bloom

Finally delfiniums are in bloom now. Just a couple of pots are in bloom now, hopefully it'll go one after another soon.

Hayaokidori website

Delfiniums are ready for bloom

At this time of the year - just begining of the rainy season - delfiniums grow a lot to get bigger and bigger. Some of them reach 2 meters in height. Now they are ready for bloom, many buds are put around. I love their blue-azure color which changes time to time and angle. No other flowers can look like them.

I tried to seed them in autumn last year for the first time. I always did it in spring but found their seeds didn't survive long so I just tried and got better result.The pot in a black one is what i seeded last year and already replaced from a small pot. Now i have to transplant it to the bigger unglazed #6 size pot. With this way you can make a strong pot because when you transplant a pot again and again making the pot bigger and bigger, their roots grow constantly. Probably it takes around 2 years for delfinium to be transplanged in a flower bed by me. while they are small, I don't think they can survive in a flower bed.
I look forward seeing the blue-azure color this summer as well!

Hayaokidori website

My old ED100 is back!

One of my blog reader offered me to transfer my old ED100 model train locomotive to him to get repaird as he saw the difficulty to replace the engine. It seems that the situation was tough even for him, my loco was transfered somewhere else again to get repaird. Finally it got back to me the other day to run in the layout again, yay!

Thanks for everyone who took care of my old ED100.
Wish I could do this kind of repairing by myself.
Seems that everyone has something good at and something not good at :(
Tweet


Hayaokidori website

Dog teeth violet- Katakuri flowers

Finally dog teeth violets are getting in bloom. As we got more snow than usual this time, flowers tend to get in bloom latter than usual. Dog teeth vilet is our village symbol flower, as you see, they look like bowing like cyclamen.
You may be able to see dog teeth violet, pheasant's eyes and zazenso flowers together around Golden Week time. Why don't you join us here in Hakuba!?

Tweet


Hayaokidori website

We accept those who were suffered by the earthquake on March 11th 2011

The subject line says it all, we are not a 5 star hotel, we have beds and baths.

http://www.facebook.com/ReliefHousingJP?sk=wall#!/ReliefHousingJP?sk=info

Hayaokidori website

Candle in the snow '2011

Finally we got enough bunch of snow on our flowerbeds to enojoy candles in the snow there.
I put candles and make fire on them when we got enough bunch of snow which I remove by my snowblower. Let's say approximately when it reaches 1 meter tall.
Bored if we can not find anything fun in this cruel long winter to survive. What do you find to enjoy in winter?

Hayaokidori website

Snow removing whole day long!

The biggest snowfall this season since last night. I needed to remove the snow, ready to go! 。
Around the front. Keep throwing the snow at the border with a path. Have to be careful not to injure anyone or any cars.




Our parking.

Look at the left caterpillar of the snow blower! We got 40-50cms snow only in a night! We are located along the main road which reaches Hakuba Goryu ski slope, so I always need to be careful passers by and traffics when I remove snow.





Opposite side of our house
No public snow removing service available there. So when we need to remove snow there, I do.... but if it's not needed, I don't lol




The roof of our warehouse is not steep enough for the snow to drop off by itself, so I need to climb there to remove it all. This picture is not the one this time, it's one in the past. But anyway I need to do the same every winter.

Now I am in my 50's, honestly saying it's a bit tough to do snow removing job whole day long. But have to enjoy it while I live here. If I lived in a warmer place, probably i don't have a chance to do.
They say it will be snowy tonight and tomorrow as well, probably i will do it again tomorrow as well.


Hayaokidori website

Cooked some apple pies and lasagna

It was snowing outside today but no need to remove snow. I concentrated on cooking some apple pies and lasagna. The rum I bought the other day got chance to be used.




Making some apple fillings.






Wrap the apple fillings by a couple of pie sheets which are unfrozen in a confy room temperture.




alt="P1120008.JPG" />Grill them in an oven.





Done! Put some ice cream on top of an apple pie which is just done. What an amazing combination but I cant take it coz of my diet!
（＾＾；；；






Making some lasagna sauce.





I use this lasagna. Wave shape at the longer edge. The waves bothers the lasagna to get connected when they are boiled.





Anyway, they connect easily in hot water, so I use this kind of "secret weapon" to make it easier to cook!




Put some boiled lasagna then sause, repeat it some time and put some white sauce and cheese on top. Put them in an oven to grill. A bit of fresh rosemarry makes it richer.
　I cut the lasagna when I put them in the oven board, so it needs more time for me to cook but easier to eat when they are done.

Hayaokidori website

New digital camera

I bought a new digital camera which enables to connect 3 pictures as one.
It's not powered by a lithium battery but by 4 size AA batteries. I almost said "huh? AA size batteries?" but might be convenient while I am out. It's not easy to charge a lithium battery there but easier to get some AA size batteries.　

First trial to make one.

Erm... I guess perhaps you can find the connection part very easily lol...
I have to train the skill how to do!!!
A bit wonder this is good or bad when we get this kind of useful stuff.

Hayaokidori website

A Happy New Year 2011

Bought a bottle of Rum today as our stock went less and less. I don't drink alcohol in regular bases, just an occasional drinker. But I use some for cooking. Rum is a must to cook apple pie.

Hayaokidori website