To pass winter for plants with full of joy and sorrow

I am a little bit confused why some plants were not able to survive winter and others were able to do better than usual. Maybe because of this warmer winter we had this season or maybe because of other reasons. This picture is a size 6 pot chervil. Not that bad condition to have another new Spring.



A lot bigger pots full of chervils. Looks a little bit tired :(



Tulips. Grows better than usual. Maybe because the warm weather in this winter.




Rosemaries. Also better condition maybe because of the warmer weather. But just wondering if the temperture affects even plants inside of the house in winter?





Delifinium in a flower bed. It showed up a little bit earlier than usual. An important kind of plants which survives for some plural years. Wonder how long it has survived.





Oreganos also seem to success surviving this winter. They survive outside of the house, so it does not bother me at all.





On the other hand, some plants were not able to survive this winter.
Narcissusesto which get in bloom in midwinter. For me, it's just natural to have this pops up in my mind when people say "Suisen" in Japanese. Daffodils pop up for someone, but narcissuses for me because I was raised up and lived in Kansai area where narcissuses were just natural and popular. Narcissuses get in bloom in midwinter when no other flowers get in bloom. They smells very elegant and have very tiny cute flowers.
I left them in some pots outside of the house. Not sure what was wrong. Maybe because snow got on top of the pots or maybe because of the warmer weather this winter. They even didnt have leaves at the time of blooming and finally went bad :(
In Kansai region where I lived before, we just put them in a flowerbed and waited for the bloom. They got in bloom in midwinter. Probably I guess they need very "dry" and "cold" situation. When snow covers the pots, it could provide some moist which bothers them to grow? I am not really sure but would like to know the exact reasons why.
I would like to have them in bloom next year to welcome our guests.


Thymes were almost annihilated. I thought it was one of the easiest herbs to survive winter, so it was a kind of shock to see them dead. What was wrong? :(






Pangies I transplanted into a flowerbed the other day. You can see some lavenders behind them.






A combination of yellow and orange pangies in a pot with a stand. A combination just to express joy to have another new Spring.






A combination of white and red pangies. I guess probably it's better to have ones without marks at the center.







Most rosemaries had some roots out of the bottom of the pots. I needed to transplant them into bigger pots. So I did it from 6 size pots to 8 size pots.







When I need to transplant 7 rosemaries, I need to more sand than expected. Need to place them somewhere sunlight does not reach for a while.





Hayaokidori website

Italy accepts help

Big earthquakes keeps hitting central Italy.

Italy, with Berlsconi as a prime minister, finally accepts helps offered by other countries after has been refusing any since April 6th 2009 when the big earthquakes occured at the center of the country just about 100kms apart from Rome.
Japan sometimes has earthquakes everywhere in the country. If I remember right, Japan also did the same when we had a big one around Kobe in 1995. Some countries offered this and others did that but Japan refused the most of them. I have no idea why some countries do that when nations in the country need a lot help.
In my opinion, in these case politicians should not refuse any proposals for help if it's to rescue the nation. But probably a lot often the decision would be made in different point of view which I can never imagine.
Actually I had been worried until when Italy would refuse proposals because we had hard time at the time of Kobe earthquakes in 1995.

Probably I guess it needs much time to reconstruct the life there, every time when earthquakes hit somewhere in this earth I relly pray it will go alright as soon as possible as a human who lives in a country of earthquakes.

Hayaokidori website

Finished repairing my ED70!

Finally I made it to repair my ED70 electric locomotive. It seemed that the motor itself was out of order.

I did stuff like followings.
#1 Took the loco into pieces.
#2 Checked the wires.
#3 Replaced the broken wires.
#4 Took off the motor and replaced it into a new one which one of our Japanese blog regular reader "Yamashina no Tecchan" presented me last year :-)



This is the original motor which my ED70 held. It wears a smaller gear box because it needed to supply the original gear box for ED70.


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All former JNR(Japan National Railways) colors!

　A customer who stayed in our place a couple days ago brought many train cars, locomotives which were all painted in JNR color. Of course they ran the layout. The EMU train running in the clip is the former JNR 153 series train provided for the limited fast service around Kansai area - Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. Both end cars were with lower windows at the control rooms.


A streamlined train car 52 series which were built for Kansai area fast service train soon after the WW2 was over. They moved around here and there and at their last years, they were active in Iida line ( Toyohashi in Aichi prefecture - Tatsuno in Nagano prefecture ). In 1977 when I was a senior high student, I talked about getting on this train with my friends but we were not able to make it. We can not do anything after something disappears so we should do make it while they are avaiable!




Old passenger cars local train pulled by a DF50 series diesel locomotive. It reminds me of the old Fukuchiyama line, San'in main line local trains. DF50 was a type of diesel locomotive which holds motors as well as a diesel engine. The diesel engine worked as a motor generator to provide electricity to the motors. Then the motors worked to run the locomotive to pull passneger cars, freight cars etc. In short, the engine on this DF50 did not work directly to drive the wheels, just worked to provide electricity. This type of diesel locomotives seemed to be a major system for the former JNR but it anyway had more complicated mechanics and heavier weight compared to the other type of diesel locomotives like DD51 which drive wheels directly by their engines. So, the latter type of diesel locomotives got major.


DD51 diesel locomotive pulling an old passenger cars train. This kind of scene were available in the good old days anywhere in JNR lines which were not electrified.



A DD51 with a DE10 as a leading helper running uphills beside a cross country sking trail.




An Ozashiki(Tatami matt) train pulled by an EF65(500). I think this coloring is a best fit for EF65(500).




An old passenger cars train pulled by a steam loco C55. The white line at its waists looks cool.




DF50, C53?, DE10? (left to right ).
Just an usual scene in good old '60s.



I enjoyed the former JNR trains which I don't have after a long interval. Also enjoy our customers bring their own trains to drive in our layout. The customer this time seem to build everything by himself. I envy him, wish I could have that skill! :(


Hayaokidori website

Repairing ED70

Unscrewed some to check the inside to see how lines are connected. Wrote it down to find what and where is wrong. Since I am not good at this kind of stuff and don't get used to it, accidentally I cut a line :( Also wrote it down. I need to check everything to find the problem.

Hayaokidori website

Train (model train) magazines

Drove my car to Oomachi city today to find some magazines for references to repair my ED70 loco. But I did not find anything for it at all and bought 4 magazines that are not related to it at all. :(
I would read them from now on at my craft desk, hope I can find anything which helps to repair my ED70. It's rare for me to buy this many train magazines at a time.

Hayaokidori website

Repairing ED70

　A little bit before I mentioned about my ED70 electric locomotive was bad condition. I am not good at electronics and as is often the case with that situation I just left it as it was. Now I got curious about it again and unscrewed it to check things.
I know I need to connect the motor to plus and minus even if I were so bad at electronics. But if there's something inbetween the motor and the rails, I really don't have idea what to check. I have a tester but not sure what I should check. I don't want to destroy anything when I go ahead not knowing anything right.　
Oh, I should have listend to what teachers told in the class in school!!
(^^;; I was so allergic when I heard "electronics".

Something just popped up in my mind now. The floor board of this ED70 does not reach to the end of the body, which may enable me to put another motor easily. If it's possible, I can make it way stronger to pull extra passenger cars.

Hayaokidori website