昨日、幼友達のE.Nさんから立派な柚子の枝をいただきました！お昼過ぎに「ねえ、柚子いる？」と電話があって返事は勿論「いただく〜っ！」。しかも図々しく「枝でチョーダイ、短いのじゃなくて大きいのね」と。去年もEさんからたっくさんの柚子をいただき、中に枝も一本入っていて嬉しかったのを思い出し、今度は何とも大胆なリクエストをしてしまいました。柚子は鋭いトゲがあるので枝を切るのは大変なのに…。明日はお朔日（ついたち）で多賀大社近辺は賑わいます。私のカフェもイザナミマーケットの一環として１３７３円で食事を提供します。床の間や蔵に柚子の枝があったら…と友情に甘えて欲張ってしまいました。しばらくして、大きな枝を２本も持ってEさんが来てくれました！枝のトゲは丁寧に切ってありました。グループでお客様が見えていたので対応に追われてEさんにはお礼を言う間もないくらいの慌ただしさでしたが本当に感謝です。素敵な枝を床の間と蔵の壺にそのまま入れました。見事な枝ぶりです。手に持っている間もほんのり柚子のいい香りがしていました。床の間の陶板は日野の福始窯の竹村嘉造さんからいただいたばかりのものです。クリムトのデザインにヒントを得ているそうです。Yesterday, my childhood friend E.N brought big branches for me. He called me in the afternoon saying "Do you like citrons ?". Of course I responded "Yes, I would like to have them!". I was also shameless enough to request him to bring a big branch with citrons and not only the citrons. I know that the citron tree has many sharp thorns so it must have been hard for him to cut the branch. Nevertheless I wanted to ask him to bring it because I expected that many people would visit the shrine on the first day of the month and some of them might stop by my cafe for tea. I want them to enjoy the branch. After a while, E came to me with two big citron branches! He kindly cut all the thorns for me. When he came, there were customers in the group, and I was busy and had almost no time to speak with him. I felt so bad about it and thanked him very much. They are wonderful branches. I put them in old flower vases in an alcove of the main guest room and warehouse. The ceramic tile is by Yoshizo Takemura who is a potter in Hino which I recently received from him. He said that he got inspiration for the pattern from Klimt.
