１１月５日（火曜日）２０１９ 
連休最後の昨日、カフェを開けようかどうしようか迷いましたが定休日なので思い切って閉めて 宮島幸雄さんのステンドグラス展に出かけました。会場は守山の「うの家」で滋賀県から唯一人わが国の宰相になった宇野宗佑氏の生家です。江戸時代は宿場に馬や人足（労働力）を提供していたようですが、明治以後、造り酒屋になったそうです。明治初期に建てられたという建物は重厚で風情ある佇まい。数年前に守山市に譲渡されてからは中にレストランが入ったり様々なイベント会場としても使われています。さて、今回の展示会はランプが主でした。以前、宮島さんからステンドグラスの鑑賞の仕方や製作にあたって非常に綿密な過程を踏んでいらっしゃることなど伺いましたが、光がステンドグラスの微妙な色彩や濃淡、屈折を通して優しく目に入ってくるのを作品から間近に鑑賞できました。グラスを囲むハンダ付けも繊細な技術で見事でした。ところで、南彦根に帰って買い物をして自転車のところに戻ると、何とかわいいピンクのアンパンマンの自転車が隣に並んでいました！こんな嬉しいことってあるでしょうか？ご褒美をもらった気分でした！Since yesterday was the last day of consecutive holidays, I hesitated to close my cafe, but finally decided to do so as it is a regular closing day on Monday. I went to an exhibition of stained glass by Yukio Miyajima. It was held at "Uno House" in Moriyama where Mr. Sosuke Uno was born and raised. Sosuke Uno was the 57th prime minister of Japan and he was the only prime minister from Shiga prefecture. In Edo period, Uno House provided horses and laborers to a posting station but after the Meiji era, it became a sake brewery. The house was built in early Meiji (around 1870), and it is profound and tasteful. After the ownership of the house was transferred to the city of Moriyama from the Uno family, the house has been used as a restaurant and place for many events. Well, this time, Mr. Miyajima exhibited lamps mainly. I heard from Mr. Miyajima about the way of appreciating stained glass and the delicate processes of creating his works. I am grateful to appreciate his works, where light comes out gently through sensitively colored and shaded stained glass. The soldering around stained glasses are also superb. By the way, when I came back to bicycle parking after stopping by the grocery store, I found a cute pinkish children's bicycle with Anpanman's character next to mine. What a pleasant scene it was! I thought I was very lucky to stop my bicycle in that spot.

宮島夫妻

１０月３１日（木曜日）２０１９ 
１０月半ばで日にちが経ちましたが、岩手の友人、Yさんから贈り物が届きました。 「いわて三陸　海と森のなたね油」と、やえはた自然農園のクッキー二種「みそっこ」「HOPI COOKIES（ホピクッキー）」。なたね油は山田周生さんが代表をつとめるユナイテッドグリーンが復興支援の活動で作られているものです。https://www.magariya.net/makers/united-green/ 今年は鹿が入り込んで菜種の収穫も減ったことでしょう。 貴重な油を送っていただきました。やえはた自然農園は花巻市の藤根さんご夫妻が農薬も肥料も使わずに農作物を作っていらっしゃるようで、そこで、このお菓子も生まれたようです。http://yaehata.com/wp/「みそっこ」はその名の通り味噌クッキーでパッケージが３つあって「レモン」「三陸なたね」「マヤナッツ」の味に分かれていました。クッキーがふうせん形で可愛らしくラベルもやさしいです。美味しくいただきました。ホピクッキーは、アメリカインディアン、ホピ族のカチーナと呼ばれる精霊を形作ったクッキーで、一人一人の精霊について丁寧な説明書がついていました。山田さん伝授のクッキーでしょう。山田さんはホピ族と一緒に過ごされた経験があるようですから、今度滋賀にいらしたらその時のお話をお聞きしましょう。先の台風で岩手も大きな被害があったようで皆さんご苦労なさっていることでしょう。滋賀から遠く離れた岩手ですが、ふとしたキッカケが点と点を繋ぎ、思いを馳せることができるのは幸福なことだと思います。Yさん、ありがとうございます。A while ago in the middle of October, I received gifts from my friend, Ms. Y who is living in Iwate prefecture. They are rapeseed oil from Sanriku Coast and two kinds of cookies "Misokko" and "Hopi Cookies" from Yaehata Organic Farm. The rapeseed oil is produced by United-green of which Mr. Shusei Yamada is a representative, for the purpose of reconstruction support following the Great East Japan eathquake. https://www.magariya.net/makers/united-green/ I guess that the harvest of  rapeseed oil must have decreased because recently wild deer entered their farm and ate the rapeseed. I appreciated my friend to send this precious oil to me. Mr. and Mrs. Fujine in Hanamaki run Yaehata Organic Farm. http://yaehata.com/wp/ They are growing rice and vegetables without using any pesticides. They are also making cookies. One of the cookies which I received are Miso Cookies which are balloon shaped and the labels of the packages are cute. They are very good! The other cookies are named HOPI COOKIES. The Hopi are a Native American tribe and the cookies are shaped like kachinas (invisible spirits of life). I learned about six different kachinas by an explanation sheet coming with cookies. I guess Mr. Shusei Yamada gave the idea of making these cookies because he had an experience to be with the Hopi for a couple of weeks. I look forward to hearing more about the Hopi from him when he comes to Shiga next year. Due to the previous big typhoon, Iwate region was also damaged a lot and people there must be having a hard time now. Iwate is very far from Shiga, but I am grateful that we got to know each other by chance. Thank you, Ms.Y.Y!!

１０月２８日（月曜日）２０１９ 
今年１月２８日に仕込んだ味噌が出来ました。正真正銘「手作り味噌」です。去年教えてもらって初めて挑戦した味噌があまりに美味しかったので今年はその倍仕込みました。ちゃんとできているか心配でしたが、納屋から出して壺を開けると、鮮やかな明るい茶色の味噌に仕上がっていました。半分ぐらいを深めの保存容器に入れて冷蔵庫へ。残りは丁寧にならして、その上に冷蔵庫に残っていた板粕を敷き詰めラップで覆って空気に触れないようにして、もう一度納屋に置きました。来年のお正月は自家製味噌を使った粕汁をメニューに加えようかと思っています。I prepared homemade miso at the end of January this year and it is ready now! It is really "Home-made miso". I learned how to make miso from Ms. N.N, a farmer in Taga and I took on the challenge with some other people. I was very satisfied with "my miso" which was preserved in a jar in a storage house and became a very mild and tasty miso, so this year I prepared double the amount of last year. While waiting for ten months until it was done, I was worried whether the process was OK or not. Today, when I took out the jar from the storage house and opened the cover, beautiful bright brown miso appeared underneath. I am relieved and feel so happy now. I took half of the miso out from the jar and put it into another container to keep in the refrigerator. Smoothing the surface of the remaining miso in the jar, I spread sake lees which had been in the refrigerator on top. I then covered the jar with wrap to not let the miso contact the air in order to prevent mold, and put it back in the storage house. I am now planning to serve home-made miso soup in the cafe on New Years Day.

１０月２７日（日曜日）２０１９ 
ご存知の方からは「なあーんだ、知らなかったの？」と言われそうですが、本日、お客様から教えていただくまで私は本当に何にも知りませんでした。それは座敷の床の間の掛け軸の鳥の名前です。平井東庵が描いた 芙蓉と鳥で、芙蓉が秋の花なので今の季節に合うと思って掛けたのですが、さて、鳥の名前は「シジュウカラ」だそうです。守山から来てくださった親子連れの息子さんが、スマホにある写真を見せてくださり間違いないということでした。ところで、読み聞かせで五年生の教室に行きます。時間の関係で少しカットしますが、宮沢賢治の「よだかの星」を選びました。その話に出てくる「よだか」「鷹」「かわせみ」「はちすずめ」もネットで写真を探してコピーして生徒たちに見せる準備もしました。鳥について勉強した１日でした。Those of you who already know must be astounded by my ignorance but honestly I didn't know about the name of the bird on the hanging scroll in the guest room until today. I learned about it from one of the guests. Toan Hirai (1860-unknown) drew "Confederate rose & bird" and I chose it as a seasonal scroll, because Confederate rose is an autumn flower. Well, according to the customer, the name of the bird is titmouse (Sijyuukara in Japanese). A mother and her son from Moriyama city came to the cafe and let me know the name showing a picture of the bird on the screen of their smartphone. By the way, I am going to Taga Elementary School to read to fifth graders. I chose "Yodaka no hoshi (The Nighthawk Star)" by Kenji Miyazawa, so I will prepare some pictures of the birds in the story such as nighthawk, hawk, kingfisher, hummingbird which I searched on the Internet and I will show copies to the kids. It was an educational day for me to learn about the various birds. 

シジュウカラ

よだか

鷹（たか）

カワセミ

ハチスズメ（ハチドリ）

１０月２２日（火曜日）２０１９ 
道を歩いていると、金木犀の甘い香りがそこはかとなく漂ってきます。立ち止まって「どこに木があるんだろう...？」と辺りをキョロキョロ見回してしまいます。月曜日の朝、多賀小学校へ読み聞かせに行った帰りも、そんなことがありました。秋口から結構長い間、あちこちでこの素敵な香りに出会います。 先週の日曜日（10/20）は年に一度のふるさと楽市で多賀町に住む業者や集落の有志が自慢の商品や特産物を 絵馬通り沿いに仮設にできたテントや特性ブースで販売するイベントがあり、お天気もよく大勢の人で賑わいました。 我が多賀あさひやも、第三日曜のイザナミ市と重なって、餅粉ケーキの店頭販売に加えてイザナミランチ（1373円）も１０食限定で提供し大忙しでした。When I am walking outside this season, I can smell fragrant olives in the air. I always stop and look around wondering where the tree is. It happened on the way back home after story reading at Taga Elementary School Monday morning this week, too. For a while since the beginning of autumn, I encounter this sweet and nice fragrance everywhere. Last Sunday (10/20), "Furusato Raku-ichi" was held in Taga. It is organized once a year during this season by the town and people who run shops or people who come from small villages in Taga sell their specialty products at a temporary tent or booth. It was a clear Sunday and the main street was crowded with many people. It was also the same day of IZANAMI-ichi which is held every third Sunday of the month, so we were very busy preparing both Mochiko cake for selling in front of the cafe and ten portions of Izanami lunch. Thank God. It went so well.

１０月１７日（木曜日）２０１９ 
９月下旬から１０月上旬にかけて見てきたニューイングランドの初秋を紹介します。 市街地から少し離れたところにあるマーケットで、いつもトマトや新鮮な野菜、果物、花、チーズ、パンなどが豊富にあります。奥様が日本人だと聞いたことがあって、日本食で使う野菜なども結構そろっていて、きのこ類も豊富です。そこにマツタケがありました。日本では貴重なマツタケがこんな風に無造作に置かれることはないのでびっくりしました。そっと手に取ってみると確かにマツタケ。でも香りはそれほどではありませんでした。ワシントン州やニューハンプシャー州で採れるそうですが、アメリカの人はマツタケを食べる習慣はないので店頭に並ぶことは珍しいです。１ポンド（約450g)$19.98(約2000円）で他のきのこより割高ですが日本ほどではありません。マーケットの外に小菊の鉢植えや大小のかぼちゃ（パンプキン）がたくさん置かれてアメリカらしい秋の光景でした。お客は好みの大きさのかぼちゃを買って帰って玄関に置いて、ハロウィンが近づくと中をくり抜いてジャック・オー・ランタンを作って当日の夜は仮装した子供達を迎えます。Let me introduce early autumn in New England, where I was there for about two weeks. I went to a grocery store which is located a little bit away from downtown Boston. The store usually has many kinds of tomatoes, fresh vegetables, various kinds of fruits, flowers, cheese, bread and so on. I heard that the owner's wife is Japanese, so we can find many vegetables used in Japanese cooking. They also have many kinds of mushrooms. When I visited this grocery market, I found Matsutake mushrooms and I was surprised because they were placed in a display box carelessly. I gently picked one of them and examined the exterior. It was certainly Matsutake, but the smell was mild. I heard that Matsutake mushrooms are picked in such places like Washington state and New Hampshire state in the US. Since people in the US do not have a custom to eat Matsutake, it is rare to find them in a common grocery store. The price is 1Lb=$19.98, it is expensive but not as high as Japan. Outside of the market, there are small chrysanthemum pots and pumpkins of various sizes, all representing fall colors. Customers purchase the pumpkin of their favorite size and bring it back to their home. When Halloween is approaching, they make a Jack-o'-lantern to welcome kids who will wear costumes and visit their house to get candies.

１０月１６日（水曜日）２０１９ 
実りの秋をいろいろな方が届けてくださいます。今日は栗、柿、ゆず、サツマイモ、レタス、菊菜、かわいいカブを彦根の友人ご夫妻からいただきました。視覚的にも茶、オレンジ、黄緑、赤、緑、白と豊かな収穫の秋を楽しむことができます。全部、自宅の農地で採れたものだそうで、ずいぶん力のある農家さんだなと感心します。Many people brought me crops from their fruitful fall harvest. Today, I received chestnuts, persimmons, Yuzu (citron), sweet potatoes, lettuce, kikuna (crown daisy), baby turnips from my friends who are a couple living in Hikone. Visually we can enjoy the colors of these fruits as well, which is a mix of brown, orange, yellowish green, red, green and white. My friend said that they are all from their farmland. I admire my friends who are really capable farmers.