THIS IS MY FATHER'S WORLD

I'd set the alarm to ring to remind me to take my medicine at 10AM, 4 PM, 10 PM, so habitually, I went to shut it off at 10...but wasn't there something I was supposed to remember? OH NO! The weather forecast said it would get cool this morning after 3, and I had planned to GO OUTSIDE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE COMING TO OKINAWA THIS TIME! But temperatures had been forecasted to be back up by 9; I had missed my chance to feel the cool air!

I ran to the genkan (front door), slipped on the rubber thongs decided to skip down to the riverside just a few minutes. I don't really know what I was thinking--you can't pull back a bulk of cold air or turn back the hands of time. I trotted across the street towards the shady area...

Yes, the flowers in Okinawa have brighter blooms than the ones in mainland Japan, even the small ones growing in the wild, I thought. Maybe it's the moisture of higher humidity, but even the wild ones seem bigger and more robust. My favorite hybiscus, the dainty upside-down one, was still there. I want to brag and say look at what I saw! But these pictures were taken in Izena and Yagaji when we visited those islands in January.

I got excited seeing butterflies in the air and carp in the water, but the waterfowl had all gone back to their nests, and the egrets had all flown to the end of the stream too--I knew where they congregated--but I also knew I'd get feverish if I tried to go there, so I went home while I was still happy to have been treated to as much as I was in so short a time. Thank you, Father!

(The reason I posted pictures from Izena and Yagaji are I don't have photos today. I jumped out of the house this morning without my camera!)