散歩など Walk, followed by Gardening

 今朝のうちは未だ天気が良くて暑い散歩でした。公園では築山にクルメツツジが咲いていました。

It was still sunny and hot during the morning when we went out for a walk.  In the park, there is a mound with azaleas with tiny flowers.

白花の品種がくすんでいるので、近くで見ると全体的にぱっとしない光景。

Since I prefer showy flowers, these are somewhat dull to me.

通路を挟んで隣にある築山に上って木陰で休憩。タイガも私もこの暑さではバテてしまいます。

We went up another mound close by, in order to rest under a tree.  Both Taiga and I were getting exhausted by the heat.

でも、オヤツを見たとたん嬉しそうな笑顔。ワンコは本当に素直な生き物。

However, Taiga perked up the moment she saw the treat.  Dogs are such uncomplicated creatures.

帰りは石神井川沿いに歩きました。ハナミズキが満開。
On our way home, we walked along the Shakujii River.  Flowering dogwood trees were in full bloom.

花はハデハデが好きな私の好みは、日本で「チェロキー」とか言う赤花のです。

They are pretty enough, but my favourite is the variety called 'Cherokee Chief' with red flowers (sepals).

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

帰宅して、溜まっていた諸々の庭仕事。タイガは監督。

リンゴの授粉作業が終わると初夏の剪定。新梢がスモモや柑橘類にびっしり育っています。スモモにはもうアブラムシが少し沸いていました。私が散歩から帰って庭にいるとスズメや時にはメジロもやって来るので、農薬は使いたくない。となると枝をスカスカにして後は毎日のシャワー水で洗浄です。柑橘類に関しては、私は芽摘みをする派ですが、手がとどかない高い枝はどうしようもありません。

At home, I had a lot of pent-up gardening work - Taiga watching as my supervisor.

Having now finished pollinating apple flowers, I need to do summertime pruning of plum and citrus trees.  I was shocked to find some aphids already on one of the plum trees.  I do not want to use pesticides, since sparrows, and sometimes even the Japanese White Eye, come down to branches when I return from walks and stay in the garden.  So, the only thing I can do is to prune the twigs to make the branches airy and also shower down the aphids with the garden hose every day.  As to the citrus trees, I have to pick new leaf buds so that only one bud will be left in any cluster.

今日は剪定の第一弾。草むしりした雑草も含めて、20リットル袋が一杯になりました。

Together with the weeds that I plucked, the pruned branches filled up the 20-liter plastic bag.  The work has only started today.

アンズのサニーコット。スモモのマーキュリーに高接ぎしてありますが、剪定後は日光に当たるようになりました。

I found young fruits on apricot branches, grafted onto a plum tree.  After the pruning, these fruits can now enjoy direct sun light.

リンゴ Apple trees

 グラニースミスに遅れて咲いた「紅の夢」と「紅玉」が満開です。今日は朝から花蜂が来ていたし、自分でも十分な授粉作業をしたと思っているのでもう安心です。

写真手前はグラニースミス、奥が紅の夢。米国のYoutuberの人によると、グラニースミスは自家受粉するし、授粉樹としてもオールラウンドな品種だそうです。ということは、紅の夢に高接ぎしたアルプス乙女が活着しなくても無問題？

Following the steps of Granny Smith, Kurenai-no-Yume and Kogyoku are now in full bloom.  I saw tiny pollinating bees this morning, so I am quite confident that enough pollination has been done by the bees and myself.  Now I can rest.

The photo below shows Granny Smith (right) and Kurenai-no-Yume (left).  According to a US Youtuber, Granny Smith is self-fertile as well as able to pollinate all other varieties.  In that case, if the crab apple graft that I did during the winter on Kurenai-no-Yume does not set, I would not be too sad.

赤丸で囲んだ部分は紅の夢。

The flowers in the red circle are Kurenai-no-Yume in full bloom.

紅の夢は開花後もピンクで本当にカワイイ。花柄はグラニースミスが一番大きくて、紅の夢は僅かにそれを下回るサイズ。そして紅玉の花は小さくて華奢。
The blossoms of Kurenai-no-Yume remain pink after opening.  In terms of size of the flower, Granny Smith is the largest, closely followed by Kurenai-no-Yume, whereas Kogyoku flowers are small and delicate.

紅の夢

Kurenai-no-Yume

紅玉

Kogyoku

これは紅の夢の頂点の枝を湾曲させたもの。実が生り出したら、長い支柱で支える予定。
This is the top of Kurenai-no-Yume, bent downwards.  When young fruits set, I will have to place a supporter.

これは紅玉で、矢印のあたりでグラニースミスに接いであります。

This is Kogyoku, grafted onto Granny Smith.  The graft point is around the level indicated by the red arrow.

今日もお付き合い有難う。

Thank you for being patient, as always.

午後散歩 Afternoon Walk

 獣臭を放ち始めていたタイガを洗ったので、午後の早い時間に散歩に出かけました。暑くて乾燥した気候を利用して、まずは自然乾燥の散歩。そのあとで乾いていない分は、帰宅してドライヤーでフィニッシュです。乾かすための長い散歩になるのが分かっているのか、タイガは環七方向に向かいます。途中の家の前で、花壇が綺麗なのでしばしストップ。ちょうど花壇の世話をしていた、家の方の許可を得て写真を撮りました。

Taiga was starting to smell like a wild animal, so I washed her, and we went out for an early afternoon walk.  Taking advantage of the hot and dry weather, Taiga's fur will get fairly dry by the time we come home, and then I will finish the work by using hair dryer.  Taiga knew that it was going to be a long walk, and she headed for the direction of Ring Road No. 7 crossing, beyond which there is a nice long walkway.  Just before the Ring Road, there was a house with a pretty flower bed in front.  The person of the house happened to be working on the flower bed, and he allowed me to take photos.

この花が特に綺麗。実物はキラキラ輝いていましたが、写真ではモヤがかかったようにボケてしまいました。

My eyes were rivetted on these attractive flowers.  They were sparkling in the sun, but the photo turned out to be somewhat hazy.

こちらも、まるで花束のようで見栄えします。

These are also pretty like a bridal bouquet.

環七を渡って有楽町線小竹向原駅に続く遊歩道を歩きます。

We crossed the Ring Road and started walking the pedestrian path towards the Kotake Mukaihara Station.

もうすっかり新緑の季節。

The trees are fully covered with new leaves.

途中、前回はハデハデの椿の花が咲いていた家の横を通りました。今回はナニワノイバラが満開です。

Soon, we passed by a house where we saw beautiful camellia flowers the last time we were here.  This time, Rosa laevigata was in full bloom.

何とも騒がしい雰囲気ですが、うっとりするほど綺麗。

They look like a group of noisy little children, but at the same time, very beautiful.

遊歩道に戻り散歩を続けます。ハナミズキのピンクと白の木が開花中。
We went back to the pathway.  Flowering dogwood trees in pink and white were in bloom.

ノムラモミジは緑の背景に映えます。

The Nomura Momiji maple tree stands out against the green background.

折り返し地点の小竹向原駅横の広場で一休みして、タイガのオヤツタイム。

The Kotake Mukaihara Station is the turning point of our walk.  We stopped for Taiga's treat.

車道の反対側の遊歩道を、環七交差点に向けて歩きました。

After resting, we walked the pathway on the other side to go back to the Ring Road crossing.

帰宅してぐったりのタイガと私。シャンプー後の毛はほぼ乾燥していたので、ドライヤーは無しで済みました。

Coming home, both Taiga and I were absolutely exhausted in the heat.  Fortunately, Taiga was more or less dry and did not need the dryer.

リスボンレモン Lisbon Lemon

 地植えのリスボンレモンには去年４個の実が生りました。うち１個が今朝 地面に落ちていました。もう蕾が膨らむ季節なので、全部収穫することにしました。（南向きバルコニーに置いてあるリスボンは陽当たり良し、北風は受けない、ということで既に開花していますが、この苗の蕾はまだ硬いです。）

The Lisbon Lemon growing in the ground produced 4 fruits from last year's flowering.  One of them was on the ground this morning.  This tree's flower buds are growing, and I decided to pick the remaining 3 fruits as well.  (The other Lisbon Lemon growing in a pot and placed on the south-facing balcony benefits from full sun while being shielded from north wind.  But this tree's growing environment is less fortunate, and its flower buds are still small.)

玄関前で退屈していたタイガ様にお見せします。なぜか警戒して耳が後ろ向き。

I wanted to show the result of my labour to Taiga who was getting bored.  She seems to be on alert with her ears pushed back.

「あっ、見たくない」と言わんばかりの顔。ワンコは柑橘類が嫌いです。

Her reaction was 'Put them away!'.  Dogs do not like citrus fruits.

嫌がらせのつもりはありませんが、一緒に記念撮影。私にとっては有難く大切な果実です。

I did not mean to annoy her, but I took a picture of them together.  For me, these fruits are precious - the tree worked hard to grow them.

散歩中の植物 Flowers seen during walk

 公園近くの事業所の花壇に綺麗な牡丹が咲いていました。色の濃淡が何とも言えず美しい。これは木の下のほうの花で、

In the flower bed of an office building near the Johoku Park, there is a peony plant which produces beautiful flowers every year.   This is the wooden type of peony which is considered to be a class above the grass type.

上のほうには半開きの花と蕾があります。

In addition to the fully open flower at the bottom of the tree, there are two flower buds at the top, with one of them half open.

この段階では色が濃く、違った美しさ。

The colour of the half-open flower is much deeper.

駐車場として放置されている空き地の隅っこに咲いていた白花のタンポポ。園芸店で売られるピンクの品種は暑さに弱くて日本の夏に耐えられないけど、この白花は野良になっているので丈夫そう。

In the field that is used as a parking lot, there was a white dandelion flower.  The pink variety that they sell in shops are not heat tolerant for Japanese summer, but this white one can survive like a weed.

個人的にはタンポポは黄色で花柄が大きいのが好みです。

Personally, I prefer the regular, yellow dandelions with large flowers.

この株のように、大きな花で花茎が短く地面のすぐ上で咲くのが理想。

Like this plant, with large flowers and short flower stems.

民家の脇の良く手入れされている花壇。

There was a well-maintained flower bed next to a private house.

アセビの新芽が目立っています。こんなに赤い新芽のは見たことがない。

Japanese andromeda with new leaf buts - the red buds are quite ornamental.

花を確認。

This is a white flower variety (there is a pink version, too).

花と新芽の両方が楽しめます。

You can enjoy both the flowers and new leaves at the same time.

前に一度会ったことのあるトイプードルが通りかかりました。タイガよりもずっと年上の子ですが、小型犬なので動きが比較的 若々しいです。

We came across a Toy Poodle whom we had met before.  He is much older than Taiga but, as a small breed, his movements are steady in spite of his age.

着ている洋服が何ともカワイイ。ペットの服をデザイン・製作する人って、技だけではなくよほど愛情もってやっているのがうかがえます。

His outfit is so sweet.  People who design and make clothes for pets must not only have the skill but also lots of love for the creatures.

両方のポケットは、ちゃんと物が入るようになっている本物です。

The pockets at the back are for real and you could put something in.