カレンダーをひょいっと斜めに
横切ればもう新年ですね。
そして新年から新たな動きが
始まるようです。

今、長野市善光寺の門前では
比較的若い人たちが、その地に
暮らすことをベースにした
活動をしていて、それが人を
呼び込んだりして、楽しそうな
雰囲気が生まれつつあるようです。
私もそんな一つのグループの
忘年会に誘われました。
ゆるく繋がっていて、無理なく、
楽しく、自由な発想で、しかも
門前だけにもこだわらずに
何かを仕掛けている人たちでした。

須坂にもそんなきっかけができるかも。
街の中心近くの民家を借りて人がゆるく繋がって
楽しいことをやりたいという何人かの
人たちが須坂に引っ越してくるらしい
のです。その場所は彼らの仕事場や
オフィスになるらしいのですが、
外からも中が見えて、
人が行き来したり、滞留したり
するスペースにしたいらしい
のです。

この街に住みたい、ここで仕事を
したいという人たちを暖かく
迎えようではありませんか。
何かや誰かを批判するのではなく
同じ方向を向いて楽しいことが
できるようにしてみませんか。

New year is alerady here if you just
leaped across over the calender.
A movemnet seems to start
in new year.

At Zenkoji Monzen town in
neighbouring Nagano city, relatively
young people have organized wide
range of activities which are
based on their everyday lives there
and which they themselves and the visitors
can enjoy. Such phenomena seem to
create interesting and enjoyable
air among the people living
and visiting there.

I happened to join a year end drinking meeting
of one of such groupsthe other day.
They are from different background, loosely
related and create events that are fun and enjoyable.
They even do not stick to the idea of the locality of
only the Monsen area at all. In
other word, their field is not limited.

We might have a similar circle in Suzaka
soon. There are a few people planning
to come to live in Suzaka having their
offices near city center by renovating
an ald shop house. They want to have
the space to be a kind of free space
where people come, rest, saty, chat, make
friends, etc.,

Why don't we, old dwellers, welcome
and accept such people with warm heart
as they want to join us to live and make living
here in Suzaka. Let's us forget
about blaming something or somebody because
they are just different from us or our ideas
but look at in the same direction
to make interestig things happen.

冬の日の剪定に出て日が傾く
午後4時頃畑にいると、寒さと
雪の中にある足元の冷たさが
増す。

そういえば、遠い昔、近くの山の
ほんの狭いスキー場で遊んでいて
家路につく夕刻。足も手も冷たく
かじかんで、なんとも心細い
気持ちで夕焼けを背にスキーを
引きずって帰ったことを
ふと思いだした。家に帰って練炭の
コタツで冷えた手足を温めても
じわじわとかゆくなるばかりで
直ぐには暖かくはならずに、
じれったい思いをしたものだ。

冬の日の昔日の思い出。

When pruning in the snowy vineyard
in a winter's day, I have my foot
very cold towards sunset at around
four o'clock.

It reminds me of an old memory.
After playing ski
at a nearby small ski slope in a hill,
I felt miserable on the way back home
dargging the skies at around sunset feeling very cold
at hands and foot. I had to warm
them up in a charcoal Kotatu heater upon retunring home
but they did not become warm quickly
or rather I felt very itchy at cold
parts of my body which irritated me
a lot.

An old memory in a cold snowy country.

今朝までにまた20センチほど
積もったろうか。朝起きたら
大雪！という感じ。

近所の加工所へりんごを
運び込むためにりんごの
下拵えを午後一杯、雪の積もった
りんご畑でしていた。
今年は弦割れが多い上に、
外見ではわからない内部の
傷みが多く、結局ほとんどの
りんごに手を入れることになった。
ただ、そのおかげで傷んだりんごが
入っていないので、今年も
美味しいりんごジュースが
できそうです。

We had heavy snow fall by this
morning. The depth was about 20cm.

I spent most of this afternoon
to prepare apples in the apple
orchard. It was for apple juice.
Before taking the apples to a
nearby juice making factory, I have
to check each apples to sort out
damaged ones. Due to the weather
this season, many apples have problem
inside the apples that cannot be found
by the appearance.

Thanks to the carefil work today, I can expect
very tasty apple juice again.

今日も雪。
雪なら作業中止と考えていたが、
手許にある防寒帯だけでも巻いて
しまおうと、昨日に引き続き
友人の手を借りて雪の中で
作業を続けた。

巻く前と後ではこういう感じ
になる。巻く前、この時季では
あっても緑が多いのだ。
オオイヌノフグリなど、花開くとは
いかずとも、青い花びらははっきりと
識別できる。時知らずの花だな。

It's been snowing all day today.
I thought I would not work in
the vineyard if it had snowed, but
I changed mind and I continued
the operation with the friend's help.
I decided to wrap the vines with the
cold protcetion left at hand for the
moment.

The before and after of wrapping are shown
here. I can see greens even in such winter
season. The Oinunofuguri, a wild flower,
is having blue flower petal even though
they are not flowering. It has flowers at
any time.

今朝起きると15センチほどの
積雪。天気予報は雪とはあっても
昨夜は雪が降る気配がなかったので、
正直驚いた。

(大谷の畑）

チラチラと降る中剪定途中の
畑に行く。淡雪なので陽が出てきたら
直ぐに溶けるだろうとタカをくくった
が、午前中快晴となり予想通り雪は
大分溶けた。好天のおかげで
顔は真っ赤に日焼け・雪焼けと
なってしまった。

(ピノの畑）

本格的な寒さが来る前に剪定を終わらせて
眠り病防止帯を巻く予定。お手伝いを
お願いして大分進んだ。普通は藁を巻くところ
だが、それなりの厚さが必要なので
大量に必要となり時間もかかるので、
最近は水道の凍結防止帯にも使われている
フォームを使っている。

(日差しがまぶしい）

昨日から日曜日まで連続で午後7時前後に
予定が入っている。こういうときに限って
更に重要な予定も入ってきて
しまう。今後のこともあり、
そろそろ一緒にやる人を募集しようか
と考えている。

We had snow this morning around 15cm deep.
Even though the weather forecast had said
it would snow today, I did not expect at
late last night as I did not feel
a single promise of such snow.

I went out to the vineyard for pruning.
As the snow was light and wet I though it
would melt away quickly once the suns would
shine during the day. The weather turned to
be very fine and shiney during morning,
the snow melted away quickly on the roads.
Due to the strong sun shine, I got sun tunned
and my face turned very red.

In addition to the pruning which I plan
to finish for Pinot Noir before it gets colder,
I need to put cold protection on each vine.
Thanks to the friends' help, I can finish both
operation before this weekend. I once used
straw for wrapping vines before but now I use
the materials used for water piping during winter.
If I used straws for the same operation,
I would have needed a lot of straws and much more
time.

This week I have appointments and events in
the evening for six days in a row starting
last night. And I have a very important scheudle
next week for which I have to spend time for
preparation. Once an important plan gets started,
I would be very busy. So I am thinking to find
a colleague to help me in the vineyard and
future winery.