携帯でテレビも見られるようになって
今日などは畑でそわそわしながら
剪定の途中で何度も野球をチェック。
手に汗握るいい試合でした。
心なしか、好天にも関わらず畑に
出ている人影も、道を行き来する
車や人の数も少なく、静かな昼間
だった。

すごいプレッシャーの下、
本番で活躍できているアスリートは
不断の努力があるからこそ結果が出せる
のだろう。どんな素晴らしい
状況が訪れても、それを現実化するには
怠けてしまったり手を抜いたりする誘惑
を克服して練習や努力を続けてきた
という事実があるからこそだろう。

そういう、日々の努力という事実を
積み重ねること、それが大事だね。
わかっているのだからやらねばね。

Thanks to the technology development,
I can watch TV by a mobile phone and I was
anxious to check the baseball game in
the vineyard today. It was a wonderful game
and I was very much excited at the game.
I felt there were less people in the farms
and streets during the game during the day.

Those players with wondeful performance
at the games under the tremendous pressure
should have accumulated
undaunted efforts of everyday. At the
rare and real chances, only those who
have made constant efforts and have not given way
to laziness can make the good result.

Such everyday effort is the most
important thing to achieve something.
As long as I know that, only thing
I've got to do is to make everyday
efforts like these athletes.

事故米で一躍有名になった
輸入米に黴が見つかる頻度が
多くなって（全量検査をやり始めたらしい）
味噌業界が困っているらしい。

味噌の原料は主に大豆、米、塩だが、
低価格の味噌の原料米にはこの
輸入米が使われているのだ。
事故米として入手できなくなったので
安く味噌ができなくなりつつあるという。

（もちろん須坂の味噌蔵はそんな
米など使っているはずも無いので
心配は無用だが。）

ということは、今までは大して検査も
せずに流通していた米から味噌が作られて
いたわけだ。その米がどの程度
無事故だったのか？

安い食品を追い求めるということは
安全を犠牲にすることだと誰かが
言っていると書いたが、納得
してしまうようなことがおきている。

加工米の原産国表示もするべきでは
ないのかな。

I hear that Miso makers are having
difficulties to get cheap rice because
the imported rice which had became famous
for the illegal distribution of inadquate
quality rice are often found with fungus
recently due to frequent quality checks.
It seems that the government started to
check all the imported rice.

The main raw materials of miso are
soy beans, rice and salt. Imported rice
is used for this purpose to make reasonable
priced miso. But there are so many cases
that imported rice are found inadquate for
food materials, the miso makers will
have to use more expensive domestic rice.

(Of course, local miso makers in Suzaka
uses mainly local and domestic materials and
we do not need to worry.)

This indicates that the reasonably priced miso
have been made with the imported rice which
have been seldom checked for the quality.
I should imagine that there is good chance
inadequate imported rice may
have been used for miso. How safe were these
rice ?

I worte here before that somebody
said that cheap food would mean sacrifising
safety. I have to agree to it as I encounter
such incidents.

The origin of country should be indicated
in the labels of goods.

朝方の少々の雨のあと
風は強いが気温が上がった。
ここ数日の好天気のせいで
日一日と芽がやわらかくなって
きている。

そんな今日も終日剪定だが、
ふと山に目をやると、
そこここでのろしの様な煙が
上がる。火事にしては煙の
色が硫黄のように黄色い。花粉だ。
ぼっ、ぼっ、と吐き出された
煙のように空に向かって濃い
色が浮き上がったあと、折からの
強風にあおられて空中に
拡散してゆく。花粉症の人は
見たくない光景だろう。
花粉は午前中激しく舞い上がって
いた。

午後、畑には去年この畑で
収穫体験をした
スリーエスワールドワイド社から
S氏とM氏のお二人が剪定のお手伝いに
来てくれた。

ちょっとだけマイ畑
ちょっとだけマイワイン、
今年はそんなプログラムを
考えてみようかと思っている。

After just a bit of rain, the
temperature went up with strong
wind. The grape buds got soften
everyday due to the recent warm
weather.

During the pruning, I happened to
see Myokaku-san mountain and found
smokes rising up here and there in
the mountain. At first sight, I thought
it was a fire but it was not because the
smoke is very yellow like sulfur.　
It was pollen! The smoke like
cluster went up from the trees and
diffused into the air by the wind.
It was so clear from such a distance.
Those who suffer from hay fever must
hate to see such a scenery.
It continued throught all the morning.

In the afternoon, I have two guests
in my vineyard from SSS Worldwide in
Tokyo who experienced grape picking
last year in this vineyard. They helped
me to do pruning. I hope they enjoyed the
work a bit.

A bit of my vineyard or a bit of
my wine. I wonder if I should start
such a project this year.

昨日までの二日間と違って
いつもの３月に戻った天気。
朝は激しい雨、３時頃まで
ずっと肌寒く、風の強い曇り空。
明覚山の山肌に絡みつくように
していた雲が次第にめくれてゆく。

雨の後は、剪定の切り口から
根が吸い上げた水が流れでて
葡萄の樹の肌をぬらしてゆく。

寒くなって、ちょっと安心した。
あまり暖かい日が続くと芽が早く
動くので落ち着かない。

It was ordinary March weather
today after very warm days in a
row. It was raining hard in the
morning and it was windy and cloudy
until 3pm and quite cooling.
The clouds adhering to the Myokaku-san
mountain was being peeled off.

After rain, the water taken up by
the roots runs from the pruning cuts
and the vines get wet.

Today's cold weather made me feel
a bit relieved. Warm weather which
would prompt early budburst make me
feel very anxious.

今日も暑いくらいのいい天気。
５月の連休のころのほどの
初夏を思わせるくらいの
暖かい一日だった。
一日中剪定の続き。

昨日青い絨毯のことを書きながら
ピンクの絨毯のことを思い出して
いた。まだ私が小さいころだから
４０年ほど前になるのか。
春の頃、田んぼがまだ広がっていて
そろそろ田おこしが始まる頃には
れんげの花が田んぼ一面に咲いていて
今ぐらいの春の花といえばれんげの花
だったような気がする。
ピンク色の絨毯の様だったような。

今はどういうわけかれんげの花を田んぼ
で見かける事はなくなった。

It was very warm and fine today
and it reminded me of the early summer
just like the Golden Week in May.
I was busy in pruning again.

I remembered pink carpet yesterday
when I wrote about the blue carpet.
Long long time ago when I was still
a little boy, I found so many pink
flowers in rice paddies all around
the village where I used to live.
It was about 40 years ago. In Spring
time and just before the people had
started cultivating rice paddies
milk vetches were in full bloom
all over. The spring flower was the
milk vetch at that time and
the scenary was jus like pink
carpet all around.

It's been long time since I have not
seen this flower in rice paddies.