今日からアートパークにある
人形博物館で三十段飾りの雛人形展
が始まった。ポスターでは30段1000体との
ふれこみだったが、今年は隣接する
版画美術館でも30段1000体ほどが
展示されている。また、30段とは
いうが、数えてみるともっと段数が
多いような気もする。ダブル30段、
2,000体以上の雛人形が
あらゆる形で展示されている。
普段は考えることも無い由来や
人形の持つ意味などに思いを致すと
なかなか興味深い。

ともあれ、一見の価値あり。
華やかな雛飾りです。

Girl's Festival dolls exhibition
has just started today at Suzaka
Art Park. The posters say 1,000 dolls
on the 30-story steps but the number
of steps seems more than 30.
In addition, at the Print Art Gallery
next door also exhibits 1000dolls on
30 story steps. Therefore there are
more than 2000 dolls only for
traditional Japanese Girl's Festival.

Knowing the history and the meaning of
each dolls is very much interesting which
touches us at the bottom of our heart as
we can find our ancestors' thought given
to the festival and the each doll.

Any how, it's worth while watching. Such
gorgeous exhibits.

春のような日が続いている。
冬らしくない。
剪定をしている巨峰の畑の
脇を犬の散歩をする人が
行き交う。挨拶は決まって
「暖かくていいね～」
とくる。

いいんだか、どうだか。
地球温暖化の影響か、
少々気持ちが悪い。
2月3月も暖かい予想が出ている。

今年の芽吹きは例年より
早くなるのか。あまり暖かいと
病気や害虫が大ブレーク
する可能性もあり、心中
穏やかではない。

やはり冬は冬らしく
薄着と軍手で作業が
できる1月なんて
どこかおかしい。

人形博物館では雛飾りが始まり、
もう春の気分だ。

We have had warm days for winter for
some days already. It's like Spring
but not witner at all.

People walking with dogs are
coming by by the Kyoho vineyard
where I am pruning. They hello
each other saying that it's good
to have warm days.

I don't think so. Is it because of
the global warming ? This weather is
embarrassing. The weather forecast says
we will have warmer February and March
than usual.

I wonder the bud burst will start
earlier this year. Too warm wheather may
trigger the outbreak of disease and pests.

I really miss the cold winter as usual.
Something wrong as I can work in the
vineyard with lighter closthing and
thinner gloves in January.

The dolls for Girls festival are displayed
at the World Folk Dolls Museum which makes
me feel it's already Spring.

あけて今日1月30日から
西友向かいのインテリア雑貨の
お店「n-style」にて、知る人ぞ知る
飯綱町のパン屋さん「きなり」のパンが
販売されます。

全粒粉と天然酵母仕込みで、
アレルゲンとなる添加物等の使用を
極力控えた自然派のパンです。
こんなパンが須坂で売っていたらなあ
という希望がかないました。
当面金曜日配達ですが。
予約もできるし。
何と言ってもワインにもよく会う
パンが多いのです。

子供達を山の中で育てたいからと、
よくもま～という場所で決して
安くは無いパンを売っています。
今では長野からも買いにくる
ファンもいるそうです。

人気が出て、須坂でも
もっともっと
美味しいパンが出てくればと
思います。

Starting from today, January 30,
the bread by Kinari from IIzuna
village will start to be
sold at ''n-style'' interior shop in
front of Seiyu supermarket.

The bread is made of whole grain
flour with natural yeast with leaset
additives which could cause allergy.
I longed for such bread to be sold
in Suzaka for long time. For time being,
the bread is sold on Friday. You can make
booking though. They can go very well with
wines.

The owner couple started the bakery
in such a rural village in the mountain
and sell not so cheap bread. They must have
gone through hardship but today they have
fans coming to buy their bread from down town
Nagano.

I hope they will become popular in Suzaka which
make other bakeries to try to make much better bread
here.

一月ほど前までこんな機械が
あるなんて事すら知らなかった。

先シーズンメルローの畑に
異変が起きて（どうも縮果だと
思われる）、さて今シーズンどう
対応しようかと思い悩んでいて、
小布施の山岸さんに「実はこんな
ことが起きて…」と話したら、
即答で、床（とこ）が壊れていないんだな
床を壊す機械があるよ、と直ぐに
知り合い二人ほどに連絡を取って
くれた。

いよいよその機械と今日ご対面。
圧縮空気を、工事現場の破砕機
の原理で地中に差し込んだ
鉄製の槍の先から噴出して
地中に穴をあける。そのショックで
床が壊れると同時に、その穴から
肥料なり土壌改良剤も注入
できるというしろものだ。
根の成長を阻む物理的
要因を除去・改善し、また
そのできた穴に根が伸びて
根域が広がり、丈夫な樹と充実した
収穫が期待できるという
触れ込み。

圧縮空気を噴出する度に
槍の周囲の地面が、地中で
爆発が起こったかのように膨らむ。
オペレーターの若者によると、
通気性のよい土地なら地面が
盛り上がるような事は無いという。
また、その杭を差し込む時に
大きな抵抗を感じるので、
確かに床は存在するらしい。
というか土壌がともかく固いという。

床と、SS等による表面からの土壌
の圧縮が葡萄の根域を狭め、
旱魃に耐えられなかったのだろう。
その為に縮果が起きた可能性が高い。

りんごと葡萄を作っているという
彼とは、肥料と晩腐病の関係、
樹の成長等色々な面での情報交換
をした。実家や周囲の果樹農家の
経験から確たる栽培方針を
持っている。若干26歳。
後世畏るべし。

I have had no idea about such
a machine just one month ago.

I had unusual occurrence in Merlot
vineyard last season which seemed
heavy shrivelling and just when
I was wondering what to do this
new season, I met Mr. Yamagishi
in Obuse about the occurrence
and discuss about it with him.
He spent no time to respond me
about the possible floor layer
left behind in the ground in the
field once used for rice paddy.
He said there was a machine to
break such layers in the ground.
He called his friends at once
and asked them if they
would arrange a machine for me.

Thanks to him, I got that machine
in my Merlot vineyard today.
That machine is called Growth Gun.
Like a road breaker, it has a spear
with a hole and the compressed air
is blown into the ground of which shock
the floor layer is broken and what is more
fertilizers and soil improvement materials
are sent into the hole.

Because of this process, the physical
impediment for root growth is removed
and the root environment improves which
helps healthy growth of the roots and
the vines and leads to better harvest
in quality and in quantity.

Every time the compressed air
is blown under ground, the surface
humps like a little burst underground.
According to the young operator, if the
ground was permeable, such humps would
not be seen. He also mentioned that
he felt resistance when he poked the
spear into the ground which was the sign
of the floor layer undergroud.　
Or, in any case the soil is hard.

This underground floor layer and the
compaction of the ground by heavy sprayer
must have made the ground very tight for
root growth and caused the shrivelling
under drought weather last July.

I discussed a lot with the young
opertor who grows apples and grapes
with his father about the relationship
between the fertilizer and the
bunch rot disease, vine growth and
so on. He has surprisingly very certain aim and
process regarding the fruit growing at
the age of 26. Young age is always
more brilliant than older ages.

先日の雪山行の疲れが
残っているのは冬場の
運動不足のせいか。

今日も良い天気で畑は
大分にぎやかです。風がなく陽が
当っていると思いのほか暖かく、
剪定作業には手袋も上着も
薄手のもので大丈夫です。

午後からりんごジュース作り
です。先日のは工場での委託生産
ですが、今日は農家仲間5人で全く
の手作り。自家用のりんごジュース
作りです。

製造過程は工場と同じ。
洗浄、すりおろし、煮沸、
瓶詰め（洗浄・煮沸消毒した瓶に）
と、午後一杯かかって
一升瓶に200本ほど。
酸化防止剤は入れないので、
此方も褐色のジュースになります。

休憩時のお茶うけに、野沢菜や瓜の漬物
にらせんべいならぬ’味噌漬けせんべい’を
頂きました。うまいんだな、これが。

I still have muscle aching
from the mountain ski tour
the other day which may be
caused by the lack of excercise
in winter.

It was very fine again today
and many farmers were in the vineyards
and orchards for pruning. Without
wind and under sun shine, it was warmer
than expected and we did with
thinner gloves and lighter wear.

I went to make apple juice in the
afternoon. The juice I mentioned
the other day was done by the
people at the juice factory.
But today we, five farmers,
did it by ourselves for our
private use.

The making process was same as the
one at the factory, washing and grinding
apples, then boiling and bottling the juice.
Of course, we cleaned and boiled the bottles,
too. We spent whole afternoon and made around
200 bottles of 1.8L container juice.
We did not use any additives so the color
is a bit brownish.

At the short break, we enjoyed Nozawana and
vegetable melon pickles for tea as well as
Misozuke pickles pancake.
No doubt they were so good!