slow days of o-bon

m and I were planning on going down to camp out in the house over the weekend, but her chronic coughing didn't improve over the last week and I don't think all the dust would have done her much good. The carpenters have had a couple of days off over the o-bon holidays--when the spirits of everyone's ancestors come back to visit--so I wasn't expecting much to have been done, but I went down by myself anyway for a few hours.
It was a beauty of a summer day, the kind that reminds me of why we want to move down there. It was hot, but fairly dry, and when I got the windows all opened up, a very cool breeze came through the house from the hills behind. All the insulation had been installed in the upstairs walls. Below is m's bedroom where the cellulose is all pumped in like pillow stuffing. The low sun of late afternooon really pours in, and with that view from the window it sometimes feels like the room is actually on the surface of the sea.

It looks like the prep for the outside walls is wrapping up, so the carpenters will soon start on the shitami-ita, the traditional wooden siding that will cover the lower part of the wall on the hill side of the house.

I'll try to take m down to camp out next week. (M's dust allergies prevent her from joining us.) There's running water (a hose), a toilet (port-o-potty), and electricity, so I expect it will be pretty luxurious.