one again

In the midst of unpacking what seems like thousands of boxes of things we've never seen before and have no idea where we're going to put them, we took little gifts around to the neighbors to pay our respects. And before she could finish saying thank you, the wife of the old man who used to be a barber was loading us down with vegetables that she'd just been given by a farmer friend. Daikon. Mizuna. Cauliflower. Kabu turnips, and yuzu citrus. We had to go back home to offload before we could make the rest of the rounds.

The stove guys from Nagano showed up around noon to start installing the Intrepid II. They finished the chimney by the end of the day, and will be back tomorrow to set up the stove itself. It was a pretty calm day most of the time, but in the late afternoon the wind really picked up and was threatening to toss them off the roof.

m and I also found the time to set up the Christmas tree, and we got the lights going just as the sun was setting in bright orange brilliance. M and I got the wreath up at the entrance. This wreath was given to us by the mother of one of m's classmates--a hilarious down-to-earth woman who runs a flower shop in the very trendy Hiro Garden Place.