仔牛近道

　
　連休も、ここにいるだけで、私たちにとっては、刺激的な毎日。


　家のお風呂は大きな改修工事が必要なので、毎日歩いて近くの温泉に入りに行きます。連休の間は、その温泉の前で近所のおじさんがイワナとヤマメを焼いて売るというのを聞いて、おにぎり、水筒にきゅうりとマヨネーズを抱えてお昼ご飯にしよう、と子どもたちと登っていきました。階段を上っていくと、やってるやってる！いい匂いがしてきます。2軒隣のMさんが炭で、串刺しにした魚をやいています。（す）は、串刺しの魚をむしゃむしゃ食べるということをずっとやってみたかったそうで、たいそう喜んで食べました。（う）はさすが、きれいに骨まで平らげて、（ま）に至っては私の分まで食べました・・・。



　また次の日は、（う）と（す）が通う小学校に行って、一輪車の練習です。この早川北小学校では、秋にある「どんぐり祭り」という大きな文化祭で生徒たち全員で一輪車の演技をするというので、それまで乗ったことのなかった二人にとっては、猛練習の日々なのでした。今日は何回こげた、がひとこぎずつ増え、何回コケた、が徐々に減っていく報告を聞く日々です。暑い日だったので、コケて砂まみれになりながら、ぎゃーぎゃー言いながらも練習をする二人の様子はけな気でした。横で（ま）は砂場で夢中。気づくと上半身裸で砂の上を泳いでいます。やれやれ。



　その間にも、（ゆ）はせっせと屋根の雨どいを直したり、部屋を暗くしていた外のトタン屋根を直したり、と大仕事に集中します。トタンが外れて、代わりに透明な波板をつけてくれたので、隣接する大きな部屋が一気に明るくなったときは感動的でした。


　長い連休、何をして過ごそうかしらと考えていたけれど、小さな出来事の積み重ねであっという間に過ぎていったのでした。

（わ）



Holidays in Narada


Staying in Narada, we had an exciting time during a holiday-studded week, so we called it "the Golden Week".

Our shower room needs a lot of repair work, so we walked to the nearest hot spring every day. I heard that during the holidays, fresh river fish are going to be broiled on skewers. Yes, Narada is one of the sightseeing spots in Hayakawa Town. We wanted to have the fish for lunch, so we prepared Onigiri (rice balls), water bottles, and cucumber with mayo, and went to find the fish. Getting closer to the place, we recognized the lovely smell! Our neighbor two-doors-next, M-san, was in charge of grilling that day. We enjoyed the fish very much. Sukla said that he had been dreaming of eating spit-roasted fish, so his dream came true. Umeo ate beautifully, even the fish bones, and as for Makasa, she ate even my share....

On the following day, we went to Umeo and Sukla's elementary school to practice unicycles. It was such a hot day, but they really wanted to practice while school was closed. In autumn, they will have a big cultural festival as their school event, and all the students are supposed to perform with unicycles. So, they HAVE TO be able to ride them even if they had never tried before. It seems like a big challenge for them, but they have been trying so hard. Everyday, they report their progress to us at home, that is how far they could ride (which gets longer and longer) and how many times they fell down (which gets less and less!). While they were practicing hard, Makasa was busy playing in the sand box. Soon, she took her T-shirt off, and started "swimming" in the sand box....oops!

Meanwhile, Yuki worked on repairing the rooftop of our house and the garage. A numbers of galvanized sheet metals were used for the roof of the garage, which made one of the rooms very dark. As he worked hard, more sunlight came into the room...we all were so impressed by the change. Well done, Yuki! Yes, our house still needs lots of big/small renovation to make our days comfortable.

I had wondered how we could kill the time during the holidays, but time flew with a pile of little events.

Wakana