From this hanging wall calendar I got to see drawings from Kota Taniuchi (谷内こうた), an author and illustrator. The calendar was given to us by hub’s business associate from Hitachi some years ago.
I didn’t keep the whole calendar but retain only these 2 scenes which I thought was especially nice and warm.
He has also written several children’s books, some are available at Kodansha (limited titles @ Amazon jp/fr) while others are out-of-print.
Okay, shall I do a little name calling today? On these pretties I met along the way?
In Latin, it’s lantana camara. A nice botanical name that’s easy enough to pronounce.
In the Malay language, it’s bunga tahi ayam, meaning chicken droppings flower. The scent from the stem and leaves reminded some people of chicken poop. I wasn’t aware of any smell when I went near them. Whew.
In Mandarin, it’s 五色梅花, meaning plum blossom in 5 colours.
Other names: Spanish Flag, ham and eggs, and yellow sage.
The sound of roaring engines in the sky was clear that we were having company on Saturday evening. Just after hub and I had walked across to Bugis Street, diagonally above us were these F-16Cs…looking teeny weeny. Evidently they were busy practicing for next month’s parade to celebrate our nation’s 43rd birthday.
We were about 2-3km away from the parade venue, much further than we were the other time, if you recall. While we remained on the side of the street and with hub watching out for traffic, I slip out my camera in time to catch them leaving their smoky trails. This zoom-up-and-dive act is called ‘Curtains’, hub pointed out to me.
As I view the curtains on the LCD screen on my F31fd, a true teeny weeny camera, I’m continually blown away by its astonishing point and shoot capability!
How should I fold my personal messages so that each note stays obediently shut and doesn’t take much effort? Well, I went straight to my foreign encyclopedia and found this answer.
Steps:
1. I cut out a square from scrapbook paper. Message-side faces down.
2. Fold it in half and crease.
3. Half it again and crease.
4. Open up. The center is marked with a “+”.
5. Fold a triangle.
6. Then unfold to reveal the fold line (in white).
7. Fold a triangle with tip touching the fold line.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 on the 3 remaining sides.
9. Position it this way.
10. Then turn it over.
11. Fold the left section to the centre.
12. Bring up the bottom section.
13. Fold it down onto the centre.
14. Bring up the right section.
15. Fold it down as well.
16. Finally, fold the top section down to the center. Crease really well.
17. Along the fold line and where the arrow is pointing, make these areas well-creased.
18. At this point, I’m calling the flaps 1 to 3 and the final flap “4″. Lift up “1″ slightly with your thumb and index finger.
19. With your thumb on your other hand, we’re going to hide half of “4″ behind “1″.
20. Where the arrows are pointing go ahead, don’t be afraid to fold and push the paper inwards, right along the folded lines made in step 17.
After making the necessary adjustments, this is the finished aligned look. Just the kind of straightforward origami I need today.