posted: February 29th, 2012 |
This page begins with February 5th and a trip to Jindai Botanical Garden on our bicycles. Then we jump to February 12th and a trip to Nogawa Park on our bicycles. After that there is nothing else! I caught a bad cold, which kept us at home for one weekend, and then it rained the following weekend, which also kept us at home. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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Begin February 5th |
  On February 5th Kazuya and I went to Jindai Botanical Garden to check on the progress of early spring flowers. One thing we very much expected to see was the first of the Plum Blossoms. In most years the first of the Plum Blossoms occur in the later part of January. We know that this is a cold winter and that everything is late, but we were not prepared for what we found at the Plum Garden at Jindai Botanical Garden! We found less than 5 Plum Blossoms open! Therefore, there are no photos of Plum Blossoms from this date. What you see here, in first position is Setsubunsou in Japanese, Shibateranthis pinnatifida in Latin. In most years we show you the first of this flower with the late January photos too, not this year though. In addition, this one is in a flower pot. The 2nd and 3rd shots are a River Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis, waiting for a small fish or freshwater shrimp to come by. |
Feb05_02_JindaiBG_ Shibateranthis_pinnatifida_RC |
Feb05_03_JindaiBG _Alcedo_atthis_RC |
Feb05_06_JindaiBG _Alcedo_atthis_RC |
  Here are 3 more shots of the River Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis). |
Feb05_07_JindaiBG _Alcedo_atthis_RC |
Feb05_08_JindaiBG _Alcedo_atthis_RC |
Feb05_11_JindaiBG _Alcedo_atthis_RC |
  Here are 2 shots of a cormorant that was sitting there and the 3rd shot is a shot of Sasa veitchii var. veitchii - what we call bamboo grass. |
Feb05_13_Jindai BG_Cormorant_RC |
Feb05_14_Jindai BG_Cormorant_RC |
Feb05_17_JindaiBG_Sasa _veitchii_var_veitchii_RC |
  Here is another shot of Sasa veitchii var. veitchii (bamboo grass) followed by a shot of Pampas Grass Cortaderia solloana and then a shot of one flower of Adonis amurensis. In most years this flower is becoming rather common by this date in February - this year this single flower was all we found of it. |
Feb05_22_JindaiBG_Sasa _veitchii_var_veitchii_RC |
Feb05_23_JindaiBG_ Cortaderia_selloana_RC |
Feb05_25_JindaiBG_ Adonis_amurensis_RC |
  The Roubai (Chimonanthus praecox f. concolor) was in bloom, but the majority of the flowers were damaged by frost. Here are a very few flowers which are not showing frost damage. |
Feb05_35_JindaiBG_Chimonanthus _praecox_f_concolor_RC |
Feb05_38_JindaiBG_Chimonanthus _praecox_f_concolor_RC |
  The Hamamalis sp. was just barely starting to bloom - as you can see in these 2 shots. And, that's all we found on February 5th. |
Feb05_40_JindaiBG _Hamamelis_sp_RC |
Feb05_42_JindaiBG _Hamamelis_sp_RC |
End February 5th, Begin February 12th |
  Now it's February 12th and we took a bicycle ride to Nogawa Park to again check on the progress of early spring flowers. As you can see, we DID find Shibateranthis pinnatifida (Setsubunsou in Japanese) in the wild (as opposed to growing in a pot as in Row #1). We also found one small clump of Adonis amurensis in bloom. The single Plum tree growing in the wild plants area of Nogawa Park still had no flowers! |
Feb12_01_NogawaPark_ Shibateranthis_pinnatifida_RC |
Feb12_02_NogawaPark_ Shibateranthis_pinnatifida_RC |
Feb12_11_Nogawa Park_Adonis_sp_RC |
End February 12th, End Page 1, End February 2012's Photos |
  Here are links to separate web pages - all of them will open in a new window (or new tab). The first link shows some photos of our DVD Collection, an AVI Movie of our Home Theater System and 9 photos of our Sharp Aquos TV. The 2nd link shows our entire DVD collection in DVD Profiler (if you're asking yourself what might be good to rent for the weekend). The DVD's will be sorted by date purchased. You can click on the "Title" Column to sort that way if you desire. The 3rd link shows our entire DVD collection in php DVD Profiler, which is much more sophisticated than the plain vanilla DVD Profiler just above it. The 4th link takes you to a set of pages which show you the FRONT cover-art of our entire DVD collection. |
February 22, 2009 - DVD Collection & Home Theater System |
Please check it out by clicking on the above button. (Click on the "Studies of Plants and Wildlife"  link in the new window.) |
Here is a small hint to let you know that we'd be happy to have you buy one of our books. For additional information please click the "General Information" tab on the "Our Books" button down at the bottom of this page. |
Thanks so much for taking the time to look at the site this month. Even though there is not much here this month, we hope that you found something which made your visit worthwhile and enjoyable. |
If you would like to donate to our hiking & traveling fund or show your appreciation for our efforts you can donate through PayPal. A single donation will entitle you to request a single full-sized photo IN THE DONATION MONTH - which you may then use as a desktop wallpaper or whatever. The copyright will be retained by us and the photo will be inconspicuously marked with the copyright symbol (©), year and photographer's name. (Donation probably not tax deductible.) |