TEA BREAK
Shiga country roadside

For our walk on beautiful Wednesday afternoon, we decided to amble along a bit of Lakeside backroad between here and Katata, famed as the place to which the geese are returning in that beautiful evening woodcut by Hiroshige, in which, out over the water by the lakeshore you can even see Ukimido, another treasure of Katata. Ours was just a meander along a narrow road among shorn rice fields, farms getting ready for Spring, Summer homes currently empty of owners from the city, with frequent turnings to a quiet lakeshore of ducks and reeds, and on our way past one large well-tended estate - also empty for whatever reason - there had but a moment ago been a caretaker tending the fallen pine needles and leaves along the lengthy wall...