COMPOST AND CANDY

Out first thing this morning to start sectioning some firewood but first I had to dump some kitchen garbage on the compost pile but first I had to do what I'd been promising myself I'd do one of these days, decided this was the day: turn the compost pile with the rake.

So I put down the kitchen garbage bag and went and got the rake out of the toolshed but first I had to put some lime over the top of the compost heap but first I had to pull up the weeds so the coast would be clear for the lime scattering (gardening procedural discovery often runs backward) so I began pulling up all the weeds, a lot of them actually vegetables that had sprouted too late from seed in the garbage, and when that was done I went to the lime box and opened it to get the lime but first I had to go and get a trowel to scatter the lime with so I went and got it, then scattered the lime - my plan was advancing at last - then I dumped the garbage over one side of the compost plot then got the rake and began raking one half up over the other and with about the fourth rakeful I uncovered what looks every time like a panicking horse's eyeball staring up out of the earth, shining white and smooth with a dark tinge, like an alien thing suddenly there in the deep soil, it was a kabutomushi larva, head downward in the ground, smooth, round, darkish tail up, as always, about as big as a hen's egg when they get full size, shocking every time, living secretly there in the subsoil...

I dug it out with my fingers and set it aside so I wouldn't step on it or hurt it with the rake, then went on raking more gently and uncovered another one, set that aside too, then another, and another - ultimately five in all - large, heavy, pearly, slow-moving, oddly vulnerable, truly alien-looking things; was about to put them back, cover them over in darkness again and wrap it all up before sharpening the chain saw, but first ran into the house to get the camera and took a picture of the the first four larvae in my gloved hand, then the biggest one alone... (click on that picture for more detail than you might like)

At the end on the left here are those insanely popular kabutomushi larvae made out of chocolate...

Smaller than the real thing, I suspect...
The actual-size creatures would cost a fortune in fine chocolate...
The resulting beetles can be quite expensive too...

Just posted
Hormones on the Range
on
The Blog Brothers...

SWEET STREET ART

Decades ago I remember seeing, only very occasionally in Tokyo - and only once during the eighties in Kyoto – the amezaiku street artists/vendors (even then rare) who, in front of the growing crowd would take hot taffylike sugar, handle it like rhythmic lightning with tongs now and then in flame like a glass blower, color the shapeless blob, twist it, mold it and cut it with well-worn shears until it was fashioned into a Doraemon on a stick, or dragon, pig, bunny rabbit, monkey, phoenix, whatever fanciful creature came to mind as the candyman cracked jokes, did tricks, told stories while teasing the sweet creature of his story out of the melting sugar before all those wide-eyed faces... or working as per customer order for one of the noisy crowd of mostly kids around his stand... I don't even see amezaiku at big festivals anymore...

There are a few young amezaiku-nin taking the art up again, but back then when an amezaiku artist had been at his craft for 60 years or more and was cracking up the crowd while crafting faster than the eye could follow, the results were breathtaking. Unfortunately, all those splendid works were purchased for just a few yen, then happily licked into oblivion...