Old Imperial Palace Garden

 A visit to one of my favorite places in Tokyo was the perfect way to spend a lovely winter day. The brilliant January sun cast the landscape into a playground of light and shadow.
We visited the mysterious land of the Bald Cypress air roots, and meandered over the bridges and waterways of the Japanese garden, making our way to the Taiwan-style pavilion overlooking one of the ponds.

Birds spotted included the ubiquitous and notoriously grand Mallard, (refer to Not as the Crow Flies for further details on Mallards and the consequences of forgetting to mention them), the friendly Wagtail, the enigmatic and "slightly spooky but really cool" (as my friend put it) Jungle Crow, and one Little Grebe, with its "powder puff tail". The signs posted around the pond are less poetic about the Little Grebe, simply stating that it has no tail feathers. The photo I took is so poor that a link to Wikipedia is included so you can actually see what it looks like.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Grebe

Gardenia Pod Dye

One of the most striking plant dyes to come from the ordinary Asian garden is the brilliant yellow of the gardenia seed pod. There are three gardenia bushes in my inherited garden, and though they produce multitudes of fragrant white blossoms to scent the summer nights, being more ornamental than functional, they produce no fruit or seed.  (There are also two ornamental pomegranate trees. The flowers are beautiful, and when they are done blooming, they drop to the ground, and that is the end of the story.)
However, this year, one of my English students was kind enough to share two gardenia seed pods from her garden. The Japanese use the fresh pods to dye special New Year's dishes a brilliant yellow. I used the dye this year to dye Stollen dough bright yellow, and also to color the apples for the filling. My own melange of holiday joy!