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Sowing seeds

The shelled seeds gathered from Ai (Japanese Indigo) that was planted in my field last year.
If you put them in between your palms and give them a rub, you would see the seeds appear that resemble black sesame.

I started off late slightly but managed to finish sowing the seeds of Ai, annual plant, in May.
After 10 days or so of complete silence, one little charming bud appeared from a seedling pot and the rest started to sprout one after another.
It makes me feel happy to see perennial plants sprout in spring after sleeping in soil from autumn to winter but it made me feel indescribably happy to see the Ai’s seeds sprout, which I reared and gathered myself.
I think the way of treating perennials is different from that of annual plants such that while perennials require you to believe in their vitality and just watch over to sprout, annual plants require a hand to put back the gathered seeds into the soil.
I might be overstating a little but sowing the seeds of annual plant required me to brace myself for taking care of them from scratch.
Nevertheless, the reason why I thought I would grow Ai was because it was attractive after all.

When I went out to plough my field for replanting the Ai from the seedling pots, I saw buds of Ai sprouting here and there irregularly. They had sprouted from the fallen seeds.
I feel happy to see such a blessing from nature, too.

If the Ai grow large again, I intend to dye the threads and the stoles again over the colour I dyed last year using the fresh leaves.
Ever since I have started to live at the foot of a mountain, I have become even more sensitive to the cycle of seasons and have found the pleasure of adding colour onto colour (threads) of last year that I laid aside, without being seized with the instant result.

01/06/2018 | Posted in Diary |