Having been engulfed with a big project, I'm sort of surprised to see the week has evaporated and that it's been so long since my previous post. I'm back to reality because Anthony turned 8 yesterday....

Adding it to the present (LEGO™) from his Aunt Namiko and Uncle Shogo (who got married three weeks ago), the result was a triple-crown of LEGO™ birthday joy...

Before eating I took a snapshot of the group...

Namiko and Shogo brought the "HAPPY" used at their wedding reception to add to the festive décor.

Oddly, Anthony wasn't particularly hungry and so soon excused himself [...]

Picking up after "Reception, Part IV (Mingling)" in the series about my brother-in-law's wedding two weeks ago, it was then time for some entertainment, starting off with a video presentation by one of Shogo's college buddies...

He'd made a great video showing a bunch of pictures of Shogo over the years, to better acquaint Namiko with her husband. Apparently Shogo's nickname among those friends is Mattsun 「まっつん」, which is pretty funny in its own right....

For the next event, the doors opened and twenty or so members of the singing group where Shogo and Namiko met entered....

I knew that [...]

Yesterday in "Lunch Along the Kamo River”, I wrote that I wanted to visit the birds at the river with a longer lens, and indeed, today I spent awhile with my Sigma "Bigma" 50-500mm zoom. The weather/lighting was quite different today, and this time I was on the other side of the river...

I focused on the large egret closest to me, who held this pose for the longest time...

I had my monopod with me, but soon wished that I had my tripod. The birds didn't move, so I could have set the camera on the tripod and relaxed [...]

I took a quick bike ride up the Kamo river today to meet a friend for lunch, and noticed egrets and heron at each of the many mini waterfalls along the river, staring motionless and intently into the waterfall. I figured that they were waiting for the water to bring a fish to them, and sure enough, a flutter of a wing later, one suddenly had a flopping fish in its mouth...

The view from my bicycle with the 125mm lens didn't bring me close to the action, so I may try to visit again tomorrow with a 500mm lens.

I paid a visit again this year to an ikebana (flower arranging) exhibition that some friends' kids took part in, the same annual exhibition that I posted about three years ago in "Preschooler Ikebana" and "Ikebana, Part II". Arthur Brigham, whose kids Monet and May went to preschool with Anthony, told me about it, so I made sure to snap some pictures of their arrangements. (Arthur and Monet and May featured prominently in some camping-trip posts a few years ago.)

The moment I got there I felt a rush of photographic inadequacy wash over me. Even though I couldn't control [...]