Went and looked at some wood that I heard about, belonging to a young lady and collected by her father, a fairly recently deceased gardner. If I would make something for them out of it, maybe a stool, I could have the truckload of wood, arranged via a mutual friend. Unfortunately, it had been stored uncovered and was rotten to a large extent. She runs the gardening business now, with a few workers. Nice house at the end of the road with a peaceful natural garden and small pond. She studies the traditional tea ceremony, and invited me in to partake in a tea house that is in the garden, a simple but beautiful structure the way those are often built, with exquisite workmanship. Those things never get destroyed, if someone say dies and it is no longer needed, it can be given to someone who will want to use it, and then it gets disassembled, and then reconstructed and repaired elsewhere. Very valuable commodities, some are considered national treasures. A very pleasing mixture of naturalness and refinement, a world in itself really. About an hour or so drinking tea, listening to the wind blow the bamboo outside, and chatting. It was a real nice break in the afternoon.
The tea ceremony is a tradition from the samurai era, an occasion to allow respite from the demands of the world, one enters through a small door on your knees, so no need to be reminded that swords are left outside. it can be very formal, dictated by years of study, or casual for novices like myself, either way the point of it is a unique interlude for relaxation. Quite interesting, really, a quiet reflection of man in nature, with an added social twist.
