This is where it all began for me…. but I didn’t know it then. May, 1995
The year – 1995 ….. doesn’t seem like that long ago really – but I was using a camera that took film!! Yep, no digital cameras back then! I saw this Japanese gardener pruning the hedges outside the Hotel Nikko Narita. When I approached him about getting a photo he was happy to oblige by posing with what I now realise was a pair of Japanese made hedge shears. Didn’t really take it in at the time. He also had with him a bamboo rake and a bamboo broom (just in the photo – bottom right hand corner).
Japanese gardeners always use hand hedge shears to do their hedging work. That’s rather funny in a country renowned for it’s technological edge with everything mechanical. That’s because the finish is so much more refined with no chewed up leaves to go brown after the job’s completed.
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Christmas in Japan
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Such a simple looking knife, such a complicated process!
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A light to my path
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Chop, chop
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Autumn leaves - bring on the colour
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Making a mortise using a Japanese mortising chisel
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What do Australians do leading up to Christmas?
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A hot day at Melbourne Zoo
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One windy night
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An ordinary street transformed