That is indeed unusual. Seseragi Studio seems to have a very fortuitous location, indeed. You can video wildlife, step downstream for a picnic, view the blossoming of your neighbor's venerable cherry tree and watch eclipses all from your back window while, stepping outside onto the street, you have a canopy of wisteria in season and are just steps away from a friendly place for lunch and visits with neighbors and patrons. I don't imagine many people in the world can claim all of that for their workplace.

(I like your demonstration of the proper precautions for eclipse watching.)

a very fortuitous location, indeed ...

I wonder about this ... but suspect that there is not anything 'special' about this place at all. It's a similar thing with the A Story A Week - I had someone a while back say something to the effect "Wow, so much stuff happens to you! Nothing ever happens to me ...", but I don't think this is true at all. Everybody has stories, if they are only able and willing to see and tell them, and everyplace is interesting, if you only look carefully enough ...

A perfect response. It is absolutely your own observation of and engagement with your space and time and your skill communicating what you see that make it special. Perhaps more of us, even stay-at-homes like me, should try writing about what we can see from our windows! You do prompt me to look more closely, I assure you, and that is a very good thing to teach.

Thanks Anita!

... what we can see from our windows ...

This is something that has been on my 'to do' list for many years. 'From My Window' - a multi-media 'thing' of some kind, with audio recordings made on my Zoom binaural system, a few woodblock prints, some stories, maybe a bit of video. All of things that are in that area right outside my window, from the microscopic, right on up ...

I have no idea what physical format it could take. If I want audio/video it has to be something digital (iPad?), but I also want real woodblock prints, so I'm kind of stuck ...

Any anyway, it's not like I have nothing else to do right now!

But, Dave, your little river is very charming. I live a few blocks from a river but there is no wading or having a picnic at the water's edge along the Mighty Mississippi! Waterfowl, ships and nutria are visible from the levee while raccoons and opossums make themselves at home throughout the neighborhood, boldly eating cat food my neighbor sets out to entice stray cats she is recruiting for her "spay/neuter the strays" campaign.

One wily raccoon strolls across her roof in the evening, on the way home, leaping easily from the roof to the trellis. There he strolls, with his bushy striped tail high, then leaps lightly to the deck, before sauntering along the path where he cuts across my garden before disappearing under the back fence. I think these wild animals have lived near this river long before people built houses here; they pay no attention to our property lines at all. Perhaps we are a very temporary distraction to them at best.

Mighty Mississippi ...

Well, there you go! Anybody living a few blocks from that little stream must have plenty of stories to tell, I think!

Getting a blog somewhere costs nothing these days; set one up, make a little 'goal' of telling a story each week, and join the club!

Maybe I should 'franchise' the Story A Week concept! :-)

I also have a fantasy that your neighbor, when he decides to take down that mountain cherry, will give or sell it to you and you will wind up with some seasoned wood you'll turn into blocks. After all, what are a few more saws and a few more acquired skills to a polymath?

Yes, do design that multimedia package. You know I put such pictures as the one of your picnic spot on my desktop as wallpaper. The photographs work well but the screen grabs of the heron and the cherry tree are not sharp enough.

It is a perfect ending to this eclipse post to be able to add your collector Mr. Shigeyoshi Ushiro san's blog picture to share with us. Thank him from me.

take down that mountain cherry ... seasoned wood you'll turn into blocks.

Well, funny you should mention that just now ... Here's a photo from last Thursday that I will be blogging about as soon as I can find a few spare minutes ...

In Baltimore we have an established event called Stoop Storytelling. A public event of a mixture of celebrities, local personalities and members from the audience standing onstage & telling a 7 minute story, sometimes themed sometimes open. Everyone loves stories. That's what I see in many woodblock prints, the telling of a story visually. Dave you are good at both!!
Sue