At Home with Venetia in Kyoto

Venetia travels to the Iga region of Mie Prefecture. A friend here has worked long and hard to prepare the soil to plant herbs, and Venetia visits the herb garden where the sage is in full bloom. She also meets a potter, Yoshitaka Hasu, for the first time in 30 years. Hasu fires his earthenware after spending months and years to mature the Iga clay. His distinctive products are designed for serving food and Venetia savors his creations together with his home cooking. The kind hospitality of her old friends fills her with a sense of well-being.

The rice is now rippling lushly in the fields of the Ohara district of Kyoto. For Venetia, autumn is a time for sorting things out in the house. She tidies up the tea cups in the cupboard, polishes the chairs on the terrace with persimmon tannin and does other general maintenance. Then she cooks an herby lemon chicken.

As a new daily routine, English-born Venetia goes on walks in Kyoto Prefecture with a friend. Walks filled with such sounds as birds chirping and a stream babbling are precious to her with failing eyes. She stops by an old folk house/restaurant to order naturally raised, stone-baked bread. At a blueberry orchard in Shiga Prefecture run by a friend of hers, she harvests the last berries of the year and makes jam. She admires how her friend, who also grows organic cotton, appreciates nature's blessings we eat and wear.

English-born Venetia organizes an open garden for the first time in a long time. As she works with a gardener friend on her garden in preparation, she shares with him some fruit from a fig tree that recovered from damage in a typhoon 2 years ago. On Day 1, she entertains her pals with a blend of lemon verbena and English tea. Day 2 is all excitement with children in the neighborhood looking for sweets hidden in her garden. She also spends some relaxing time with her son's family.