At Home with Venetia in Kyoto

Going along with the seasons, Venetia makes cocoa butter cream to soothe her skin tanned from the garden work in summer and cleans the wood stove with lavender vinegar in preparation for the coming winter. The tulip bulbs she plants are for the spring. She visits the herb garden of Noriko, an old friend who helps her with the garden work. A certified instructor of floral designs, she makes seasonal wreaths from wild herbs so that more people can appreciate the beauty of wild flowers.

During a trip to the Izumo region in Shimane Prefecture, Venetia, British by birth, visits a kiln associated with the British potter Bernard Leach. In the early Showa era, he visited this area and taught such techniques as slipware. Encountering this legacy of her motherland thrills Venetia. At an old indigo-dyeing workshop, she is amazed at the craftsmanship of a rare technique called tsutsugaki, which is found in beautiful furoshiki wrapping cloths brides in this area have traditionally taken with them.

Venetia is a real herbologist with more than 150 useful herbs in her Ohara, Kyoto garden. She gives a public reading in English about the wisdom and efficacy of herbs.

British-born Venetia lives in Ohara, Kyoto. She gathers twigs for her wood-burning stove and makes 3 kinds of herbal tea with olive, lemon myrtle and marjoram to overcome the cold. In her garden, she plants winter-hardy Christmas Roses. Curious about the demon tile in her garden, she visits a Kyoto tile maker who carefully polishes the tile with a metal scraper to create the style's unique glossy finish. She also sees the production of the shoki ornaments that decorate rooftops in Kyoto.

British-born Venetia lives in Ohara, Kyoto. She heads to Nara City, where she sees an old friend. She walks through Kasuga Shrine's sacred forest along a mountain trail that was once a busy trading route. The hiking course leads to a view of Nara Basin from the top of Mt. Wakakusa. At her friend's home, they talk about future plans. The next day she visits Todaiji Temple. She goes to the studio of a young sculptor who uses his skills honed from carving Buddhist works to create his own art pieces.