ニンジン記念日

国立の「農家の台所」というレストランでお昼をご馳走になった。不思議に甘いひとみ五寸にんじんのジュース。

Galveston

Thank you for visiting my blog. Yesterday, the total number of visitors reached over 50,000. It was really a perfect birthday present from all of you!




Galveston Island State Park
I visited this island just a few days before the hurricane Ike hitted and destroyed the whole area. I was shocked to see the photos of flooded roads and houses after that, which my host mother sent me. I could't believe them from the sceneries I saw; peacefull and quiet places full of sunshine.

Texas still has big wilderness. One reason for that might be the huge hurricanes.

タカの渡り

Smith Point Hawk Watch Tower
A book to enjoy hawk watch was finally published last week, witch has some of my illustrations in it.
Last year, I visited several hawk watch points in Japan for that book and I loved the hawk watch style birdwatching; sitting at the same place and watching the sky. So in Texas. I ask my host mother's birder friend to take me to Smith Point.

□■□宣伝 □■□
「タカの渡りを楽しむ本（BIRDER SPECIAL）」　久野公啓著　文一総合出版　2520円
白樺峠、伊良湖岬、武山でタカの渡りを観察したときの体験記やタカ見グッズの絵などの挿絵をわたしが描かせてもらいました。大きな書店ででものぞいてみてください。

For Bill

Black-and-White Warbler(シロクロアメリカムシクイ)
My host mother took me to some nature parks in Houston downtown. In Houston Arboretum, a ranger kindly guided us through the park. Thanks to him, we could see some migrators and winter visiters, such as Great Crested Flycatcher and Pine Warbler. American warblers are nice because they have bright colors and pattern, unlike Japanese dulll brown colored warblers.

red sandals

My host father bought me a pair of red sandals for canoeing!! I liked them so much and wore them to everywhere that my host mother also got a pair for herself. All of a sudden, everybody around us wanted to get the same pair to join our red sandal club.

Canoe

Roseate Spoonbill(ベニヘラサギ)
The most wonderful experience in Texas was canoeing on the river near the house. Host father had a mud water canoe so we paddled it and went into some narrow creeks, passing under bridges and fallen trees.
Main channel of the river was busy with people on big motor boats, but no one came into narrow, shallow creek except for us. And there was the place for birds, such as Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, Tricolored Heron and so on.
Again, I remembered another children's book called "Minnow on the Say"

Wildlife

I was surprised to find many kinds of wildlife around the house, which is in the suburbs of Houston. "We should take advantage of living here rather than watching TV," my host mother said to me. Her words made me really happy.



アライグマ（Raccoon）
One evening when I was walking slowly along the river, a big tail hanging from a tree branch lept into my sight. Another squirrel, I thought at first. But it was much bigger and had a striped pattern.



アメリカフクロウ（Barred Owl）
I noticed that there was something big on top of a pine tree because of shrills of Blue Jays. I carefully approached toward the calls, looked for the something. And I saw two brown eyes and a yellow bill...of Barred Owl.
I dashed to the house to get my scope. When I came back, it was still there, hiding behind the pine leaves and watching me.



トウブワタオウサギ(Eastern Cottontail)
Rabbits were everywhere.

ヤマネコ島

Surely, I ate and drank so much in Texas, but it's not the only thing I did there...



"Wiledcat island"
When I was walking around a nature park with my host mother, I saw some campers in a small island in a river. They had a nice tent and a red flag and were swiming in the river, which reminded me of a scene from the book called "Swallows and Amazons". I wish I were one of them.



Cypress trees from the park. I like thier roots!

Strawberry taste

Another "non-alcohol cocktail" at another Mexican restaurant.
I always ate so much chips & dip that I became full before the main dish.

twenty-one

Piña Colada

In that Mexican restaurant, I drank this Piña Colada! but...virgin one. Because in Texas, we can not drink alcohol until the age of 21, another one month to go for me.