According to the old calendar in Japan, shōman (小満) is a season of promises. The “small flourishing” arrives when the weather becomes fine and everything starts to go well.
Or so they say.
Promises of warm days and nourishing rains, of summer fruit, and hope for a bountiful rice harvest in the fall.
In Pasadena, May is marked by the flowering of the jacaranda trees. It is a purple dreamscape. May in Japan, is also a purple dream. I used to love imagining that that at the precise moment the jacaranda burst into bloom back home, that the wisteria would flower in Tochigi.
Wisteria 藤 (fuji).
Not far from our house in Tochigi was a wisteria tree that was 160-years old. Every May, we’d be sure to go and visit this venerable tree—sitting beneath it felt like waking up in fairy land.
In one of my favorite essays in Nakanishi Susumu’s The Japanese Linguistic Landscape, wonderfully translated by Ryan Shaldjian Morrison, I learn that the poetic trope 藤波 Fujinami means “wisteria waves” is older than those tropes celebrating the cherry blossoms. In the Manyoshu, compiled sometime in the mid-8th century, there is a poem describing these “waves of wisteria.” Like long kimono sleeves, the flowery branches sway in the breeze like waves on the ocean. Oh, how wonderful it would be to drift away on an ocean of purple blossoms…
I love it that there is a season of promise and hope for future fullness.
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In Pasadena, mornings are still starting at 4am with the California Towhee starts chirping chirping very loudly–only to be outdone by a few lingering peacocks shrieks (by Easter their shrieking is mainly at night) with the Bewick's Wren chiming in beautifully. This trio is EXTREMELY loud waking us each morning around 4am. v
Because we started putting out mealworms, we are getting loads of Bewick's Wrens this year.. they make my heart melt! Also new in the backyard are crows, nuttall woodpeckers, and oak titmouse
Daytime into evening is the nonstop loud rattling sound of the Orange Crowned Warblers (I did manage to capture a sight in our backyard using callback).
Bulbuls are divine…
Grass filled with dandelions… dandelion explosion and last chance to see shore birds before they head north…
The feeders are becoming frenzied. I think mating season is turning into nesting season…. In addition the the usual, Junkos, House Sparrows, California Towhees, House Finches, and the occasional woodpecker, we are seeing HUGE band-tailed pigeons, a massive crow, scrub jays (at the feeders) and Oak Titmouses.
Gone by now are the White Crowned Sparrows–jacaranda are so late this year! 2023
Local Ephemera
Cactus Wren at Bonneli
Babies at Bolsa Chica
According to these pages, by this time last year or the year before we had baby peacocks–but I have not seen any chicks yet this year despite having a peacock party regularly visiting our backyard so this is something I want to try and figure out.
Substack:
The mating dances are nonstop!
Dewdrop World 
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