Nobi Left An Empty Rabbit Hutch.

Our pet rabbit Nobi passed away peacefully on last Thursday.

She was six years old, lived with us almost five years. She has left us an empty house of her own and plenty of wonderful memories.

We knew a live animal should die soon or later as well as other pets we had taken care of such as turtles, flogs, fish, ants and beetles.
But we never thought of it for Nobi, no, no we didn’t want to think of it.

The day suddenly fell on us and it became reality on Oct. 7th.
To perform a funeral, my two daughters and I went to a forest near Utsunomiya Museum of Art: we call it a rabbit museum because of its well-known rabbit statue in our city. It was raining on Saturday.

Hospitality / Barry Flanagan

My Wife's Birthday

My wife Kiyono became forty three years old two days ago on October 17.  I gave a red rose to her on the day.

I usually play tennis on the top of the building on Saturday afternoon. After finishing the tennis, I went to a flower shop located on the basement floor in the same building and bought it.

I don’t think I’m such a romanticist as a guy who buys 43 roses to his wife. But even it is only one rose, it can brighten and change atmosphere of our small condominium.

Our rabbit was watching the rose enviously for a long time.

Sunny Day in the Park.

When I was taking a picture of my daughter Emi and bunny rabbit Nobi, a scene of a couple talking each other caught my eyes. They looked so happy that I wanted to take a few pictures of them together with Emi and Nobi. I always think that sometimes a picture tells far more things than words do. Those two pictures are examples of that.
You can imagine many happy stories of them.
What did they talking about?
Can the couple be happier in future than they are now?
Of course, it’s none of my business. But, they seem to be enjoying the happiest moment.
Far more happier than the couple I took pictures posted on this blog on August 26, 2006.

I bought a new camera.

I bought the Canon PowerShot A710 IS yesterday at KOJIM DENKI in Utsunomiya. It was six years ago when last time I bought a digital camera, Fujifilm FinePix 2800z. The time to buy a new one has come. I had been wondering if I should buy a SLR digital camera, Canon S3 IS or Canon PowerShot A710 IS for months.
The biggest disadvantage of A710 comparing to SLR digicam is that the shutter time lag of A710 is longer than that of SLR digicam.
The disadvantage of A710 comparing to S3 is that A710 has just 6x optical zoom on the contrary S3 has 12x optical zoom. I thought that all the other important features of A710 exceed competitors' for my photography style. Then I decided to buy the A710. The A710 has been working beautifully so far, though since only a day ago.

Basic Features of Canon PowerShot A710 IS
7.1-megapixel CCD 3,072 x 2,304 pixels
2.5-inch color LCD monitor
Real-image optical viewfinder
Glass, 6x 5.8-34.8mm lens (equivalent to 35-210mm zoom on a 35mm camera)
4.0x digital zoom
AiAF autofocus and a manual focus mode
AF Assist light for low-light focusing
Automatic, Program AE, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual exposure modes, as well as 10 preset Scene modes plus Stitch Assist
Manually adjustable aperture setting ranging from f/2.8 to f/8.0, depending on lens zoom position and shutter speed
Shutter speed range from 1/2,000 to 15 seconds, depending on aperture (Shutter times longer than 1 second only available in shutter-priority and manual exposure modes and some scene modes.)
Built-in flash with three operating modes plus red-eye reduction
SD/MMC memory storage

Left, long used film camera LEITZ minolta CL. Right, I bought it yesterday, Canon PowerShot A710 IS

I took the above picture using the A710; two daughters walked our rabbit Nobi at the park near my house.

Her Name Is Nobi.

She has short ears. She likes eating, eating, eating and eating. Her body is far bigger than her parents. Sometimes she jumps out of her 40cm rabbit hutch fence.
How can she do it with that heavy body?
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