The Ninja-master of chopsticks...

Not much happened this week... it was hot, hotter and rainy and I worked a little bit on some paintings.

Well, but I HAVE to share this snapshot I did today...

Muu-chan the ultimate ninja-master of the evil chopstick ^___^

Pappare Fukuoka

Before Tsuyoshi had to go on another business trip, we went to Meinohama and had Kushi, but afterwards, we were also lucky to finally have dinner in the Italian Restaurant "Pappare" near Meinohama-station.

Very delicious, excellent dishes and great service.

This is Kinmedai-Carpaccio with olive oil, pesto and ruccola... Wonderful !!! We also had wonderful pizza and pasta, but the kids ate it faster, than I was able to make a photo. But we will definettely visit again.

Oh and here is a beautiful flower in our yard, I spotted on Saturday.

Wishing everybody a wonderful week !!!

African Grey parrot painting

Since I bought the adorable book "From the wild" back in the 90s, I always wanted to paint animals, too.

Well, today I finished my very first painting of an african grey parrot. Muu was a great model and got some extra-snack for sitting still.

Done with acrylics and airbrush on paper... size is 19,5 x 15 cm.

In a private collection.

Food-art in Karatsu Part 2

The weekend was mostly rainy and cold and so we could not do much hiking. So we decided to go to Karatsu again, have good food in the Nijinomatsubara-Hotel and simply relax... here you see another delicious lunch-menue there.

Starting with vegetables and Octopus...

sauted white fish...

pork and beef with balsamico and Tenpura-topping...

 salty egg-pudding with wakame.

duck-stew,

fish-tempura

rice, soup and pickles,

fig, cooked in redwine as desert.

Not so much we did this weekend, but going to Karatsu was again like being on a vacation ^_^

Summer's end

Summer's end???...no, not at all, it just  begins over here, but it's how I call this painting. I started it in my painting-group last Wednesday and finally had some time to finish it.

Done with acrylics, airbrush and watercolor on paper. Size is about B4, original available.

Fun at Bayern/Fukuoka

On Friday we went again to "Bayern", the German restaurant and bakery in Nishijin, Fukuoka.

Had wonderful Hefeweizen and Wiener Schnitzel...

Brettjause with Bretzel and brown bread and...

Original Schlenkerla Rauchbier (smoked beer) *yummy*

Oh and I spotted the first lactarius laeticolorus at Odo Koen this week. :D 

This weekend I will mostly spend painting, because Tsuyoshi is at Kuju, but having such a great Friday evening together was already so much fun. 

new "momiji and butterfly" art

Finally had some time again to paint... done with watercolor, ink and airbrush on paper.

Size is B4.

*** SOLD ***

Food-art in Karatsu

After a long time, we decided to finally drive to Karatsu again. We always use to go there for relaxing, having great food and also for mushroom-hunting. Karatsu is famous for it's 5km long pine-tree grove at the coast called Nijinomatsubara (虹ノ松原), which was originally planted by the local Shogun to protect the village from typhoons. I love to walk there... some of the trees look like if they were shaped by magic.

Actually, we hoped to find the first "Akamomitake" (アカモミタケ) "lactarius laeticolorus" or even "Hatsutake" (ハツタケ) "lactarius hatsudake", but instead we found masses of Amitake (アミタケ) "Suillus bovinus". We will have them with miso-soup tonight.

After our little "hunt", we went to our all time favorite restaurant there in the "Nijinomatsubara hotel" and had a delicious course... salad with cheese and smoked salami, 

Duck soup fondue...

smoked duck with orange marinade, grilled eggplant and balsamico...

Tuna/salmon tartare with caviar...

salty egg pudding...

Spring-flounder...

Sushi and pumpkin soup...

Fig cooked in Redwine and a good, strong coffee...

Excellent service, great food with view on the beach and on the islands and less than 20 Euros per person. Having such a great course always makes me feel like I was on a long vacation.

Later, we took a walk on the beach... the weather was dark, but warm... we gathered some squid-bones and shells for our birds.

And the kids enjoyed to play a little...

Now I play with my "Muri-muu" (Muri means "impossible" and I chose that name, because of his temper sometimes^^), who is happy that we are back. We just were away for 4 hours, but it was soooo much fun and felt like a week.