September

Its been an eventful week. We went down to Ikadaba in the weekend and then we met up with Rachel in Tokyo. I'll post about that later, and use this post to try to get up to date.

The big change over the last 3 weeks is that Hannah has begun to smile.

And pretend to laugh at my jokes. Some of the time

Rika has been teaching her to wave for her public.

Hannah is adorable when she is in a good mood.

Or asleep.

But unless she is being held or fed she often seems uncomfortable. As a calming mechanism the slings are still having 'deferred success' most of the time.

Hannah usually can't fall asleep on her own. So the usual pattern has been for us to hold her until she gets calm and falls asleep.

Then we can put her down. This operation requires extremely careful and patient movements of the sort more normally required for defusing bombs.

The trick is to move slowly enough to avoid setting-off her 'tilt trigger'. Sudden movements will wake her up and start her crying until she is held back to sleep again.

Gently does it.... Success! Free time to do something else...

Since Rika often doesn't have time to cook we sometimes get take outs. Hannah enjoys going out and is usually well-behaved in the baby carrier. This local resturant is a favourite of Rika's Mum (really). The curry is flavoured using special eggs from Himalayan roosters.


One calming technique we have not used much but have tried recently is to swaddle Hannah (aka the Shelob technique).

To begin with Hannah did not like this one bit.

But after 10 min crying, like magic, she became calm.


The cats are OK, although Minimi is showing signs of feeling hurt and underappreciated. When I'm with Hannah he generally keeps his distance because he finds her crying unpleasant, and he seems scared of her hiccups. But usually when I'm working or sleeping on my own he comes over for a cuddle.


Sasuke has a new 'strange single behaviour'. As you know he is named after a famous ninja. Recently he has started practicing ninja invisibility techniques. (They sometimes even work - did you see him in the other photo?)

Sasukes toilet training has suffered a few setbacks. A few weeks ago, right in front of us he walked onto a futon, looked at us and then let go. Futon ruined.

After a couple of weeks of this I was getting pretty grumpy (I know, may be hard to believe) and Rika was getting pretty tired of both of us.

So on the Saturday I looked after Hannah for the afternoon and let Rika get out of the house. That got my halo back up to full-strenth.

Fortunately we managed to catch up on our sleep over the long weekend. So things seen OK at the moment.

Bath Time

Hannah is a little angel at bath time.


I took these photos a couple of weeks ago. As usual, we couldn't decide which are the best ones, so here are the best 0.005% of them


Following Japanese practice, bath starts with a wash outside the bathtub.

She seems to want to grow potatoes in the folds around her neck so we have to wash these carefully.

Then a soak in the tub with Mum

Then a bit of a float in the water.

Thats better isn't it!

Typhoon

Last Thursday a strong typhoon was forecast to hit the Kanto region. Although Japan has 10 or so typhoons each autumn, it has been a couple of years since the last typhoon that hit Tokyo directly.

Everyone took the warning seriously. Normal programing on NHK was replaced by continuous coverage of the storm. Most people left work early and went straight home to sit it out. They expected the trains to stop running when the storm hit and didn't want to be stranded.

This is a false-color satelite radar image showing the storm over Japan on Thursday night. The forecast proved very accurate, except that the typhoon moved slower and arrived later than expected. Since I live a short subway ride from work I stayed at work until 8pm. When I cam home the town was very quiet and there were broken umbrellas cast about the pavement. Japanese littering rules are clearly suspended during potential natural disasters!

The center of the typhoon made landfall in Izu in the evening and the eye of the storm passed directly over central Izu where Rika's mum lives. I was a bit concerned about Rika's Mum since the hills in Izu are prone to landslides and flood damage, and the rice is just about ready for harvesting. Also they have suffered disasters from typhoons in the past. But apparently there was no major damage, although some rain leaked into one of her windows.

I downloaded these maps from the Japanese met office at that time. This storm was strong but not super strong - but on the other hand it was slow so the rainfall was more concentrated. Izu city received 500mm of rain in 24 hours, much of it concentrated in a few hours. 　Thats 2/3 of the rain London typically receives in a year! (annual rainfall c.750mm). These radar images show the rainfall. The detailed image below shows rain falling in Tokyo at a rate of 30mm/h. 　

Since the Typhoon arrived at night there wasn't much to see or photograph. So we just watched reports on TV and the pressure on our barometer. The drop in pressure as the storm approached was dramatic. It literally fell off the scale of my barometer!　

So the lowest pressure we reecorded was just under 980 hPa. The centre of the low pressure area was about 960hPa and this went past a few tens of km to the west of Tokyo in the early morning.

I didn't see much storm damage apart from the umbrellas. But therse was a lot of small debris and litter scattered across the streets, which is unusual for Tokyo. It was quickly swept up. We are going down to Izu today to help with the rice harvest. So I'll update with a damage report later.

Family History (4) Smith Family in New Zealand

After William death, Hannah became the head of the family and lived at Birchlands for most of the next 24 years, surrounded by her children. She died in Ashburton in 1926.

Hannah’s obituary described her as a ‘fine old lady’ displaying the ‘best Victorian traits’ and said that although she was ‘not out of sympathy with modern times’ she ‘disliked frivolity and weakness’.

Photo: Tottie’s wedding, 1908. Tottie is standing far left. Hannah sitting 3rd from right. 'Willie' is standing behind Hannah, 3rd from right.

‘Willie’ became established as a land-owning farmer with financial help from his mother Hannah. He married Catherine (‘Kate’) Harvey in 1900 and they had 6 children, including Hannah Elizabeth (1910-1962) and my grandfather Duncan Graham (1914-1974),

Photo: 'Willie' (William Tayler Smith junior) and Catherine Harvey, 1900

In 1826 Willie bought the sheep station Hakataramea Downs. This is a high-country sheep farm towards the top of the Hakataramea valley. The stone farm-house was first built in 1858 and extended in 1880?.

Photo: Hannah Elizabeth’s wedding, 1939. Willie (seated left), Kate (seated right) and their children (from left to right) Duncan, Nellie, Jack, Allan, Hannah and Ted.

Willie died in 1945 and after that my grandfather Duncan Graham farmed at Hakataramea Downs with his brother and then his sons until his death in 1974.

Photo: Farmhouse at Hakataramea Downs, 2002.

My father, Mervyn Graham, was born in 1937 and grew up on the farm at Haka Downs before moving to Dunedin. My parents still own the stone farm buildings which they use as a holiday house.

Photo: Hakataramea Downs, 2002

My father did not have any siblings or first cousins called Hannah. In my generation, I have a cousin called Johanna and she has a daughter Hannah Rose who was born in 1999. Also my grandfather, my father and myself all have the middle name of 'Graham', after the family name of our ancestor Hannah Graham.

Photo: The ‘cook shop‘ at Hakataramea Downs. Looking south-east down the valley.

Hannahs family tree (Smith & Graham families)

8. James Graham 1740-1829. Married Anne Filmer 1739-1805 St Lukes Old Street, London
7. John Bond Graham 1766-1834. Married Margaret Tayler 1766-1851 St Lukes , Old St, London, 1791
6. William Graham 1809-1989 Married Hannah Austin 1808-1849, St Boltophs, Aldersgate London, 1830. Arrived Lyttleton, New Zealand 1851
5. Hannah Graham 1845-1926

8. William Smith married Margaret Frazer, 1751, Rothiemay Scotland
7. Charles Smith. Born1770 Rothiemay, died 1852, .Elgin, Scotland
6. John Smith 1807-1887, Rothiemay, Scotland. Farmer
5. William Taylor Smith 1844 1902. Arrived Lyttleton, New Zealand, 1863.
Married Hannah Graham, Lyttleton 1869. Sheep farmer.
4. William Taylor Smith (Willie) 1875-1945. Sheep farmer.
3. Duncan Graham Smith (1914-1974). Sheep farmer.
2. Mervyn Graham Smith 1937- . Not a sheep farmer
1. Me.
0. Hanna Smith S.  2007-

Family History (3) Smith Family from Scotland

William Taylor Smith (1844-1902), was born in Scotland in the parish of Rothiemay, in East Banffshire. Rothiemay is a rural area of small farms, villages and forests about 9km north of Huntly. Our family has been traced in Rothiemay as far back as William Taylor’s great-grandfather, William Smith, who married Margaret Frazer in Rothiemay in 1751.

Photo: Coldhome, Rothiemay, Scotland

William Taylor’s parents were John Smith (1807-1887), and Euphemia Wilson (1807-1893). John Smith was a crofter (farmer) who lived at Burnside of Coldhome in Rothiemay and had 7.5 acres of land (30,000 m2) .

John and Euphemia had 3 daughters and 6 sons, but only one child remained in Scotland. The 2 other daughters moved to England, 2 sons emigrated to the USA, and 4 sons emigrated to Canterbury, New Zealand. The choice on New Zealand may have been influenced by news of discoveries of gold.

Picture: Gold Mining town West Coast, New Zealand,1866

William Taylor Smith was their youngest son and when he was only 19 he traveled from Scotland to New Zealand, arriving at Lyttleton on the ship “Brothers Pride” in Dec 1863. 44 of the 371 passengers died the voyage. His brother Hay had arrived at Lyttleton in Jan the same year, and his brothers George and Charles followed in 1864. He first worked in the west coast gold-fields 1863-1867 .

Photo: Mt Somers from near Staveley

Around 1867 he started as a bullock driver. He worked at the farm ‘Buccleuch’, where his brother Hay was working, and other farms in the Mt Somers/Staveley area. This area is where the Canterbury Plains meets the foothills of the Southern Alps It is also near the location used for filming ‘Edoras’ in the Lord of the Rings.

Photo: Bullock team pulling a wool wagon across a stream, Canterbury,1890s.

William Taylor Smith and Hannah Graham married in 1869 at Lyttleton and settled in in a sub—division of the ‘Buccleuch’ property which they later bought and called ‘Birchlands’. They built up a successful transport business using bollocks and then horses, and also bought and farmed properties in the Staveley area.

Photo: Bullock team and wool wagon, Canterbury, 1880s.

William Taylor became known for his competitiveness, strength, perseverance in getting wool out of remote high county sheep stations, like Mesopotamia. Messapotamia station is well known for being remote, and famous because the English writer, Samuel Butler, lived there 1859-64 and wrote about his experience.

Photo: Mesopotamia Station, showing house, group and surrounding land, 1871.

William and Hannah had 11 children (4 sons and 7 daughters) and 58 grandchildren. The sons all became sheep farmers in Canterbury, and their daughters married local farmers.

Painting: Sheep station, Canterbury c 1890. By Francis Fortescue Croft Huddleston.

Their 2nd son was called William Taylor (1875-1945) just like his father and was known as ‘Willie’. He is my great-grandfather. Their 4th daughter was called Hannah (1878-1955) and was known as ‘Tottie’ to distinguish her from her mother.

Photo: Hannah and Williams Family, Birchlands 1898.

Photo: Birchlands 1898 (detail). Hannah and William are seated. 'Willie' is standing behind Hanna on the left, Tottie standing behind Hannah.

In 1902 William Taylor traveled to Auckland to buy horses but he disappeared from the ship “Zealandia” somewhere between Napier and Auckland. It was believed that he fell overboard, and may have been robbed for his money.

Photo: The clipper ship Zealandia