Having Daughters & Ryan Three Sails British style Virginia in the smaller of the two Japanese nobe-kiseru pipes from my 2025 Birthday Haul—this is the plain, undecorated one (the other is decorated with a dragon motif). A nobe-kiseru pipe is a single piece of metal, and much less common than rau kiseru (made with three pieces—two metal ends, usually connected by bamboo). This cast iron pipe could be from the earlier or middle part of the Edo period (1603–1868), but there’s no way of really knowing; it is much bulkier and cruder than most kiseru pipes, which often look elegant (this makes me think it’s from an earlier part of the period). This one measures about 7.5" in length (the dragon motif one, about 8.0"); it’s not as long as most kenka-kiseru (fighting pipes) which would normally fall in the 12.0"–18.0" range, but it is entirely possible that it was used for eye gouging and could have been a fighting pipe.
We made some progress on the attic and got about 90% of the boards back in place and screwed down. Some needed blocks of wood to be sistered to the wood underneath in order to have something to screw the boards into; the electrician that started the job a few years ago cut the boards, but not always in spots where they could easily be remounted with support. The Honeycomb Hideout is one step closer to being ready.
For Saint Patrick’s Day, Susan made corned beef and cabbage with potatoes. It was yummy.
This morning, Susan got some sad news. A dear friend of hers in Florida succumbed to ALS last night. While not unexpected, it was sooner than we thought.