Better late than never

I don't know about other parts of Japan but every year our town tries to do its bit to reduce global warming by cutting down on the use of air conditioners. We haven't used one in our house for at least 8 years, but in the past going into any public building in the summer in this area required you to put on a jersy as the air conditioning was set to close to freezing (reminds me of Hong Kong!). In the last 5 years the "allowed" setting at the town office has risen to 27 or 28 degrees and with it has come a change in policy regarding dress code as well as attempts to make "green curtains" everywhere. My husband no longer has to wear a neck tie to work in summer - that is the big dress code change! The green curtain refers to planting climbing plants - mainly morning glory or a bitter gourd called goya and getting them to grow up a net in front of a window which in theory reduces the amount of light/heat reaching the room and therefore reducing the need to crank the airconditioning up too high.
Anyway, back to the title of this post.... my husband decided he wanted to grow a green curtain outside our bedroom window this year and today it finally flowered! Tomorrow is the autumn equinox so in theory the heat should be getting less and less - perhaps we will be able to use our green curtain as a barrier to the cold instead! It is also proving to be a great place for preying mantis to catch their supper....
I had to laugh at Clare Maree's question about whether the children in the photo yesterday were the entire 4th grade... actually that is the entire 4th, 5th and 6th grade combined! There are only 11 students in my daughter's class - the largest in the senior school!