Spooky season is upon us again! I love a well themed offering for both the Boxes and the Booze so I’m getting in the scary spirit and breaking out the scary spirits.

There is a controversial Indian folk tale from 1899 that has been beloved by generations of children around the world.

Milkfat (also known as butter fat) is present in milk as microscopic globules kept separate by their phospholipid and protein membranes.

Goodbye Tiger, Hello Rabbit! Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate.

Three Hundred Sixty Five Million years ago, give or take, during a brief sixty million year stint known as the Devonian period (between the Silurian and Carboniferous periods) of the Paleozoic era, the first amphibious tetrapods made their appearance on Earth.

Japanese Karakuri Creation Group artist Yoh Kakuda weaves magical tales in wood. Each wonderful creation tells a story, but some are simply more magical.

I have a fascination with lighthouses, and I’m not alone. There is something evocative about them, the lonely sentinel keeping watch, keeping an eye on the sea and offering a guiding light to the lost or weary traveler. The lighthouse guards us well, but, who guards the lighthouse?

Throughout the history of humankind we have been tied to the past, lavishly celebrating life with the ceremony of death and memory.

There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than in all the alcohol ever distilled – Ovid

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

― Philip Pullman

“Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” - Henry David Thoreau

Kakuda evokes the love felt for our fond companions and describes the scene of this dog jumping and prancing in anticipation as her dinner is set down.

I’m facing the new year with this sense of wonder, walking with the moon, if you will. Yoh Kakuda captures the sentiment beautifully in this piece, which is closer in style to his automaton work where the movement is the beginning and the end.

“I’m Shy”, Kakuda’s introductory piece for the group, features a charming little turtle with a wobbly grin. Kakuda modeled him after a real life red-eared turtle kept at school, and relates a tale of the tiny turtle who is now grown up, and doesn’t look quite so shy anymore.

Yoh Kakuda makes wonderfully whimsical creations for the group, with boxes which almost always take the form of animals. For the travel theme, Yoh chose a bear who is getting ready for a trip of his own.

In Japan, the frog is a common symbol of spring, perhaps due to the many species which erupt in song all throughout the rice fields this time of year.

Marjariasana, anyone? No, it’s not a mind altering substance, it’s a body altering exercise – specifically, the “cat pose” known to practitioners of yoga.

We’re off to see the wizard this week as we get slightly sentimental. Created as part of the Karakuri Creation Group’s “Story” exhibition, the Tin Woodman from Japanese artist Yoh Kakuda might just melt your heart.

It’s sakura (cherry blossom) season and the lovely pink blossoms are resplendent across Japan and in Washington DC here in the US. The blossoms call to mind the beauty and magic in the world, as does this charming puzzle box from Yoh Kakuda of the Karakuri Creation Group.

This handsome fellow is a beast of burden created by Karakuri Creation Group artist Yoh Kakuda, who is known for his magical menagerie of puzzle box designs.

Opinions vary, but one commonly held belief around these parts is that the puzzle boxes appear to have multiplied. I really couldn't say about the validity of that supposition, but if such a thing were even remotely accurate, I would have to blame, of course, the rabbits.