(Persimmon) Dreams come true. I’d been thinking about staining this ceiling for a looooong time. Since way before there were even any house plans for a cedar ceiling.

Two days ago, though, there was some confusion. The kakishibu (persimmon extract) had come from Kyoto with instructions to cut in half with water. I didn’t know it needed to be cut—and that got me worrying. Once you stain the wood, you can’t really un-stain it.

Yesterday, though, I got started. I cut the extract in half, and began with the hallway. I hadn’t been putting it on for thirty seconds before I remembered how nice it looked.

Managed to get a bit of the living room done, too, before I just couldn’t see well enough to continue. When I looked up at what I’d done, I couldn’t see any difference between it and what I hadn’t gotten to yet. Until I took a picture.

Sometimes when I’m out hiking, I feel like I can get the camera to “exaggerate” a bit—but this time, with this shot, I felt like the camera was actually seeing what I couldn’t. Maybe it does that more than I thought.

Rained that night and the next morning . . .

. . . but regardless, the high part of the ceiling waited. Would the ladder be tall enough?

Well, I managed part of the high part without a ladder.

And the ladder did get me high enough when I needed it to. Just barely.

No, Mom, I didn’t fall. And now I’m down and safe and sound on solid ground.

At the moment, I’m thinking the one coat will do it, but we’ll see how it looks in various light. At the moment, I’m in love with the way it looks.