Countryside Walks, Cooking, Morning Visitors, Zoologist Bob

March 16^th Surprisingly, on my behalf anyway, we were up early enough for a ‘countryside’ walk today. We set off over the island park bridges, where we attempted a selfie with the bridge between us. There must be a way to do this better than we do!

We carried on through the first little village and up the hill. Flowers caught our eye first, in the first photo you can see one getting undressed and the second photo reminded me of prayer.

The next village was Zana Cun where we took one of our usual panoramas, this time to show you not only the view but also how the rice fields are coming on.

My plan today had been to try and take the path to the back gate of the medicine factory; it’s a very pleasant walk through woods and fields, usually with some cows to chat to on the way. We knew that there might be a problem and as we left the village our fears were confirmed. There was no way to skirt around the construction site.

Following a path that we could take we came upon the irrigation aqueduct, where we briefly considered walking across, in my case very briefly. In my younger days I would have relished the idea but I seem to find such things beyond my ability these days.

Once out of the woods and back on the road, we tried again to go around the front of the construction site, that is blocked as well, so through the fields we went, and as the carol goes, laughing all the way.

Back on the road we noticed that the village of Fuguan has a new sign and not only in Chinese.

To save you straining your eyes, I took two more photos, one of the English translation and one of the, pretty accurate, map.

Going back through the field tracks we met dogs, ducks and chickens but geese take the spotlight for today. The first one was very vociferous and definitely didn’t want me going anywhere near his wards of chickens and ducks.

The second one was also looking after his flock in another little farm. The chickens, I think you’ve seen these before, were again coming up to the gate, perhaps thinking we had food. This goose was not as noisy and I didn’t realise until I got home just what this photo looked like. Often I crop and tweak one the PC, as I did with the goose above, but this one is far better being left just as it is. Huan saw it and said it looks just like he’s on the stage!

After lunch I think we could both have done with an OAP kip but somehow we avoided it. It could have been because Huan was trying to get me to copy mp3 files from one USB to another, neither of them hers, and she wasn’t really sure which songs had to be copied! At least I was awake to cook dinner. Here are the ingredients, although I only used half the onion and half the carrot, and Huan’s plate ready to eat. I’ll leave it to you to work out how I did it!

After dinner I relaxed for a while, then started on this post. Huan had gone out to meet the ladies for some hulusi and dancing. Before too long my progress was severely disrupted, Huan came back with one of her dancing partners and the two USBs. It took a while but I think eventually they were both happy that the right files had been copied from one to the other. They had another problem then, they couldn’t access folders on the TV or on the mp3 player they use for their dancing. I had to explain that I couldn’t do anything about that, someone would have to buy a new USB specifically for their dancing and then only put on the files they need. What’s the betting that my services will be needed again before too long.

March 17^th Another good day for me and a countryside walk, after I’d walked the good lady to school. Today she had a hulusi class at the OAP centre. We walked a slightly different way, with Huan worrying she would be late, one of these days she’ll learn to trust me. Passing the hospital we wondered if someone knows something we don’t, they have built a small area outside the hospital for ‘health checks’ should you have any fever and/or respiratory problems.

After seeing Huan into the lift I continued on my merry way wondering just where I should walk. I decided to head off towards Zana Cun again but from another direction.

At the end of this lane I met four local people who informed me that there was no way through. I replied that I was aware of that and showed them where I would walk. They thought I was wrong and told me I would have to return to the road I turned off. Of course I had to prove them wrong! Telling them that I had lived here for over five years and that I knew where I was going, I headed off through the fields.

Before too long I remembered where this track led, behind one of the big schools, and towards the Zana Cun entrance road. What had changed though was the construction, the ‘bridge to nowhere’ near our house will eventually lead right through this farmland.

Looking at the second photo, I had traversed the lovely green area on the left to get to this vantage point, before continuing on my way. What the photo doesn’t show is that the lovely green area is a cow field, I chatted with them in their corral on the way through. They didn’t warn me that I would almost lose my boots! I sank quite a few times, luckily my boots are waterproof so my progress wasn’t hindered. Over the ridge on the right lay the village of Zana so here’s a panorama from the opposite side to yesterday’s.

Once again I yearned for a longer telephoto lens but I did manage to take this photo where at least you can see the colours of the bird.

By now I also knew the route I was going to follow today, a reverse trek to where the cow nearly bumped me off the irrigation ditch wall recently. To me this is a particularly beautiful area.

I stopped to chat to two farmers, you can see them in the next photo, to comment on how beautiful this place was, especially the way the light shone on it today, and also how wonderful it sounded. Apart from our chatting, there were no man made sounds at all, no cars, no machines, no pneumatic drills, just birds and insects, it really was lovely.

Like the previous locals they told me that there was no way through, this time I was very sure they were wrong as Huan and I had come this was previously. They were half right I that the path you can see in the earlier photo disappeared, overgrown with vegetation. I made sure I made lots of noise with my boots, just in case of snakes!

Eventually I was through the vegetation, over the trails, and on my way to the river. Normally, we would be climbing up these steps; it felt very good today to go down them!

Today I decided to cross the river as soon as possible and walk back home on the other side, our side in fact. My first attempt came to this; the brick in the middle is there just to catch you out. Holding on to the large boulder, I tested the footing with my left foot and the brick shifted, better try somewhere else I thought.

As usual on this riverside stroll I spotted ducks and goats, and of course took many photos of the. However, I thought you might prefer something different today Checking Google to verify the name, they are commonly known as water striders, water skeeters, water scooters, water bugs, pond skaters, water skippers, Jesus bugs, or water skimmers. Consider yourself educated now!

Once I found a way to cross without getting my feet wet, I took the stairs up the other side and created this panorama for you. It looks a lot different when the river is in full flow.

This next photo shows you the “Shangri La Gap” from another viewpoint. We assume that many buildings will appear in that area before too long.

Finally, just before going in through our back gate, I spotted this fellow who stayed long enough for me to take a few photos of him.

By the time Huan came home I had scrubbed my boots and myself and almost had her lunch ready. “Noddy” called me after lunch and I had a solo OAP snooze, much needed for some reason. After dinner Huan was off dancing and playing the hulusi again while I stayed in, brought the Blog up to date and had a little guitar practice.

March 18^th No school for the music student today so I planned to take her on a new walk, somewhere we had been before but by car with someone else leading the way. Before we left town we passed one of the numerous express delivery places, this one was receiving a shipment. The map on the side of the truck intrigued me so I had to take a photo and I had to share it with you. It appears as though it’s supposed to be an opened out version of Silverstone, perhaps you car fans can enlighten me. Check out also the spelling of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Our route took us over the other ‘bridge to nowhere’, maybe the Eastern bypass, and the road has now been substantially extended and is going somewhere. We of course, weren’t following the road but going up into the hills a little where Huan thought we were doing one of our regular walks. Only at the top when we turned left instead of right did she twig, although she never grasped where I was aiming for. Geese, yet again, stepped into the limelight, this group didn’t just have very noisy honks and cackles but also a couple of really loud hissers. I noticed how their tongues popped out when they hissed and managed to capture this one.

Continuing on our way, up more hills than I remembered, we passed through the village of Zabie Cun until I called a halt at this spot. Explaining to Huan where were headed for and that I really had no idea how much further it could be and how many more hills we would have to climb we decided to turn back for home.

Back in Zabie Cun we decided to take a different road that would possible lead us home again. As luck would have it, just as we entered the village we met one of Huan’s singing classmates coming the other way. After a little gossip they confirmed that this was another way home so onwards, and thankfully not upwards, we went!

Both of us were glad we found this way, it was a lovely route to walk and on a lovely day for it too. I think March is the best time for potential visitors to Wuzhihsan, after the cooler months and before the rains start or the sun gets too hot.

The route we took led us out through the village of 报巴村, Bào bā cūn, so we knew exactly where we were and roughly how long it would take us to walk home.

That’s all the scenery for today but I do have yet another electric car for you, quite an attractive beast, but a little expensive, for China, at ¥300,000.00, (a little less than £35,000.00). The driver was working for the company 小鹏, (translates as little roc, roc being the fabled bird). The cars are just called XPENG, P7 in this case, there’s also a G3 SUV. I could almost be tempted apart from the fact that home charging is not much good when you live in an apartment! If you want to know more you can find them on Facebook and they have an English language website, just Google Xpeng cars.

Another birthday card was collected on the way home, this one posted on the 21^st January, it seems it went to Taipei first despite the address being correct, must the British Post Office. We were quite pleased to see home at the bottom of the hill, we had walked over twelve kilometres today, that’s the longest for quite a while! No time for me to dream once we were home though, after lunch was out of the way it was also my turn to cook dinner today, which I got down to as soon as the camera was empty! Here are almost all today’s ingredients for a pork noodle soup, I forgot to include the pre-boiled eggs, one each, and the tomato in the photograph. The finished dinner is mine, Huan always has more noodles than me. Yet again it’s up to you to work out the process, cooking is so much more fun when you guess everything.

March 19^th No long walks in the countryside today, by order of the management. She has a drum class in the afternoon and she has to cook this evening’s dinner so we were restricted to a short town walk. She did allow us to go past the dentist’s surgery to see if he was back yet. He isn’t, and may not be before Qing Ming, or ‘Tomb Sweeping Festival’ on April 4^th. From that we assume that his father must have unfortunately passed on.

Somewhere on our short walk around we tried another selfie. First I explained to Huan that she shouldn’t try and stand slightly behind me, something that she instinctively does when I attempt to take one of us. I also said that we should both try and look at the camera on the phone because for some reason we always seem to be looking somewhere else. This was the result!

I walked the student to school after lunch and then went on a solo walk of around seven kilometres. That seems a long way just to buy some baps doesn’t it? Still, it gave me a daily total of just over ten kilometres today so I’m not complaining. Restraining myself, I only took a handful of photos, none of them deserving of you attention.

Both of us were at home after dinner, unusually, as Huan had no evening activities on the square. If we had neighbours they may not have been too happy, two guitars playing different things, or one guitar and a keyboard, or one guitar and a hulusi. My fingers are starting to feel the effects again and I’m not sure about my wrist so my practice times are still minimal. With Huan learning so many different things she never gives herself any rest!

March 20^th Huan fancied the countryside today so I decided to show her the way I went on 17^th, without her shoes sinking into the cow fields if possible. I tried again to capture some small birds, very difficult as when we got nearer they kept moving away.

We also tried a selfie with the camera which it turns out is much easier, both fitting us in and for making sure we are actually looking at the ‘camera’. The background is a bit washed out but then again, you can see where we are and more importantly, you can see us. That’s the whole point of selfies I presume.

To avoid Huan falling into the wet cow field we took a detour behind the corral. All we had to do then was make sure we stayed on the narrow bit of concrete, the bamboo helped.

Huan then spotted something called lantern grass, ‘灯笼草-Dēnglóng cǎo’, (translates with Google as Peruviana) As that is strictly a western Mediterranean species, then a little further Googling showed that this is more than likely Physalis Alkekengi. It seems that this is known as a medicinal plant and is a member of the nightshade family. Cue Bob going to the ‘deadly nightshade’ page to remind Huan why you shouldn’t just eat any berries you fancy! I did find this snippet on a Chinese website and thought you may find it ‘interesting’. “This kind of folk medicine is used as a whole herb to treat functional uterine bleeding, cholecystitis, jaundice hepatitis, colds, headaches, abdominal pain, malnutrition in children, fire eyes, bruises, sores, skin sores, snake and rabies bites, Treatment of rotten feet, rotten head and hemorrhoids.

Moving on, from flora to fauna, we have a little crab that kept trying to hide under the leaves while Huan was trying to put it in a place where I could get a quick click, and a little butterfly which managed to stay still long enough for a quick snap.

Before long we were in the dell where I had stopped to chat with the farmers last time, Huan agreed with me about the beauty of the place and the sound. It’s definitely the kind of place that you’d be more than happy to wake up in every morning, unless of course it was bucketing down with rain. There was no rain today of course, so we were two happy souls, here’s one of them.

Soon we were at the river where spotted some young girls trying to cross, with difficulty, they were having a harder time than we usually do. This effort ended in failure but we did spot them later on after a successful crossing.

We chose another spot, the same place I had crossed last time. It wasn’t quite so easy today, the water was marginally higher. I managed it, my boots got wet but my feet didn’t. Huan got part of the way, past the curve of small stones, and then had to take her shoes and socks off. While she was putting them back on a local came and was across the river in no time! The difference is confidence, we wouldn’t have worried so much when we were younger.

Apart from ducks and goats that’s it for this morning’s walk and very enjoyable it was too. I certainly got my daily dose of vitamin D, my face is glowing quite well now! After lunch Huan invited me for a snooze so I dutifully obeyed, not really needing one at all of course. I was out in seconds flat! Being the weekend, it was stew time again, my turn to put all kinds in a pot and make sure it lasts at least two days. Here’s what I put in, this time all the ingredients are there bar the sauces, a little Soya sauce, oyster sauce and tomato sauce. We were too quick to get dug in so there are no photos of the resulting dish today.

March 21^st Rain stopped play but it didn’t stop the visitors. Huan woke me up with a picture of one taken with her phone. Once I was up I tried with the camera but between us we frightened the little beastie off. What is it? It took me some Google searching and narrowing down using Wikipedia but I think it is this one here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrops_candelaria

The other guest was a lot more difficult to identify and I’m probably not correct but this is as far as I got. It comes from the order ‘Coleoptera’, the family ‘Scarabaeidae’ and possibly the sub tribe ‘Cetoniina’, genus ‘Cetonia’ possibly a ‘flower chafer’. If this information is not enough and you want a more accurate identification, then go ahead and do some research, just be sure to let me know the results!

So what was Huan doing while I was busy being an amateur zoologist? She was trying to get us booked on an OAP tourist trip with the usual questions about ‘foreigners’. Initially she was told that I would be able to go but that I would have to be present for the two hour talk at the ‘shop’ included in the itinerary. The length of the talk then became one hour and when Huan pointed out that most of it would go over my head, they said “maybe he can sneak out for a smoke after half an hour”. Why do they do this? On one of our previous trips, when we visited the mattress factory, everybody did sit there for a couple of hours, and I sneaked off. The mattress factory did succeed in selling to one of our group though, mattresses and pillows to the value of ¥20,000.00 or more. That kept them happy and of course the tourist company got a kickback keeping them happy. Since then I’ve always tried to stay outside while the high pressure sales stuff is going o inside. This time the answer came back that the trip was off; whether it was off for everyone or just us for being difficult I can’t say.

The weather cleared up just before lunch but then the rain came back again after so there was no afternoon walk today. Huan carried on driving me crazy with the keyboard, the hulusi and the guitar. I guess I should be happy she’s not drumming today!

Dinner was the almost the same as yesterday but we decided to stretch it out to three days by adding noodles to it today. I think it would be even better with some sea shells and shrimps but the chief taster was happy enough.

Would you believe that the weather repeated its lunchtime antics and cleared up just before dinner before deteriorating again after? Still, it gave me a chance to do some guitar practice and editing of song sheets. I also made the mistake of giving Huan one of the two mouth organs that sat on my bookcase, more noise ensued!

March 22^nd Miserable weather again today but it didn’t worry us in the morning, it was time to go shopping again. Very rarely do we share photographs from our local shopping trip but this one I thought was worthwhile. It reminded me of how people in the ‘developed’ world all need to have perfectly shaped fruits and vegetables.

The weather stayed miserable after lunch but at least the rain held off. Unusually, we had wind, not storm force or anything like that, just strong enough to make it appear as though the river was flowing upstream. Huan had a hulusi class so I walked her there and then went off critter hunting. I didn’t find any, except for this poor fellow who was obviously going to be someone’s dinner tonight.

Further along I spotted a man on a bamboo raft, he was obviously fishing for more than just his dinner, probably looking to make some money too.

Crossing the bridge back into town I took two panoramas with Freddy and then stitched when I got home to make a very long one. Freddy did well on the first one, not so well on the second one. Can you spot the one wheeled motorbike with no driver?

You may have read me explaining why electric cars are not viable yet, at least for those who live in apartments, but I’ve never written about electric scooters, bikes and mopeds. More and more charging places are popping up all over the town, all different. How the local government look after them I have no idea, but for electric two wheeler, (or three wheeler) owners, they’re an absolute boon. Check out the prices for charging, based on wattage, they range from ¥1.00 for three hours up to ¥1.00 for twenty minutes. Like most things in China payment is by QR code scanning, very convenient.

After seven kilometres my batteries needed charging to so after stopping off to buy a baguette, I returned home. It’s a pale imitation of a real baguette of course but we needed something to go with our third day of seafood stew!

And that brings us to the end of another week; they come around far too fast, as Huan keeps reminding me. Don’t you sometimes wish you were a child again and time seemed endless? There is a scientific reason for the way we see time, but that’s for you and Google. For us, we’ll say 再见 Zàijiàn, and 下次见 xià cì jiàn!