February 1st “The Lift-Your-Spirits Quote Book” compiled by Allen Klein, ISBN 0-517-16309-8, published in 2001. This month’s quote comes from the chapter “Arts/Art”.
Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable. (George Bernard Shaw) Bob’s PS: -Perhaps you can prove the author wrong by going out into nature and seeing its beauty and hence in my eyes, its art.
So a new year begins, with two rather tired people again. Luckily the weather and a little shopping precluded us walking anywhere this morning. Despite it being New Year’s Day the supermarket was open, not too full and still short of a lot. We didn’t need too much today but they had run out of beef stock and curry stock. Pinduoduo to the rescue, again!
Just to make sure we had a photo for today I decided to see if I would have any more luck than Huan did in teaching the sad brown bear to read.
After lunch, ’er indoors was so tired she had to have an afternoon nap, I barely stayed awake sat in my office chair but I just about managed it. I had decided I would cook again, give Huan a New Year’s rest, just stew with yesterday’s pork bone.
February 2nd Lethargy set in this morning, again, I didn’t get up until after half past eight. That meant no walk, instead we did some Google translating. Huan typed onto her PC the characters from the photo we took of the ‘Green Card’ requirements, sent them to me and I then translated them. I have to say that I am not much wiser than I was before. We have confirmed that a sum of money must be present in my bank account for at least six months though. I guess there will be no tourist trips for a while.
After lunch, with some effort, we dragged ourselves out of the house. As always, once out we felt much better for it. We took the high road past the other side of the bridge to somewhere now, so that we could show you this view.
Going through Zafang Cun I was first frightened out of my skin and then pleasantly surprised. The fright was two young lads setting off fireworks not very far away from my ears, the pleasant surprise was hearing some other, younger children, calling my name, Luó Bó Tè. Just to complete the gamut of emotions today, we saw my bovine buddies but they were not in the byre. They were being walked home by the farmer and neither they nor he felt like talking to me…
I strongly suspect that if I had got any closer to the sow in this next one that not only would she have talked to me, she would probably have bitten my hand off too!
Part of today’s route was along one of the same paths that we walked twice last week, you may remember seeing lots of leaves. There were quite a few falling off the trees today but snapping them is not so easy so Huan tried throwing some up in the air instead!
Huan took one of me, from a distance, bending down to take a photo. I had seen a turtle. Both photos are considerably cropped.
Huan had to be dragged away; she wanted to take the turtle home with her. I threatened to take home one of the dogs that always follow me! Since we missed the geese last week, let’s make sure you see them this week.
From one bird species to another, here’s a little red rooster. He wasn’t too lazy to crow though, he seemed to be trying to join in with some karaoke emanating from the village somewhere. PS If the references are lost on you do a quick Google, either ‘The Rolling Stones’ or ‘Howling Wolf’ will do, good music.
To avoid the village karaoke we headed under the aqueduct.
This route took us through the woods on the other side of the village, one our favourite walks. Heading up off the concrete and onto the rough we found a butterfly that stayed still long enough for us to get a snap.
Today we met someone on his way home, slightly the worse for wear, on his three wheel farm truck. He asked me to take photos and send them to the government. Needless to say I won’t be doing that. We are not too sure what he was trying to explain to us, it was either that the surrounding countryside and farms were to be relocated to make room for a road to the ‘new’ railway station, or maybe to make way for the railway ‘road’, (track). We did spot some telltale red marks on some of the trackside trees although none are visible here.
Huan found something to play with before we left the wooded area.
We continued on our roundabout route and ended up where the road to somewhere will join and probably cross the road to Maodao, this is the view looking back where we came from.
Arriving back in town we found that the shopping street had gained some funfair activities.
One side of the street had the ‘win’ something stalls whilst the other had the ‘buy’ something stalls. Here are some of the things you could buy.
There were also birds and rabbits for sale, all fairly usual although I do have to wonder what a child would do with baby crabs and frogs! Some of the games also had animal prizes, something that I am not too keen on. If someone has to pay money to buy a pet I think they are probably more inclined to take care of it than someone who wins a pet. Cuddly toys were available too as well as things held up by balloons you could shoot to pop, or on another stall throw darts to pop. The quality of prizes left a lot to be desired and they had no tigers so I didn’t bother.
Here’s one of the animal games, for the children.
And here’s another one, for the adults, hoop-a-duck for dinner!
It was nice to see a lot of children enjoying themselves, not just here but around the town in general and more specifically in the town square where quite a lot of entertainment was available for them. There were four bouncy castles, lots of easels for art, imitation fish ponds with gifts to fish for, and hoop the prize games, with no animals. For the most part, at least as far as the children went, there wasn’t a mobile phone in sight!
We were both pretty exhausted by the time we got home, no rest for me though, I had to cook. Dinner today was pork again, for the third and last time, this time with potatoes, carrots and garlic, all mashed together, and green beans. Pudding was chocolate cake and ice cream which we both loved, not too sweet and very small portions!
February 3rd Today we were confined to barracks, just as weather as the weather was still not too good. Why were we confined? It seems that on the third day of Spring Festival, if you have lost a close relative in the last three years, you should stay at home. Huan’s Mum passed away just before the festival in 2020.
February 4th Another lazy morning, mostly my fault for waking up late, but we did get out in the afternoon. I took this photo because I wanted to see what was visible on the other side of the bridge. The river, or stream, has a bend to the right and the steps lead up to the apartment complex on the left, not worth an exploratory walk.
Passing the home of pigeons and chickens there seemed to be quite a disturbance. We think the chickens were probably overdue a feed, the pigeons are luckier, they can fly out!
Next up one of my canine companions, but he decided that as it was Spring Festival, he was not coming our from under his chair, whatever I did.
“Let’s go up that road we went up before, there’s a small village, it’s the turnoff before the one we took last week.” Huan’s sense of direction was attempting to lead me astray yet again. There was no such turnoff but to keep her happy we took another turnoff into the suburbs.
We found a house where the occupants have moved into something more modern, and probably much more expensive, leaving their old abode to the cows.
This particular enclave was overflowing with fish ponds, at least five that we saw. Here is just one of them, one we went all the way around before realising that there was “no through road”.
Eventually, we found a way past one of the other fish ponds.
The second camera unit was going crazy with her camera again but I tried not to give her the pleasure of me scrambling up and down anywhere. Instead here I am, Lord of all I survey.
Revenge is sweet, I got Huan coming up the hill to join me.
Our route took us past another little farm with even more piglets. These were much bigger than Wednesday’s and had no mothers with them but I still kept my hands away from them, just in case! There are no photos of them, how about a photo of three criminals instead, complete with a bag of swag. Now that’s not a word I would expect Chinese people to be aware of but I guess it could be in the cartoon.
Remember the rabbits for sale, or as prizes, on Wednesday? Well someone had either bought one or won one. The rabbit was happy enough to talk to me, didn’t want to eat though, maybe the ‘greenery’ was the wrong sort. Its owner, a little boy, was only too keen to get his hands back on it, I think he thought I was going to run off with it!
He also had a little bird, but I think that had been outside his parents’ shop a lot longer than a day or two. It wasn’t very talkative though.
Being a Friday we should have gone out for a food video but Huan talked me out of it. Looking out of our balcony it did appear that hardly any restaurants were open so she was probably right.
February 5th Today we were confined to barracks yet again. “Why?” Well the fifth day of Spring Festival is when the God of Wealth comes calling and if you are not at home, then you will not benefit from his riches during the coming year. Shame really, the weather had at least improved a little, the sun actually shone this morning.
Speaking of the weather, I thought I would have a look to see why it’s been so different here this year, much cooler than usual during the daytime. I checked out windy.com. Whether you will be able to see the arrows so well if you click on the photo, I’m not so sure, but if you can you will notice that they are all pointing downwards. In other words “the north wind doth blow”! Of course I had to Google that, if you want the whole poem, it’s a good one for children to learn, follow this link. - https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/the-north-wind/
February 6th We were allowed out again today but we
didn’t manage to do that until after lunch. The blame lies squarely on my
shoulders, I was just too lazy in the morning. Huan had a plan, go via her bank
and put some more money into her Taobao account and then go around the
That was right outside our house. Our next three photos were taken walking along the irrigation canal, two showing the beauty of the walk and the third showing a crazy man trying to balance a flower that had fallen from the tree in the second photo. Maybe I wasn’t that crazy though because as well as Huan taking my photo a roving snowbird took a few snaps too!
Taking the anti-clockwise route allowed me to check out the ‘stairs under the bridge’ that you saw on Friday. The first photo shows where they disappear into the housing complex above and the second photo shows another bridge that may or may not have been designed to join the steps.
Next up we have the official name of the walk, everyone just calls
it
Three for you geography teachers out there now, they show the seeds on the tree and also on the ground. Huan did try and pick some up to show you but even with a very slight wind they kept blowing away. For three points, name those seeds!
One reason we are not so keen on the anti-clockwise route is that we have to go up a lot more stairs. In my case, my knees are beginning to show their age! Here’s the spot where we start to think about what’s coming soon.
Before the next ‘flight of stairs’ we had a little rest by the river.
Our route documentation clerk waited until I was at the top of the next flight before she started taking photos of me. The first one was censored; I was bent double catching my breath!
Was that the end? Oh no…
Now why would I want to show you this next photo? Well it should be the prelude to a lot of nice photos of Huan posing under the bamboo arch from which I would have chosen one to share. However, in my attempts to darken the glare I ended up with a whole lot of black photos instead!
That means we will have to finish off with a few photos from Huan’s phone, starting with me taking the high road again.
Our last photo was taken at our water stop where usually I would chat with a canine friend. The shop has been redone inside and the dogs were away somewhere. Instead I had a chat with a few young boys, none of whom was able to correctly guess which country I came from. They had a lot of ideas, just not Yīngguó.
February 7th N.T.R. At least I no longer have to write that every fifteen minutes as I had to at various other times in my life. Retirement is good, most of the time. All we did today was the weekly shop, not many people and a lot of empty shelves.
Enjoy the rest of Spring Festival, (Chinese New Year), remember it lasts fifteen days. In our case, I don’t think we have to stay home for any of them so more walks next week. Until then, from me, (I know my place) and my better half, it’s TTFN!
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