May 24th This morning we trusted the weather forecast which, for once, worked in our favour. The rain was forecast for 1pm and we were home and dry by then. The countryside was not so dry, we took these two photos off the bridge to somewhere, it’s very rare to see such a flow of water here. In fact you can usually walk across the river in the second one.
Today we fancied walking through the small village with no name; it used to have a sign before the new road was built. The locals showed us the new way through.
This one is for my lovely daughter back in the
The route for today’s walk is the one that I had planned to take
with Dr. Mă last week. He had been going to bring his son with him, who knows,
he may have enjoyed something different. We went through the
Huan had just finished commenting that we haven’t seen any snakes for a long time, dead or alive, when we came across the latter. Perhaps he had an altercation with a motorbike.
Skipping over a dragonfly and some geese this next one is one that I took but that Huan liked when we got home.
This one was taken by her ladyship, are the black fruits in the background the same as the ripe orange flower in the foreground? I have no idea.
Huan’s choice is up again, jackfruit squashed together on the tree.
Eagle eyes was at it again and as we neared home she spotted these two. Photographic experts among you may want to tweak for better results, I am not so good at that.
Google came up trumps with an answer for that one, courtesy of a gentleman called John Horstman (#itchydogimages) who gave us this gem. “Some moths (notably members of the Arctiidae family) pupate in a woven basket of the caterpillar's body hairs rather than silk. The cocoon made by the caterpillar is quite remarkable. It is an open square mesh cage, constructed out of larval hairs held together with silk. The hairs are too short to construct the cage directly, so the caterpillar attaches pairs of hairs to each other end to end, and uses these pairs to make the sides of the cage. The pupa is suspended in the middle of the cage, equidistant from the sides. The caterpillar even manages to push its final larval skin outside the mesh cage while forming its pupa. When the moth emerges, it appears to exit the cage without damaging it.” You can see his, much better photo, here - https://sinobug.aminus3.com/image/2012-02-16.html
May 25th Today was a sandals around the town walk; our shoes had to be scrubbed yesterday. Our first stop was the animal clinic where I discovered a new friend. I did try for a tickle but his claws were just a bit too much.
More pets were there for me to chat to but with only Huan’s phone, she doesn’t like to take the camera, there wasn’t anything worth sharing. This was one that Huan wanted you to see though, you may remember this fruit from before, it’s called noni (Morinda citrifolia) and last time we showed you the whole fruit. This time it is being dried to make healthy medicinal tea!
Back to the animals again, Huan wanted me to go and pet this cat but it seemed so comfortable where it was I didn’t like to disturb it.
Lo and behold we came across another cat almost straight away. This one advanced at the sound of the camera shutter so Huan was able to get a snap too.
Down by the river we saw the machine that we showed you last week. Then we showed you it being loaded onto a truck and removed. Today it was busy! We had both thought it was a pipe tunnelling machine but it turned out to be a road testing machine. They drill down under the road surface and take bore samples, perhaps to check for sub-surface sinking. We have seen many of the bore holes before but this is the first time we’ve seen them being made.
At times I wonder how Huan has reached the ripe old age of xx, whenever she sees anything growing her first question, sometimes statement, is about whether it is edible or not. She was convinced these mushrooms were, I convinced her to leave them in the ground.
To keep her happy I made sure we walked home along the main road via the chocolate cake shop. Here she is displaying her purchase. I should add that the cake is small and will last us three days with me having a thinner slice than Huan each day.
As the computer predicted the rain came after lunch again, giving us an excuse for another snooze. Mind you, I did work when I woke up, sorted out the DVD on the computer and reinstalled the printer software. Now Huan will be able to scan and print her music willy nilly, or should I say “ask me to do it for her”.
May 26th I had a plan, it wasn’t a cunning one but it was a plan. My plan went by the wayside! Huan asked for some mp3 work for her hulusi friends so we were delayed going out hence the reason for my plan failing. With the forecast of rain at 1pm again we did much the same as yesterday, just on different roads.
The first thing we noticed was the irrigation canal seemed to have a lot of vegetation flowing down it. That was quite unusual; they usually take it all out at the sluice gates.
Crossing the canal we found the reason for the vegetation, someone was helping it on its way. Hopefully there will be someone else at the other end to stop it before it goes into the small hydroelectric pipes.
Here’s something we haven’t seen for a while, a beautiful dragonfly.
Huan found more than one lizard today, unfortunately masters of disguise. Here’s the first. No matter what I tried I couldn’t change the photo any more.
2022 is the year of the tiger and Huan and I are both tigers so naturally photographs had to be taken here. Huan is standing with the male and I am with the female.
Next up a sign, nothing special, just one we haven’t seen before, I wonder who Aunt Wen is, I just kept thinking of Aunty Huan! It’s a new restaurant, we couldn’t tell much this morning it was closed but the Chinese at the bottom translates to “Create a new culture of hand-made tea with fried chicken in sauce”. To explain that a visit will be needed!
I went off on a small exploration this morning, to see if there was another way down to the riverside. Huan didn’t follow me, she was wise!
I joined up with Huan just in time for her to find her second lizard; you can see this one, just.
Over the pedestrian bridge and she was third time lucky!
As we passed one of the many outdoor gymnasiums, with no snowbirds in attendance, we decided that more posing was needed. I went first.
Huan then tried another apparatus; I think that is the correct term for machines in the gym.
That was today’s walk apart from me getting a caterpillar on my shorts. I thought it was just some flying insect so I flicked it off. Huan told me it was a hairy caterpillar and that if it had been on my legs and not my shorts I would have been in trouble! No photos to show you because when I flicked it off it landed upside down!
May 27th We went crazy today and took over two hundred photos between us. For the
first time since before my ‘incident’ we walked around
Before we got anywhere near our park walk I had fun imitating Her Majesty, the real one not the C-in-C who lives with me. Yesterday we saw a photo of her with a corgi in almost the same position as I am in here.
Next we saw that the river had been considerably drained. Seeing the Hainan Water team working in the drains we surmised that that was the reason.
Here’s one that we haven’t shown you before, an electric scooter. What? You tell us that you have seen many such photos before. That’s true, but this one is being posted for a reason. You can see that there are two helmets on the scooter, another on the scooter behind. Sometimes there are other objects too, shopping perhaps. Nothing is ever stolen though!
Here we go with the first two collages; this is the road up to the halfway bridge.
Lots of 5*7 crops were done today, for some reason I thought those proportions helped the photos. With a little luck you will like them too.
Not a lot of snowbirds appear in today’s photos; perhaps the northwards migration has now begun in earnest. Not to worry, we still had company. Calling for our resident canine compatriot she came trotting up, tail wagging bringing lots of little chickens with her. Perhaps they all thought we were the bearers of things to eat, unfortunately, that was not the case.
Here are the two walkers who could really do with learning how to take pictures and how to pose, although the third photo isn’t too bad. We keep trying to surprise snap each other.
Here’s one that Huan took but she has no idea how. Sometimes I think that when she takes photos she looks over the top of the phone and not at the screen. I think this is great.
Two more 5*7 photos for you here.
A walk wouldn’t be a walk without me giving Huan some earache; it’s not only one way you know. I keep having to remind her that just because you can eat something doesn’t mean you have to! These fruits are edible but they don’t look too good do they?
Two more lovely 5*7 piccies here.
I tried hiding behind a bush for this next one. Maybe I didn’t surprise Huan but it’s not a bad photo all the same.
How about a few more 5*7 photos, I did take rather a lot.
Here’s another photo of SWMBO, who told me that she thought the exposed roots looked very beautiful, I do like them too. I convinced her that she should share the limelight with them!
Two more 5*7 snaps, we’re spoiling you!
Now here’s one that I couldn’t crop. We both thought that this tree with its covering of some other leaves all over its trunk was very beautiful indeed. If I cropped it some of the majesty would be lost. This one is almost worth printing and framing.
Leaving the park and walking by the riverside we came across the borehole drillers again. Today they had a few samples laid out. It would be interesting to know how they interpret the results.
Are you fed up of 5*7 photos yet? I hope not because here are the last two, this time after we had crossed the river and started on our final stretch home.
We both enjoyed our return to our
mountain park walk. I did find it a little harder than the last time we walked
around but nowhere near as hard as we found it in 2015 when we first moved
here. My body must be slowly recovering. We still had to sleep after lunch
though!
May 28th Saturday means market day, no hills, no boots, no speed just a relaxing stroll admiring the scenery and the people. Huan found two bugs before we’d even passed the little island! The caterpillar seems to have grown multiple lilac skirts, no idea what the other one is.
The market was still quite busy, Huan decided to snap me, or my belly, scanning my way in.
Perhaps we spoke too soon; the central part of the market was empty of stalls and customers.
After the market we walked to the end of the town before turning back and retracing our steps. We were invited in to see this young hound, its name is above the kennel. 毛毛的窝 (Máomao de wō) and it means Fluffy’s Nest, a strange name for a dog. My mum used to have a cat called Fluffy, because he was, big and fluffy, this pooch is not fluffy at all!
Do you remember the red bananas from last week? Today we thought we would try some, the first stall said they weren’t ripe yet, we were in luck at the second stall. Our verdict? They don’t taste a great deal different to normal bananas, there wasn’t much hint of ‘raspberry sweetness’ as we had been led to believe. They would still make a good banana split though!
As we neared our end of town we noticed that the tea shops had reverted back to their awnings. Looking at the state of this one you can see why the local government keeps cracking down and removing them. It’s not very pretty is it?
Old buildings are not allowed to be knocked down so easily now so Huan and I think they should refurbish these riverside buildings as they have some other buildings in town. They could do them one by one. Once done they could build in Li style awnings, more in keeping with the surroundings and certainly more beautiful to look at.
Yesterday we showed you an empty river, today it is full again, and looking good.
After lunch more zzzzzs needed, what is wrong with us? I guess it must be old age. Huan was up first, I got up a few minutes later and found something on my pillow. It was a bit small to see well so we took a photo of it. It was some kind of dried up ant; hopefully it came in tangled in my hair and wasn’t living a life of luxury in our bed!
May 29th Those pesky glue goblins were about last night again! After Huan brought me my early pills I went straight back to sleep again. Consequently our morning walk was not the one I had planned. We turned right out of the back gate and headed towards the ammo dump. Huan wanted to show you how we are looked after, trees have been planted which are now beginning to give us shade, something much needed in the hotter months.
As we approached the farm at the old ammunition dump I noticed something on the roof of the farmhouse, a touch of the old and the new.
Nearer to the house the dogs started barking and the farmer started getting worried. He hadn’t been here before and I think he was a little surprised to see that the dogs had not come to bite me but to say hello and be stroked.
You can see even more of them in this photo as they accompany Huan along the path.
Today’s walk may not have been the planned one but it did have the advantage of keeping us, for the most part, in the shade.
We took a slight detour today past the officers club that never was to the little village beyond. Only when we got there did Huan remember it. A long time ago an old lady in this village told us there was a way over the mountains. At that time we failed to find it, but we did find a lot of leeches! Today we just turned around and went back down the hill.
Just to add a little distance to our walk we took the riverside route where Huan decided we should cross to the other side. First I had to go down a ladder!
Here’s the ladder I went down and the ford that we were able to cross today.
Under the road to somewhere we went, making full use of its echo facilities!
I tried to get a snap of Huan under the bridge, it didn’t turn out so well. However, I made up for it with the second, a view of our way home.
And that was the end of our Sunday walk, well apart from even more caterpillars as we neared home. They were too similar to others that you have already seen though. Luck was with us, we arrived home just before the rain came. It appears that the weather may have settled down into its ‘wet’ routine which is dry mornings followed by wet afternoons or evenings. That we won’t complain about, as long as we can get out everything is fine.
May 30th Monday comes around every seven days, bringing with it shopping. Oh, what an exciting life we lead. Today we were so boring that we even used last week’s shopping list! Maybe it’s time I got my recipes out again.
Not only is that it for Monday, it’s also all there is for this week. There are no photos for today, however, I think you’ll agree, there are ample for the week. Remember to comment, or even ask questions, either on Facebook or down below. Comments are always welcomed and questions will always be answered. TTFN, CUL, Bieeeeeee!
