May 3rd It’s May, why aren’t I wearing shorts all day in the house and why isn’t the weather nice and warm? Who knows, but at least it only rained a little today and we still got out for a walk.
Because of the possibility of being rained upon we took our bumbershoots with us. (bumbershoot = noun Informal: Often Facetious. an umbrella. – Origin - First recorded in 1895–1900; bumber, a facetious alteration of umbrella + shoot, respelling of –chute in parachute) Our route was also planned to keep us near shelter if needed. Huan still managed to find bugs though.
Some people were still working in the rain.
Cows were spotted where we have never seen them before, reaching for delicacies.
The youngsters turned out to be quite friendly, although Mum wasn’t too sure. I had to keep checking behind me to make sure I wasn’t about to be butted in the butt!
They were also quite fond of Huan’s dress and kept trying to nibble it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the camera at that time. Our initial thought was the pink flowers on Huan’s dress were enticing but it seems that cows don’t see red.
In this next photo I am not seeing yellow. Who is this? It is of course Snow White who should have a long flowing yellow skirt; instead she has a lilac one. Why did we stop here? Well, to say hello to a dog of course, but he is not featured.
Madame did it again! The first one is eating but I couldn’t get any closer on its mouth.
By the time we reached home we were a little wet, but we were not the only ones enjoying being out in the rain. Fishermen were prevalent too, here’s one with a brolly. He must have had to get his feet wet to secure his spot.
May 4th Happy Star Wars day to one and all, Here’s a light and darkness quote, but not from Star Wars, instead from Martin Luther King Jr. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Today’s weather was an improvement on yesterday’s but we start in a similar vein, in a different place. With no rain forecast we headed for the countryside.
We weren’t alone, here’s a selection of poultry guarding the way.
Luckily the geese were not there so we could sneak past fairly easily. Huan had me taking snaps of another bug again, but I decided to keep it on the PC. Instead I composed this little panorama, quite well I thought. The service station in the middle is very well concealed.
Here you can see the fruits of our labours, unfortunately still far from ripe.
This route is concrete all the way but has no traffic, just the occasional farmer on a scooter. If there is a disadvantage it is that there is no shade, but today that was not a worry.
Another bug, but this time my fault, we haven’t seen dragonflies for a while.
And yet another pest, I couldn’t keep saying no.
Huan wanted some photos of the local crops, in particular these two. The first is quite obvious, red chillies, the second maybe not so obvious. I couldn’t get any nearer so you will have to take my word for it, they are eggplants, a.k.a. aubergines, but they are round and not long.
Another panorama to show you why we enjoy being out so much, this time I didn’t have to hide anything man made.
Is this an idyllic country cottage or do you think you would be eaten alive by mosquitoes and other assorted insects while you slept? Maybe one day we can get a look inside.
We managed to snap a little bird today. I couldn’t really get near enough, but at least this is in focus and you can see its little face.
Huan insisted on me being ‘papped’ yet again and despite me hiding my head behind by hat she succeeded while I was relaxing at the water stop.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/sep/24/pressandpublishing1 At least she isn’t quite as bad as the real paparazzi, roaring around on their Vespas in the early days, getting people angry so that they could get paid more for their photos. There was a modern equivalent of a Vespa here, the young lady had just been picking vegetables in the fields.
Huan nagged me for another critter, I didn’t complain this time.
Another caterpillar was found when we were almost home but you have seen this variant many times, the one with an orange and yellow head. Consequently it will reside on our computers and not on the big World Wide Web.
May 5th For some reason exhaustion set in this morning, maybe we slept badly last night. I know Huan had bad dreams, although she doesn’t remember, and I was cold enough to get up and find my pyjamas. Today’s weather didn’t help, it was miserable again!
May 6th A helicopter had me rushing for my camera after going to the wrong balcony first. As it happens I was too late to snap it, it had landed somewhere near a school I think. This was after dinner when we decided to have an evening walk; we can’t keep staying in because of the weather. Besides, my left foot was swollen and needed some exercise. We popped up to the roof first to see if we spot the whirly bird.
Panoramas don’t always work so well when you have a lot of straight lines in the photos to be stitched, especially with not using a tripod. That view is from the door to the roof, this one is from the edge of the roof.
On the other side of the roof someone is farming!
The last (not very good) panorama is the view that wasn’t there when we bought our flat, it used to be a mountain covered in rubber trees. I know which I prefer.
Within minutes of being back downstairs and on our way the rain came back, not heavy, but enough to slowly dampen us. Our spirits were not dampened however! Down by the riverside we came across Bigfoot resting in her personal carriage again so I sat for a chat with her.
Temptation reared its sweet head when I spotted these custard pies (egg tarts) and as they were only 1RMB each I bought one for me and one for Huan. They were lovely, probably even more so because I am not allowed almost anything these days!
We couldn’t finish the evening without having yet another praying mantis. Neither photo is very clear but I love the ‘hands on the hip’ vibe of the first one. The second one is after it jumped onto my face yet again. I wonder if they see their reflection in the camera lens and think it’s a possible romantic partner. This one had to make do with my eyebrows.
Two soggy teddy bears then arrived home, soggy but happy.
May 7th Would you believe it, the rain persisted, all night, and was still doing so this morning. However, today was market day so we had to grab our brollies and go and check. It seems that all night rain brings the snails out too, Huan found a lot but I only took two pictures.
We hadn’t checked the weather forecast before we went out but looking around at the hills we surmised that the rain was here to stay again today.
Our expectations were that there would only be a skeleton market today, if there would be one at all. We were wrong, there were almost as many stalls as usual, fewer customers though.
Huan tried her hardest to get me today; she failed apart from this one!
And here are a couple of ladies with an umbrella that puts mine to shame.
Something I quite like to see is when nature takes over things, be they buildings, old vehicles, agricultural machinery or in this case a tower and a chair.
We arrived home wet again, not as soggy as yesterday because of our umbrellas, but wet enough. Thankfully the rain is not too cold here! Tomorrow’s forecast is cloudy so with a little luck we will get into the countryside for a little stroll.
May 8th The Sunday sun was out to play today but we still stayed in all morning, too lazy to move fast. However, we roused our weary bones and set off to the countryside again for a nice stroll after lunch. A handsome insect posed on the way across the bridge. Dig them shades man!
I spotted that wee beastie but Eagle Eyes spotted this one.
I had a route planned out but it seemed that with the recent rain I would have to modify it somewhat. This was one of the little puddles we had to skirt around.
We found a way with more cement roads, some tracks, but no trees. That meant there was more chance of the going being firm and dry rather than wet and soggy.
We hadn’t been up the straight and narrow that you can see up above
for many months, maybe even a year or two. Today we were checking to see if the
rather large pig farm was still in operation. Many pig farms closed down some
years ago when
Eagle Eyes did it again!
We didn’t need sharp eyesight for this next one. We stopped at the water place, the same one with the imitation Vespa, and were approached by these two chicks. I say approached, but they never actually got close enough for either of us to grab one.
This next one, and our last for the day, is for our local readers. Yes, you might be surprised, but we do have someone in Wuzhishan who follows our Blog. I am rather hoping that they can tell me what this means, I’ve never really noticed it before today.
I was quite pleased to get home today, I don’t know why, but sometimes the walks are not so easy even if they’re short. I have days when I feel a shortness of breath and a bloating of my complete torso, belly and lungs. Hopefully this is temporary, definitely something to mention to Dr. Mǎ in a week’s time.
May 9th “Just wait here for me, I have to go to the office” said the boss.
I had to wait quite some time, and what for I asked myself. It seems that water and electricity bills will now be paid into a bank account rather than directly to the office. That sounds like a good idea; people won’t be able to argue about where the money went. There was a catch though, everybody has to have a bank card for that bank, for which they received a free bag of rice. My brain sometimes does not compute!
After the supermarket we headed to the central market for fish and meat. As is usual these days we had to scan our health codes on the way in.
No sooner were we in than someone tried to escape! The blue blur is a Chinese lady doing an excellent imitation of a lacrosse shot, straight into the basket and back on to the counter.
This week I thought you might like to see how we buy our fish. The first one was the tail end of one, already dead. The second one got a whack around the head and then met the chopping board. I’m not complaining of course, I’m used to it by now.
The second lady, with the yellow apron, always tells me she loves me when she sees me, in English. I replied in Chinese today asking her why and explaining that I’m not the one with the money but Huan is. She still loves me! That’s probably all the English she knows.
The rest of the day was lazy again, partly the weather and partly us. This morning I was sure that someone had sneaked into the bedroom last night and super-glued me to the sheets! Mind you, we both managed to go all day without an OAP nap.
Another week has gone by, one more week until I have to see the doctor again. Wish me luck! We’ll be back again next Monday, until then au revoir, auf wiedersehen, xià cì jiàn and goodbye.
Nice to read about your adventures Bob keep up the good work and good luck at the doctors. Graham Brown
ReplyDeleteThanks Graham.
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