May 23rd Sometimes our ‘failed plans’ are not our own faults, today was one such failure. Huan had decided that a nice long walk in the morning would be good, I didn’t disagree. Before we were out of bed someone was ringing the front door bell, Huan had a visitor. By the time she left not only was it too late for a long walk, it was also too late for Huan to have breakfast.
What to do under such circumstances, well take Huan on a lizard hunt of course, with some nice roadside and riverside scenery on the way.
Plan B was successful and lizards were found, here is the handsome first gentleman.
By now I was after ten o’clock and as you can imagine very warm out in the sun. I had no hat on, I thought today would be fine and my hair would love a bit of sun. Huan had her hat on and her face mask. These two workers, unusually not using a large umbrella, took after both of us, one wearing a hat and one not.
Check out how short their shadows are above and also in this photo.
Mind you, lounging lizards like the sun so that made it a good day for Huan.
The Producer even managed to find another one before we got home but in my capacity as editor I left that one on the cutting room floor. It was a very small, bland looking female. PS For cutting room floor read “it is still on the computer for future reference”.
Chef Bob is still on his emptying the freezer of older stuff scheme. Today was another pork noodle soup day, but this time using belly pork. Very tasty! After dinner, not having walked as far as we wanted to this morning we had drafted another plan to go out for some more of those pesky kilometres. That plan failed too, but again it was not our fault, it was the rain.
May 24th I didn’t want to get up this morning, I seemed to be wrestling with the black dog for some reason. It happens now and then, not very often. I know the signs and usually can recover ‘normal me’ fairly quickly, not today though. Perhaps I should have gone for a solo walk either in the morning or after lunch. Instead I moped in front of the computer. I didn’t let on to Huan at all but she decided we would walk after dinner anyway.
At least this chap brought a smile to my face, what on earth is he driving?
We then spotted a group of students taking photos of the sky so we joined in.
Now then, I would hazard a guess that you didn’t know these people were here in Wuzhishan, and driving an ordinary Toyota SUV to boot!
Approaching home Huan insisted on a photo of the leisure part of the island event.
We’ll finish off with some more lights; these were in the sky though. The picture is not so clear as it is a screenshot from a video made with the phone.
May 25th Today we thought that we would go where we are not supposed to, the old squirrel road, the tin gates at our end are ‘broken open’. We didn’t find a squirrel but it didn’t take Huan long to find one of her favourites which we’ve never seen here before.
Not to be outdone I found one too. It was scurrying up a false grass surfaced wall where I managed a snap but then it came out of the top and I got an even better one.
What is squirrel walk? This is of course but sans squirrels.
And at the other end there is no wide open ‘broken door’, just a little one that we can squeeze out through. Here is Huan on her way.
It was my lucky day today, before too long I found another friend for Huan.
More creatures appeared but these are much harder to see. In this tree there are two birds, of a very similar colour to the tree. The photo has already been cropped and enlarged, if I do any more it will be completely out of focus for you. Can you see them?
Next it was Huan taking photos of a lady putting out some kind of seeds to dry, and the bags and milling machine thereof.
Around the next bend I found a gentleman doing the same but I didn’t think you needed to see that. Instead I’ll show you the countryside.
And now how about some bananas from above, an unusual view. No, I didn’t climb the tree; I was walking higher than the trees were growing.
Huan then found the other end of the supply chain, here are the farmers who are threshing the grains and then bagging them.
This is a route I have walked before but Her Ladyship hasn’t. She kept suggesting that we were lost and should turn round, especially when we reached this point.
I think she believed me when I got out of the other side easily enough.
Soon we were haring down country roads, quite slowly, when we passed what used to be a ‘normal’ river, sometimes flowing, and sometimes not so much water. It now looks like this.
This is why it is now full of water.
Meanwhile, we had found that by walking on the other side of the crash barrier we could have soft going underfoot and shade up above.
Not long after this we reached the nine kilometre mark which coincided with a little shop near a bus stop. I parked Huan there while I walked a little further to make sure I reached the magic ten today. I turned around not long after the next highway crossing.
Arriving back I found Huan too busy to take photos of me getting nearer, just as well I suppose. The shop also had lovely cold water to keep me going until the bus arrived.
She of little patience was fretting about the ‘long’ wait for the bus, it was actually less than twenty minutes and we had a nice enough view while we waited.
This is one of the further village routes, not yet changed over to electric buses. Mind you, it was comfy enough and because of the time, lunch time, we didn’t have to stop at all on the way back into town. We did have to walk another kilometre home though so Huan got her ten in.
More water and bed for me when we got home, Huan had a little lunch and then followed me. Chef Bob was on duty again today, still trying to empty that freezer. The menu was beef curry and it turned out fine. As well as the ‘bought’ curry paste I added some turmeric, one of the little red packets from the duck shop and some ginger. Today it was spicy enough!
May 26th Friday Funday for Huan, walk alone around the town day for me. Well, hulusi practice for Huan and a stroll for me, no hills or countryside. After I dropped Huan off the first thing I had to do, almost the first thing anyway, was to stand under a tree for ten minutes and wait for the rain, which I wasn’t expecting, to ease off enough for me to continue. Not long afterwards I was nearly sprinkled on again, luckily they turned the corner before I reached them.
During my travels I found no creatures at all today, perhaps the short rain shower had made them all go into hiding. Instead I took a series of photos of what we call the ‘top road’ moving through the town from south to north. I guess it makes a change for you.
Have a good old peruse of those
photos and tell me what you think. This is
Despite me only strolling I covered over ten kilometres this morning so when Huan suggested a nap after lunch I was not going to argue. She then suggested another walk after dinner, with an ulterior motive, to change the lens cover on her phone case. She used my phone to record the progress, unfortunately creating quite a lot of videos instead of stills.
Of course on the way home she had to try the camera out again. We found some little kittens along the riverside, drastically cropped, but you get the idea.
May 27th Market walk went by the wayside today, Huan decided to cook this morning instead of this afternoon. More grumpiness from me! I did decide to go out after lunch, alone, to clear my mind and exercise my body. I went around our lower villa section first.
Not everything in the garden is
rosy mind you. The people who live in the villas on the left used to have a
view of open land and vegetation. They now look at the back of a car park that
serves the large apartment buildings on top of it.
It wasn’t easy, and I had to bend a few branches and do quite a lot of searching, but I managed to find our little green friend.
Passing over our little island I took a couple of different views for ‘er indoors, she likes to know where I’ve been when I go out.
I had no plan today, I just walked around aimlessly to make distance and pass time. My route took me past another friend’s house so I went to see if he was there. He was, and I took quite a few photos, getting nearer and nearer. Each time I got nearer he climbed higher until eventually; he was well hidden towards the top of the tree.
Another photo was taken for Huan to try and locate the spot; she did quite well with this one.
Approaching home I was attacked from the sky yet again, missiles were whistling past my ears. Well, to be honest it was only one and I couldn’t even find any more on the tree. It turned out to be a very small mango.
Dinner was very nice indeed; Huan’s quiche was just up my alley. There was a definite taste of bacon, enough cheese in and on, and unusually, quite a strong taste of garlic. That made it all the better for me, I love garlic. She made two quiches, we had half the round one today and we will have the other half tomorrow. The rectangular one will go in the freezer for another day.
May 28th Today was Huan’s plan and it went exactly as it should have, a #5 bus to the bridge where we nearly bought a house in 2007 and then a walk back through the countryside. Here’s the view back to Wuzhishan from the bridge just before we crossed it.
And here is the countryside, both sunny and shady.
“Is it alive?” asked Huan of this little piglet. It was; having a nice snooze in the sun.
We had time for a little exploring today, this turned out to be a dead end, a beautiful one though.
Huan was a little lost again, not to worry as I knew exactly where we were. Follow this path through the trees and end up in a farmyard.
Even out here we can find some bovine buddies, although these are all of the shy type. The first one actually looks fake, I think it must be an optical effect of the various layers of mud and water. It was most definitely alive, as were the family in the second photo.
Not long after this Huan realised that I was on the right road for
Zabie village, one that confuses me because the Chinese characters do not call
it that. It seems that in the
I lost Huan in the village; she had found one of the old ladies preparing the midday meal. It looked a lot like river snails and she was chopping the ends of their shells off.
She soon caught me up and insisted that she take my photo as we left the village boundary.
Huan had been fretting about not finding any leaping lizards today, luckily for her I spotted one that she didn’t. That’s quite an unusual occurrence.
From there we soon reached the kindergarten, the one that gives this walk its name. Near to that there is a small store that more often than not doesn’t have what I need. Today good fortune shone on me and cool clear water was forthcoming. From there we headed down the hill until in front of us, laid out in all its splendour, was Wuzhishan!
Walking back into town Huan thought she smelled something ‘different’. Mind you, she walked right past what it was. She thought it might have been coffee, I don’t think it was. Google was not of much use to us today, we need help from you dear readers, what were they drying in the sun and was it for medicinal purposes?
Maybe this photo will help, this comes from the ‘green’ pile in the
first photograph and it is sitting in the palm of Huan’s hand. Google only came
up with some medicinal stuff from
You know that we often try and take photos of birds, and you know that also often fail. I had a failure at the bus stop this morning, trying to take photos of birds that we have never seen here before. Perhaps they are migratory and only spend a short time here. However, this afternoon we both spotted them again but I couldn’t get very near.
I took Huan home past where the mango had attacked me yesterday to show her the trees and see if she could see any fruit. She found it in the next tree along! What had skimmed past my ear must have bounced sideways off some of the leaves and then come down from the ‘wrong’ tree.
Well, Huan’s plan worked out well, we had another twelve kilometre day today. For me it was home and drink some more water then straight to naptime, Huan had a little lunch before joining me. Why is it that my belly is still not going down, what with all these missed lunches?
May 29th Today was a lazy start for me, not so for the boss. She had to go to the dentist to have her caps fitted. Now if I go I need Huan for translation and for moral support, she doesn’t need me for either. Firstly her Chinese is good enough and secondly she has no fear of dentists. Other than that the morning was shopping and the afternoon was napping.
After dinner we decided we had to get some exercise in so a ‘bridge-to-somewhere’ and Luobote village walk was taken. We were both rather amused by the view on the bridge; new lamps are awaiting installation, in the meantime looking like a load of dead or sleeping aliens.
Going through the village Huan had to go and assist the lady on the hand operated milling machine, it was removing husks from rice. I was given the chance to but I elected on this occasion to just be the recorder.
On we went, chatting to the schoolchildren on their way home, many of whom knew me. For some reason one also knew me as “Uncle Bob”, how that is I have no idea. We passed our bovine buddies who were all set for a night in the byre. I did manage to get one to peer over the wall at me but I failed abysmally to get a decent photo of it. We then headed into the woods.
Coming back into the village one old lady was quite taken aback by seeing us coming from the direction we did. She asked Huan if she was not afraid of the evil spirits in there. Huan told her that there weren’t any. If I had understood I would have told her that it was far too light anyway. Soon we were out of the village too and heading back towards town.
Half way down the road you see in the photo above, I suggested to Huan that we take a right turn and head off that way, she agreed.
Photographs can lie as I’m sure you all know, but they can also not show you everything that is there. In this case the photo does not show you the hundreds of midges that seemed to be mostly attacking Huan. Soon we turned for the main road where we found a few more cows bedded down for the night and munching their supper. I was happy, I got to talk to them and give then a scratch and a tickle. This time though, Huan failed with the photos!
Arriving back into town I handed over the keys and told Huan to go home, I would walk a little more. That would give her eight kilometres while I aimed for ten plus. I tried a few photos on my route, not all with great success though.
Something that we find a little strange, perhaps you will too, is that people like to stand on the pedestrian bridge at Fodelai Hotel and just ‘feel the air’. As individuals I can understand this, but it seems to be whole groups of people.
Finally, on my way back along the riverside, I spotted an old friend, 黑妞Hēi niū, Google translates this as ‘brunette’ although if you separate the characters it becomes ‘black little girl’. She is in fact a Mama dog and although she usually comes running today she was rather busy. Just look at that expression.
I got home having completed eleven kilometres, enough for a day I think don’t you? Huan was already rested and finished with her pud so she made mine, fresh mango and ice cream. What a life I lead! So on that note, I’ll bid you yet again a fond farewell but don’t worry, you can’t get rid of me that easily, I’ll be back, next week. Tatty bye!
