August 15th This morning we had a late start, courtesy of Huan and her being on the phone about this week’s driving lessons. Consequently our walk was to be an around the town one only. Mind you we still found a fair few of God’s creatures, starting off with this lizard. Only today did I think to myself how they must also be masters of balance what with having such a long tail to carry around everywhere. In another shot its tail is well below its head!
Next up was a dragonfly that didn’t want to stay still at all.
Then Huan spotted Jiminy’s brother peeping over a leaf, or was it his sister?
Huan was really on form today, I missed this one completely, until I was ‘directed’ to it.
Mushrooms up next, the same ones as I showed you last week, (the not magic ones), but this time with the boss under their shade, and the one in a tree that I had to stop her from tasting!
Back to bugs and ‘my friend’ as Huan likes to call it, turned up on the wall nearing the house again. I let it climb on to my hand where it always seems to be very comfortable before trying to put it down in the grass. It didn’t look so happy there, in fact you could almost see it saying thank you for not leaving me there in the last photo when I put it back on the wall!
This next one was not so easy; it seemed to keep making a run at me! What is it? Google kept telling me it was a crab but more extensive searching led me to thinks it is an Ogre faced spider. Interesting fact – they have no ears but they can hear with their legs!
Sometimes I forget what Google has already told me before. For example, I have definitely shown you an Assassin bug, (Rhynocoris iracundus), but I don’t remember it looking like this.
A common or garden millipede is next. Would any of you like to do a leg count?
Almost home, just outside our building, and we found this little bird. It looked very healthy but seemed to have trouble flying. Initially we took it round the corner to protect it from parking motorbikes. Within a short period of time Huan went back down and brought it home in a box. She tried feeding it but it wasn’t having any. Eventually she found a worm in the balcony plants and it ate that. In the end she reluctantly took it back downstairs.
Meanwhile I had been spending an inordinate amount of time on the internet trying to find ways we could help. I eventually decided that this was a young swift, and that all it needed was a good rest before being strong enough to actually take off. It seems that they have very weak legs and once on the ground they find it difficult to get airborne again. They spend most of their lives flying, see https://canaropedia.com/the-common-swift-nesting-breeding-diet-and-behavior/
All that time I had sent on the internet, trying to identify bugs and the trying to help the little swift made me late cooking our dinner, only fish noodle soup again. Now as you know we still have no gas so do everything with one induction hob. Today, the extension lead decided to pack up on us, another socket had to be found.
Dinner over we headed out to find a new extender board. Many of the shops that used to be here seem to have disappeared; maybe everyone just used the internet now. I did find a couple but I was looking for a board that specifically had individual socket switches and preferably a fuse too. I was out of luck. Even Taobao was not much help, finding foreign styles was fairly easy, but finding domestic ones with switches and fuses much harder. I gave up for today!
On the way home we passed this sign, 賴胖子肉蟹煲, Lài pàngzi ròu xiè bāo - Fatty Lai Meat and Crab Casserole, a new restaurant opening up in Baijiahui. Maybe we’ll give it a try when it opens, although I don’t really like fighting my food!
The good news, after two walks in one day, is that my kilometre total is back on target.
August 16th After a very bad night’s sleep I was woken by the alarm, time for coffee and then deliver Huan to the training ground. My bad sleep was caused by my teeth, I really need another visit to the dentist but I need to wait until Huan’s test is finished. Getting out of bed may not always be easy, but actually being out in the countryside early is very pleasant. Here are the local fowl running down the mountain to see me.
And a cow that allowed me to chat to it and stroke it.
And the last one, snapped while walking around the training ground waiting for Huan to finish, a little butterfly that didn’t want to stand still for very long.
Back home we had another walk around town, wondering where all the lighting and electrical shops have disappeared to. I so wish we had something like B&Q here. All we found today was something on the car, Google says it is a cockroach!
August 17th Hopefully that is the last early morning call for a while! With only having an hour again and with no rain forecast I decided it was a sandals and stick to real roads walk. Even the mountains were clear of clouds this morning.
Here’s one where a video would have been good and I did try on my way back to take one. The itsy bitsy spider had gone back to sleep in the middle of the web by the time I returned. Still, you can see what it is doing here.
Just look at this big blue sky, definitely warning of a hot day ahead.
I was not the only one out for a walk, say hello to a Hawkmoth Caterpillar. I love the high speed train look; it even has portholes instead of windows! Quick quiz, which end is the front?
We were so early that even the village was still asleep!
Straight back home this morning, no joint walk with my female companion, she had to go up north to Qionghai for her next test. She was going after lunch but Yú was joining us before then to save her having to go a long way home and back. I managed to become a very grumpy old man before they left. I asked Huan what had happened to my dinner for tonight that I had taken out of the freezer last night. “Oh, I ate that for breakfast” she said. I was not happy, I can tell you.
After I had seen them off I went for a long afternoon walk to try and put my brain back where it should be. Again not many photos were taken; I guess I wasn’t really looking for subjects. This car tickled me though, for your average three car family, more apt in the west then here.
My route was down the main drag to the end, turn around and come back, then turn right and go along the riverside. The only photos I took were so that Huan could see where I have been when she asks, as she almost certainly will. I did find another bug though, all I can definitely tell you is that it is a variety of moth, and there are far too many variations for me to identify which one. Just out of shot is my left hand which was doing its best to turn the vegetation over so that my right hand could take the photo. The betel but seller must have thought I was just a little crazy.
Huan called from the practice ground in Qionghai just to let me know they had arrived. They get the opportunity for doing that tomorrow morning before the test.
Remember I told you that this is the second test, the first being the Highway Code and the third being the road test. Well it seems, as the ladies are learning automatic only, that for this test they only use the brake pedal, the accelerator is not touched at all. Stick the car into drive, or reverse, go forwards or backwards, go round s-bend type corners, reverse back left into a parking space, reverse back right into a parking space, parallel reverse park into a parking space. All of these procedures are not monitored by examiners but by computers.
If Huan passes this the next few lessons will be on the road, using both pedals! Mind you, when we have watched them they seem to go incredibly slow still. With a little luck Her Ladyship will be starting those lessons next week.
August 18th I slept well last night, very well indeed until Huan called me at half past eight this morning. Maybe the reason I slept so well was that I didn’t go to bed until half past two in the morning. That’s possibly also the reason that despite sleeping so well I was so exhausted this morning. Because of that a town walk was planned, with absolutely no speed intended. First I had to buy a new USB cable so I headed to town via our only (almost) treeless street.
My route took me partly along the river, partly through apartment complexes, always looking for the greenery in the hopes of finding some wee beasties. I did see a lot of greenery!
The only wee beasties I saw all morning were two little squirrels and they were right at the beginning of my walk. However, they were frolicking right at the top of a coconut tree, far too far for a decent video and far too quick for a decent photograph.
Huan woke me up from my afternoon nap with bad news, she had failed again. She was not a happy teddy at all, especially as she failed in exactly the same place, the reverse parallel parking. Her instructor kept telling her, for the last week or so, to relax more, something I’ve been telling her for weeks. In her practice lessons she is very confident, not overly so, and passing should be easy. Her initial response today was almost to give up. When I reminded her how much we had spent she changed her mind! Mind you, she has insisted on at least a week off before she goes back to the practice ground, I agreed.
We went out for a normal buffet dinner, not the celebratory one that I had thought it would be. In Huan’s state of mind, the buffet was a much better choice.
August 19th Today’s photos are all filed, as they usually are on a Saturday, as date/market walk/#. However, things were not quite the same. First it was a solo walk; Huan felt like staying at home, I think failing her test hit her more than she is showing. Second, there was no market today, although we don’t know why.
As for me, within metres of the house the first insect reared its head. I think it is a Long Nosed Grasshopper (Atractomorpha but sub species unclear) but as always I am open to correction.
The second one is obvious, definitely related to the one Huan calls my friend, but a great deal larger. I did offer it my finger but after it looked at it with disdain I rescinded the offer. It was probably better left to its own devices anyway.
Confirming what Huan’s hulusi ladies had told her, the market was noticeable by its absence and the tea street was not at all crowded either.
As I often do I was still searching for lizards for Huan. I hasten to add that it not so that she can eat them! She just likes to see them or to see photos of them if she is not there. Today I was lucky to find one that hangs around near the sausage shop, just look at the length of its tail!
My last click of the day was
another car decal, no translation this time just a photo. Why this particular
photo? Well this is a hybrid electric car so this side has the
That was my day done. I had been hoping for an after dinner walk with Huan just to keep my steps up but rain stopped play. No doubt we’ll be out again tomorrow.
August 20th Today was a bus and walk day, and of course before the Royal Personage can board the bus, it must all be given a good scrub!
We took the bus to the edge of Wuzhishan, on the Nansheng road and then crossed the river to walk back through the villages on the other side.
We had gone a little bit further out than normal just to explore a little. On the previous photos you can see a turn off on the right side which we disappeared into. After quite some back and forth, and a chat with a farmer, we realised we would have to backtrack!
The next turn off took us along a
route I remembered, into the
Soon after, trying to take a different exit, we found another ‘no way out’.
Back on track we headed through the woods, past some farms, and eventually into the village where we usually have a water stop. Huan was happy today, her weaver was there, and busy.
This scene interested me more. I asked if the empty beer cans were the result of breakfast, the answer was that it was so hot they had to drink beer to cool down!
As always on this route, the scenery was beautiful.
More bugs for you, what would life be without them. You have seen a Pyrops candelaria, a.k.a. a Planthopper before. Today we found eight or nine on one tree.
One had to have its individual photo taken though; he must have been a high nose!
Let’s have two more views of the scenery before we finish today’s blurb, one still in the wilds of the countryside and then one of the approaches to town and home.
Don’t let those clouds fool you; by the time we got home we were both dripping wet, it was a hot one! All I wanted to do was get home, have some more water and then a nice nap. Eagle Eyes had other ideas mind, and managed to find even more, this time a damselfly.
And with that beautiful image we
end our Sunday. It was back to music for Huan and back to my favourite Sunday
occupation of watching Taskmaster for me.
August 21st I had a plan today, it failed. Maybe I should have shared it with Huan. Monday, as always, is our weekly shopping day, no worries there. My plan had been to go to the dentist after our afternoon nap, I have some time now before Huan goes back to her driving lessons. When we woke up we discovered that we had slept for over two hours, bang went the dentist’s visit.
Our second plan of the day was a relaxing after dinner walk. That plan was foiled by rain, lots of it. We do sometimes go walking in the rain but not if it is too heavy, as it was this evening. Huan decided that as we had no photos of today she would take photos of drugs. Well, she calls them vegetable balls but once I start on them they have to be hidden or I will scoff the lot!
And so yet another week in paradise comes to an end, will we find more strange creatures in the coming seven days, stay tuned to find out. TTFN!
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