June 4th What an exciting day, Mummy took me to the bank so I could get money and buy new things! We went the long way round on the off chance that she would find some lizards on the way. Our first find was a hairy caterpillar being seen off by what I think is an ‘assassin bug’.
I saw a little silhouetto of a bird; but he wouldn’t do the fandango! The second one was a little clearer but he was lazy too.
Our long route to my bank took us along lizard road which was initially quite sparse. Eventually though Huan’s urgent needs were satisfied.
She then found something on a leaf, something totally unidentifiable to me until I was able to focus the camera on it. It seems it is a Lily Caterpillar Moth and very pretty it is too.
We were walking on the road so lizards were not easy to find but Huan managed.
After a while we were able to get back on to the path again, at least I was.
Soon Huan joined me on the path and she promptly found more lizards for me. She is convinced that the third one is with child. What say you?
Quite a bit further along, we found our way blocked by a machine. However, we did not want to go back so Huan sent me first and then followed me.
Down at the point where the river turns and we follow the road into town instead Huan was happy to see cows and I spotted the lonely fisherman.
Outside the bank someone else was making a withdrawal.
Cash in hand it was time to go down the road and deposit what I had withdrawn into Huan’s bank so that I could then spend it on Taobao. For a short time I had money in my pocket! All that money business wore us out and naps were needed after lunch.
Chef Bob was on duty again.
We had to substitute the crème fraîche with yoghurt, our parmesan came from a tube and our fish was deep frozen. Consequently it came out a bit on the ‘wet’ side. The breadcrumbs however were very much on the dry side. Maybe store bought bread crumbs are not the best way to go. I thought it would be very nice with new potatoes; of course we never get them here. Whatever, we both ate everything and for the most part enjoyed it.
June 5th We went berserk today and took far too many photographs. Hopefully you will enjoy the odd one or two here and there. Being a little late we just went down the road towards the highway on ramp taking a detour on the way to see what the old ammunition compound access is like. The whole area has become a landfill for construction and demolition debris. I managed to take some views avoiding the waste.
From the beginning of Changhao road we took the back way through the ‘future car MOT yard (?)’ The going was wet but passable even for Huan’s shoes, with a nice view to the side.
After all this time it looks as though work has started on something. Maybe the vehicle MOT place will move here. Presently it is a long way out of town, in Maodao village.
The old fishpond looked a bit green around the gills today.
Back on the main road Huan’s happiness rating improved, she found a lizard on the path. In the second photo I thought I was going to be able to touch this one. I thought wrong!
Our homeward route was on the path by the riverside. The first photo shows the river (obviously), while the second shows the spot at which we had intended to cross. To do that we have to climb over a wall and down a ladder, which we can still both manage. However, the wall was rife with ants, too many of them, so we proceeded along the path.
Soon we went off the path and down to the river itself. I knew that the other side had a set of stairs that we could use so all we needed was a place to cross the river.
We found a place that was safe enough, even for my worried brain! You can probably see how wet I am, that was not river water, it was sweat, again! Huan was just as wet.
Oh no, was our path to be blocked by a new fence? Ever the intrepid explorers nothing could stop us and soon we were on the other side looking at the stairway to heaven.
Half way up the steps I took a panorama looking towards our place. Look carefully and you will see that our ‘steps’ finish a few metres above the ground, there is no way up.
Our steps had no way down the other side but lucky for us there was a way up in the middle.
This snap was supposed to show my sweaty face, someone else managed to sneak in!
Our last photo of the day is what Huan calls another one of my friends, a hairy caterpillar. We did try to tell him that thirty or forty centimetres further along the wall there was an assassin bug. It’s probably the one that ate his brother yesterday. He wouldn’t listen, let’s hope he got away.
June 6th The dithering duo were at it again this morning. Neither Huan’s phone nor my PC had a rain forecast but the skies did. Eventually we went out anyway but not into the countryside.
Birds seemed to be a thing today. Mind you, as always, we heard far more than we saw and we saw far more than we snapped! Just in case you are not sure, or can’t quite make them out, there are two birds in each of these photos.
After we turned for home we took the riverside route, very nice it was too. As you can quite plainly see, the rain was leaving us alone.
Now here’s a quiz question for you, one that we unfortunately don’t know the answer to. Why, after rain showers, do snails head to the top of various shrubs?
And now we are back to birds again. Initially I thought the second and third pictures were the same bird, they are less than two minutes apart. However, the colours don’t look the same.
Almost home and crossing the little island Huan found her daily dose of lizard!
We did get a couple of bugs before we reached home but none of the pictures were anything special so I have not included them in today’s haul.
After our nap the rain came down, so our thoughts were better than our modern hardware. Chef duties were mine today and we were having American breakfast for dinner.
It is an easy enough recipe but I would suggest perhaps doing the baked potatoes well in advance. With me messing about with microwaves and then air fryers the end result definitely did not merit a photograph. Luckily Huan loves sweet potatoes and I love bacon so it worked out well.
June 7th The weather is playing havoc with us these days. This morning it was still raining when we woke up. After coffee I checked the computer, the rain stopped, none was forecast until early tomorrow morning. “Let’s go, quickly!” We took a trip around the villas on the lower levels first, partly to show you our side of the river and its lack of steps.
Since we were there and since it was possible to go inside we went and checked out the first villa again. This elevation is the second but looks identical to the first.
This is the ground floor, room for a kitchen, dining room and living room.
All the following pictures are from the upstairs, there are two reasonably sized bedrooms, a large shared area and another bathroom.
Now if anyone wants to send us shedloads of money please feel free and who knows, we may even let you have a week’s free bed and breakfast!
Let’s get back to beasties shall we. Here’s a snail playing at T-junctions. Does anybody know why he has a third ‘thing’ growing out behind his head?
Along the ‘road to somewhere’ we still had to keep an eye out for the weather.
And then we found someone who didn’t have to worry about getting wet. Huan tells me that they are between ‘duckling’ and ‘duck’, hence the bare patches.
Would we make it home in time?
Today I had a message on my phone to say that in certain areas near
schools that are being used for Gaokao, the university entrance tests, my
signal coverage may be reduced. This is something they always do and as you can
guess doesn’t worry me in the slightest. My phone is not really all that
important; I mostly use it for recording our walks. As well as restricting
cellphone coverage the authorities also restrict traffic in those school areas.
In cities such as
By now rain drops were sporadically appearing so we quickly went home, via the indoor market where we bought the weekend salad stuff just in case tomorrow gets rained off. Another hairy friend was found on the final stretch.
The rain held off until after lunch when it returned to stay until the evening at least.
June 8th Having done our salad shopping yesterday, just in case, the heavens decided to be kind to us today and the rain didn’t appear. We started our walk at river level, taking the opportunity to look for life on the little island. Huan found some before we got there.
Remember the villa we showed you yesterday? This is what it looks like from across the river. It is slap bang in the middle of this photo.
Just across the island Huan found two more wee beasties for me.
Having also already bought our lottery tickets for the weekend we took a different route to the market and entered from the main bridge.
Somewhere along our route home Huan went and did it again.
Going separate ways through a small wooded area Huan found a bug and surprise surprise, I found a lizard. Huan did see it but not before I did, a most unusual occurrence.
Now this is another car, nothing special about it, except that we
used to own one in the UAE. I quite enjoyed it and so did Her Majesty, at least
to begin with. One day I had to drive from
Arriving home we found that Taobao had come through and an express delivery was in the box waiting for us. After lunch I did some quick testing, just to see the difference and to make sure my new lens was at least working. First the technical stuff. The existing lens is 12-60, the new one is 14-140, and they are M4/3. This means, for you ‘real’ camera buffs out there, the 35mm or full frame equivalent lenses would be 24-120 and 28-280. They would also be much bigger! So, the photos, in order, are 12-60-14-140, all from the same vantage point on our bedroom balcony.
More lenses will be coming shortly!
June 9th We, or should I say I, messed up the weather forecasting again today. I had a plan to go and do the missing video, the ‘long cut’ between the fourth and fifth turn offs from the main road. It would have been a long walk leaving us exposed to the rain forecast for later in the morning. A little later we decided we had to get out by which time the forecast had changed. Rain was not expected until much later in the day. By that time of course we didn’t have enough time to do what I had planned so around the town we went.
Huan must have been having an off day; she didn’t find any lizards whereas I found four. One ran away so there are only three pictures. Note that the middle one is a skink.
Determined not to be outdone Huan found a spider, rather a pretty one.
Let’s move on to birds now, the first one is a repeat offender. Would you believe that, according to Google, it is a ‘Chinese goose’.
The next two come from the pet shop. I have to say that I thought Huan would not be able to get a decent photo of the one in the cage but she did. The name took a while to find but it turned out to be a ‘Black-collared starling’. The other two who you have seen in the past turned out to be quite religious; they are ‘Quaker parrots’.
Let’s finish off with a couple of wingless birds, the love of my life and a friend that she used to go to Yefeng with when she was out gallivanting. Only joking, she was out for singing, hulusi and dama dancing classes. It all became a bit too much so now she walks with me instead.
The rain eventually arrived in the evening, along with thunderstorms. One day we’ll get it right.
June 10th This was a normal Monday with shopping for both in the morning. After lunch I ‘found the time’ for a nice walk, alone of course, and with the prerequisite coffee and fag break, the first of the month. To keep Huan happy I even found a lizard!
Down at the river some work is still taking place.
And a closer look at the workmen shows that they can’t really stop for a break!
All that was left was my break. This was to be the place until I noticed all the ants on the steps. I moved along and sat in the second location instead.
And so we come to the end of another week. If you want to see how the new lens works out, stay tuned. We will be using it for all our photos this coming week. My only hope is that we find some subjects to show off its capabilities.
We’ll look forward to the next time, see you then.
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