July 2nd My new boots had not arrived so no hills or countryside walks were on the cards for this morning. Instead we just did a round the town walk. Our first snap for this week is a bug that looks suspiciously like Huan’s balcony bug from last week.
Bugs are in this week, here’s another one. Now we can’t work out if this one is being wrapped up by a spider or if it is making a cocoon. How say you all you bug geeks out there?
Our walk took us past a hotel where work has ceased, construction has not finished. It’s not a big hotel but it looks nice enough, maybe money flow problems. It happens sometimes. However, the associated apartment complex seems to be doing just fine, all complete and with residents. I thought the old sales office may be able to fill us in but we found it all locked up. It did give me the chance to grab a bird photo for the C-in-C though.
Three photos? Is that all we have to show for the first day of the week? Almost, we do have one more. My cooking this week consists of things from the freezer, sometimes with labels and sometimes without. What we took out yesterday turned out to be minced pork so my first thought was to make a shepherd’s pie (or cottage pie). I asked Huan if she would prefer potatoes or noodles and she chose the latter. Our shopping trip had been planned for all eventualities and the ingredients all worked out well. Here is Huan’s dish, the photo of mine failed.
July 3rd Another scarcity of photos today I’m afraid. Yesterday Huan had another call from the clinic, time to go and have a free ultrasound, (inner organs), ECG, (she does have a heart, really) and blood tests. For all of these she had to get out of bed in the middle of the night and present herself to the clinic at seven o’clock this morning. Luckily it wasn’t raining so I could doze a little while longer before having my jump start coffee.
Once she was home and had finished her breakfast we decided a leisurely saunter around the town would be enough for today. Right outside we found a bird, up high, too far really.
Our route took us through the local outside market, where we spotted more birds.
Cue me being stupid as we were leaving the market. Well that’s what Huan thinks anyway. She always calls me stupid when I want to help people! The gent with the tricycle was very happy to have some assistance up the little hill.
More birds, canoodling under the hedge, and looking guilty because we found them!
Finally for today, just a little scenery for you. I was searching for squirrels and/or birds and/or turtles to keep Her Ladyship happy but I didn’t find anything. This picture is nice though.
July 4th This was another ‘can we do it’ day. The computer said rain at 1pm, Huan’s phone said it was already raining. The sky was ambiguous. We went for it, another video day. First I had to get my new boots on. The boots tell me that they are ‘High Colorado size 45’, the box tells me they are ‘Eddie Bauer, Keel Mountain, size 8M’. Last night for the try-on they felt a little tight but today for the walk they felt fine.
Our walk started from here.
It didn’t take Huan long!
I was mostly busy with the Keymission today and thinking of the video I was filming. Huan took the opportunity to snap a couple of scenes which I quite liked too.
Then it was my turn again, to try and shine, but those pesky birds will insist on keeping their distance. Ergo, two birds and some clouds in-between.
Lizards are so much easier, I don’t even have to find them, the boss does that!
After the last of our ‘no through roads’ for today the last ‘real’ camera picture is of three pooches wasting their energy. Were they barking at us or barking because the dogs where we were had also been barking. Didn’t they realise there was a river between us?
There are two more photographs but they were taken with the Keymission. They show the view behind us and in front of us on the road home.
I don’t usually do this but as there were no villages today I am including the fitness map. You can see the three prongs in the top centre, they are the dead-ends. The video, which may also help, is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nfHguT-Rj4&ab_channel=HainanBob
A hospital visit was planned for after lunch but called off after the heavens opened. Those promised rains arrived. Not to worry, it gave me time to edit and upload the video before cooking dinner. No photos taken of today’s dinner, it wasn’t much different to Tuesday’s. It was beef instead of pork and ramen instead of ‘normal’ noodles. Still tasted good though!
July 5th Our hospital visit took place this morning, Huan was happy, a restful day. Here I am checking the bill prior to paying for my meds. We had already seen the doctor, a young guy with very good English. Surprisingly everything went quickly today.
We took a leisurely stroll home, even got rained on as we walked, but a pleasant drizzle. Huan had her brolly, I enjoyed the rain. It had stopped by the time we reached home.
My plan had been to sneak out after lunch but I decided I was also too tired and joined the teddy bear for a nap instead. We did go out after dinner again to buy our weekend meat, cooked belly pork to go with the salad. It was big enough that we could take some off for our lunchtime sandwiches tomorrow, aren’t we the lucky ones!
July 6th One of the things about being retired is always knowing what’s coming next. It could be different if, unlike me, you plan your finances better. If you do that then the world is your oyster. For us, it’s Saturday thus market day. Camera in hand, forgetting what we had said last week, off we went. I did find a beautiful little butterfly but I failed to capture it. Later on we found birds, again not in the zone for good photos but I tried. We saw each other!
I did find a willing subject in the market though!
Laden with fruit and vegetables and with Huan some distance ahead of me I spotted a beautiful little bird flitting about in a tree. It was small and fast but I did my best.
Seeing the character drawn on this car I had to take a photo, he looks so angry. To my surprise the words are not angry at all. 关上你那远光灯！Guānshàng nǐ nà yuǎn guāng dēng! Turn off your high beams! Mine would be so much worse, especially if I was alone in the car.
Almost at the door and Huan found a lizard. This time she took all the shopping off me.
Are we OK? We had nap attacks again this afternoon, must be the weather. I refuse to believe it has anything to do with my advancing years.
July 7th “Let’s go to Nansheng” said the boss. “No” said I, “we’re too late for that”. That was because hearing quite heavy rain as Huan got up this morning I stayed in bed a little longer. I did agree with her second suggestion, Rendishan, so off we went. Huan was first to spot anything with a ‘yellow friend of mine’ as she called it.
However, both she and her granny finger missed the lizard that was just metres away.
Work has begun on the drainage of the road after Rendishan so it shouldn’t be too long before the road is also resurfaced and walking will be easier.
More work was obvious further on, the bridge has disappeared. We have seen many bridges in the countryside replaced in this way over the last nine years; it will not be too long.
We decided to progress through the fields just after the temporary bridge. It’s quite a steep little path down but we both managed it without falling over.
The fields can change dramatically over time. Not so long ago, this path was wider and the verges were short grass. At least the rain had not left a quagmire this morning!
Village people were out in force, busy in the fields.
This village also has two desirable residences. The first we have liked since we first walked underneath its balcony maybe eight years ago. The second is more my like than Huan’s.
There is a small irrigation ditch at the side of the fields which at times in the past we have crossed to walk on the other side. It is not deep and not dangerous, at least not to us. Someone must be worried though; here are the texts from two warning signs.
Not long before our turn round spot Huan found another lizard. While I was busy with him she found one that may have been looking for him, or vice versa.
And here we are, five kilometres in, time to do a u-turn.
I’m not quite sure what happened with my butterfly snaps, both of them have some darkness that really shouldn’t be there. This one still gives you a good view though.
Two ‘nurseries’ on our way home, the first has some sort of Chinese medicinal plants grafted on to the lower trunks of the betel nut trees. Huan tells me that the medicine is expensive too. The second is a more normal plant nursery, taken through the padlock hatch.
Nearer to home Huan’s eyes, and granny finger, were extraordinarily busy. The first bird she found had me taking nearly thirty photographs to try and capture it. Because of where it was I ended up with thirty failures. The second bird was a little easier. While it was hiding in the leaves I had a few failures but then it came out to say hello. For some reason, say I’m crazy if you want, but the second photo reminds me of Captain Mainwaring for some reason. I can just hear him saying “you stupid boy!”
Finally Madam’s finger was busy pointing out a superfast squirrel. Unless I can learn to climb trees and sit in ambush I’m not sure I will ever get a good shot of one of them. I tried.
July 8th Well, my plan for a sneaky walk along with a coffee and fag break went awry. In the morning we did our weekly shopping, nothing untoward there. My plan should have come to fruition after lunch. Just to spite me it seems, the heavens opened and rain poured down upon all that we could see. Never mind, we had a nap instead.
And that’s it for this week. Sorry for the lower number of photographs, we didn’t really go anywhere special this week. Don’t forget to check the video link above though, there’s more to see there. Also, as usual, click to enlarge, to comment or to subscribe. See you soon!
PS I forgot that I cooked again today, last night’s freezer extract surprised Huan as it was liver. She wasn’t expecting that so I cooked. First boil the tatties, put to one side. Fry the onions until they are translucent, add the thinly chopped red and green jalapeno peppers and garlic; fry a little longer. Add the very thinly sliced liver that has been marinated in Chinese vinegar (10% alcohol) and soy sauce with some cornflour. (Memo to wife “do not ever buy reduced salt soy sauce again”.) Once the liver is ready heat up the tinned peas in the microwave, not in the tin of course. Serve, eat, enjoy and forget to take photos!
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