November 5th “Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and
plot, I see no reason, Why gunpowder treason, Should ever be forgot.” If you
want to know the rest the internet is full of sources. Of course, as far as the
This morning the skies were overcast and dreary and despite the weather forecast not showing any problems, had Huan suggested staying in I would gladly have agreed with her. Luckily she didn’t so we ended up on a round the town walk, umbrellas in hand just in case.
Now you know I have learnt that I have to vary the ‘thumbnail’ every week otherwise you will be overrun with lizards. Huan did see one this morning which initially I couldn’t see at all. By the time I did see it and got myself into position it had disappeared. All that was left was for me to climb back over the small fence and take a lump out of my leg, just a small one mind. It was more like a flap of skin really but it meant having a tissue at the ready for some time.
Anyway, that meant our first photo of the day was not a lizard!
Now all we had to do was find some subjects to snap, we settled on scenery.
Remember Halloween? Well we were reminded of it when we passed the new A8 bar next to the bus station. The title is fine, that is what made me think of Halloween when I saw the poster. The ‘girls’ are possibly all Ai made, could be real but I’m not sure. The English however is not what you would expect to see on a public billboard. I wonder if they don’t know what it sounds like. The words in the last line, “the training of gao leng yu jie” seem to be高冷御姐, Gāo lěng yù jiě which translates as High Cold Queen.
Next we have an unusual filler cap for you. This one has none of the usual octane ratings but I bet it makes many of you think about what it’s like running on almost empty and wondering where the next fuel station will be.
Back to the scenery again, you can see this first one just a few metres off the road and the second one right next to the pavement. (That’s sidewalk for my American friends.)
Our walk was cut short by quite a bit today; we stopped by one of the local pet clinics. Because one of the girls who worked there was outside we both had a chat with her.
There were five or six cats wandering about, only one that wouldn’t come near a human. The girl told us that most have been brought up there, fed there just generally looked after there so they won’t run away. She tried to give me one to hold, I think it may have been a ‘wrong’ one. Look at his eyes in the bottom left picture, grumpy comes to mind!
I told Huan that the girl had a good job that made her happy. Huan had to verify that of course. The girl told her that despite the salary being on the low side she really enjoyed working there. I think I probably would too. Today this was my favourite, I haven’t seen one of these before, at least I don’t think I have. He had very big feet so we had to ask what ‘make’ he was. The young girl showed us on her phone, he is in fact a Maine Coon, such a handsome fellow.
We had tarried so long that we had to take a bus home to be on time for lunch. While Huan was waiting at the stop I took another scenery photo for you.
Back home and after lunch there was to be no nap for me, I had a lot of cooking to do. Huan decided she wouldn’t have one either. Why so much cooking for me? Just time really, and the fact that we still have no gas and only one induction hob. I wanted to cook the duck legs before cooking the vegetables separately and then adding them back to the stew before serving. No photos were taken but this is what I did. I put the two legs in a large pan with all the cloves from one whole garlic, one whole diced onion, one bay leaf, one star anise, a few whole black peppers and then for something different added some black beans. We had eaten the fish from the tin for lunch so I thought the beans would be a good addition. Nearly two hours later that pot was done although I was not sure about the taste. Afterwards, in a separate pot I cooked a large carrot, a small kohlrabi and 35-40cm piece of Chinese yam. Once they were done I washed them under cold water first before adding them back to the stew. I did that because the yam can have a very slippery feel to it. All that was left at dinner time was to heat everything up again and serve. The taste test then made me very happy, both of us thought it was just fine and I had added no salt or soy sauce at all. Huan even decided to have some for breakfast tomorrow.
November 6th Autumnal weather continues. Now some people
would see that as the wondrous fall weather of
Now here’s one that you may not notice is looking at you. Both ends seem to be very similar, where are its eyes anyway? I can tell you that it was moving left to right.
Today’s route was the Rendishan road with a slight detour to check out this little farm. Huan did try and get the geese coming towards us but they were lazy and gave up.
Meanwhile on the other side of the farmhouse the ducks were too far away to see, almost.
The new bridge is just about done, passable without a detour now.
Knowing that subjects would be hard to come by today I thought you might like to see just what a watery sun we had. It’s somewhere up there.
Let’s go through the fields today so that we can take a photo of one of our first des res’s that we saw in this area. We first saw this one when we walked beneath the balcony and decided it would be a good place to sit of an evening looking out over the fields. The first photo is the quite steep path down to the fields; great care was taken by both of us.
This is the spot where we turned for home, about five and three quarter kilometres away from the house. It shows today’s weather very well, overcast but definitely good for walking!
“Look, he’s a very big one” said SWMBO and initially I had no idea what she was looking at. He wasn’t very big and he was almost the same colour as the tree. I did my best.
She then did it again only swapped the word big for small. I did my best yet again.
By the time we got home we had done over ten kilometres today, first time for a while It meant we were a little late for lunch which then had me declining an afternoon nap because my belly was full One must always remember what one’s mother taught one! I’m now bingeing ‘The Blacklist’, not sure if I will watch the whole thing though.
November 7th The question of the day is “Where is the sun?”
Of course the lack of a yellow orb did not stop us going walkies or me smiling! The plan for this snap was good; the execution would have required me to grow a few more inches!
Today’s route was a meandering one, through the local villages and around the countryside. This building is a Li cultural centre; the only time we have seen it open is when we were given a very interesting guided tour of it. Perhaps it opens for tourist groups.
Our next detour was through the fields where we went in, had a look around, and then came out the same way because there was no other way.
Eventually we got to where I wanted to be, headed towards home.
I took two photos in the fields here, the first a calf which Huan says I should share with you and the second which I am not allowed to share on pain of death. Ergo, one photo!
Of course the artistic director took far too many of me from which I was supposed to create a gif and share it with you. It’s not obvious from the photo but the irrigation aqueduct is quite high above the fields. I had gone for a little reconnoitre, decided that it was too dangerous to go all the way across so turned around to come back.
“There’s lots of little birds on the wires today Bob.” In the case of the collage, no amount of editing of the photos could give me anything better.
Around the corner I was able to sneak a little closer.
And finally, this one obviously never spotted me at all!
Eagle eyes failed today, she was not very happy about that. She was even less impressed when I found one that she didn’t see at all. I was small mind you, and a different colour to the ones that we usually see. Even a passer by’s little daughter found it difficult to see.
Today’s car ornament is one to get you thinking. Teddy bears are cute aren’t they, we all love them. We even have one or two in our apartment, not as many as frogs of course. What do you think of this one? I managed to find him on Taobao where his description translates as “Black boxing sunglasses violent bear grey”
And the last one of the day is our front garden (?). We have a snowbird who comes every winter, he loves playing the saxophone. Luckily for us that takes place mostly on the island park. However, he also likes to look after the little garden here, which nobody else does. Now I am definitely no Percy Thrower, but it seems to me that he does a good job of it.
Naps were needed today!
November 8th From a miserable autumnal start to the day yesterday we moved to a slightly chilly, (for our old bones), hazy and sunny spring like morning today. Being late out of bed though, I thought we should try lizard alley only. Lo and behold if Huan didn’t go and find a lizard not far from home where they have new paving stones stacked up awaiting installation. This one does look more like a house lizard; it also appears to have brilles over its eyes
At the end of the road, where the three legged dog used to live, we had a look at the ongoing construction. The walkway over the other side of the tributary is coming on but the bridge to it has not been started yet.
And here’s the proof of what a lovely day it was, perfect for walking.
Huan’s day was made when she found a lizard that I could see and photograph.
And here am I stumbling out of the flowerbeds having just taken the photo.
The workmen in the background wanted to know what I was taking
pictures of, I am not sure what Huan said, which Chinese name she gave them. It
seems that in
A little bit further on we were able to walk down by the riverside again although the resurfacing is not yet complete.
Huan suggested the last one of the day, another car ornament. I didn’t particularly want to take it but then I thought all you readers might like to see it. I’m sure no description is necessary.
November 9th Ooops, I forgot to write this yesterday! It was of course, Saturday, market day. I often show you crowd views to let you see how many people there are. Today it struck me that I have never given you a child’s eye view. It’s quite scary really. Next time you are in a crowded place with your rugrats spare them a thought.
And now here’s a progress report on the under construction sluice gates. (PS There are two more typhoons visible on my storm tracking page, let’s hope they don’t dump too much more water on us. We were lucky with the last one, ‘Yinxing’.)
We don’t seem to have many photos this week so here’s another car decal for you.
On our way home we passed by the market in the street in front of the indoor market. To be honest we can find street markets all over the place!
And finally here is the family donkey. Yes we bought quite a bit today, both hands were full. Also, underneath my arm in the polystyrene box are two jars of ‘Bonne Maman’ bitter orange marmalade. Taobao is sometimes good value.
Worn out, I had to have a nap!
November 10th Sometimes in the morning you just like to lie there for a while and contemplate the day ahead. I think we must both have been doing that this morning, with me thinking how early it was and that a ‘bus and walk’ could be on the cards. I was wrong, we were later than usual! We did get to the countryside though, here’s a road yet to be constructed.
Parts of the countryside were quiet; others weren’t as it is harvest time.
Going through a little village I spotted this wee birdie. After this shot was taken he made a few attempts to jump through the window behind him and not through the open section either. At least he wasn’t flying at speed!
With those two previously mentioned typhoons somewhere out there the weather forecasts are not exactly accurate these days. However, today was another good walking day.
At one stage in my life I always preferred Pepsi to Coke, sometimes I still do. I never found any high octane stuff though, at least not without adding something from another bottle.
Huan found me some cows and some grass to feed them with. One thought my arm was grass and gave me a big lick, very strange feeling.
I took a lot of photos here but none of them came out well. I must
have been doing something very wrong, especially as the camera was on
“Oh, it’s a dog’s life out here in the countryside, how will I ever survive?”
“Do what I do and eat the plants!”
These next two are photos of a road that was going to be constructed, bypassing the village to a new housing complex. Construction on the complex, and the road seems to have ceased. Of course that makes a much more pleasant walk for the boss and I!
What is this? It looks like a moth or a butterfly but with very unusual wings. It looks like the flights on a dart. Would you believe that in some parts of the world it is actually called, as a common name, a palm dart; it’s a variant of Cephrenes acalle.
Huan was just about beginning to give up but when we reached the road to somewhere and turned right for home her prayers were answered.
The rice that you saw being harvested is often then laid out on roads and paths to dry out. This was the last lot we saw on the way home. A little earlier on we had asked a farmer what she would do if it rained. Rather obviously she said she would pick it all up and wait for the rain to stop. What dummies us non-farmer folk are.
Just a little further on this view grabbed my attention; hopefully it will do something for you too.
And then it was my turn again to snap something that the C-in-C had not noticed. In fact she thought that I was taking a photo of a non-existent pig somewhere over the bridge wall.
No naps today, for either of us. I wanted to do yesterday’s post and watch two Taskmaster episodes, one regular and one junior. Huan wanted to bake bread.
November 11th Shopping day for us here, Armistice Day in
the
When we got into the car we found that poor old Donald has developed a case of what appears to be mildew so I decided to take him out for a wash after lunch. First I had a visit to the bank; it’s time to top up Huan’s Taobao account so that I can buy stuff! Carwash searching was next; many of the car wash places were closed for some reason. One was inaccessible due to road works, another had its bays open but nobody was available to wash cars. I finally found one that was open but he quoted me ¥150.00 for a good clean! The last resort place said he would do it for ¥80.00 and it would take half an hour. I gave him an hour and went for a walk.
Our traffic lights have returned, doesn’t the road look wide?
We had mislaid some vegetables in the supermarket this morning; luckily it was before we reached the cashiers. I decided to do an extra shop so that Huan had enough and didn’t have to steal mine! I learned that using WeChat video call I could reverse the camera to show her stuff in the outdoor market and make sure I didn’t make any mistakes.
From there I headed back on to the main road, mainly to waste time as I thought the car wash man needed more than half an hour. On the way I stopped for a fag break, the first one of this month. Aren’t I doing well? This was the view.
Donald looked much better when I collected him but he was far from perfect. Huan and I could probably do a better job if we weren’t so lazy. Back home I ordered some foam cleanser, when that arrives we will take a break from laziness and try and sort him out.
Well that’s it, another week over
here in not so sunny
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