A Few Birds & A Lot Of Food.

December 24^th Christmas Eve, what shall we do darling? I know, let’s go and make another ‘No Through Road’ video. Oh, all right then, if we’ve nothing better to do. Of course in the wilds of China, far away from big cities, there is no Christmas so the walk was the plan. The route was to be another landfill mountain route, aiming for a dried up reservoir. We passed a new snack shop on the way; we are now losing count of how many such shops we have here. Huan took a photo of a couple of cows but I decided the first photo of the week should be this one. It is the approach to the turnoff on the landfill road; the second photo is not far after the first.

Our first attempt was a wrong one and all we found were some ducks.

Pretty soon we were back on track and heading upwards.

We didn’t find what we were expecting; there was no reservoir, full or empty.

On our way down we tried a path that we had mentioned on the way up as another possible route to the reservoir. It turned out to be the right path but it was gated and locked so we had to give up. If we were still younger we would have considered scaling the fence or the gate but I decided that those days are long gone now. We continued downwards, much easier than upwards!

Suddenly Huan found what she had been looking for all day!

Not to be outdone, I found a little birdie.

For a more detailed version of today’s walk, go here - https://youtu.be/cro2bEX_wik

I was the duty chef today, what do you think we had for Christmas Eve dinner? You’ll never guess, Huan had chosen what I should cook, liver and onions. Strange to think how as kids in the UK we all hated it. I guess because it was so dry and herbs and spices were almost unheard of when we were young. My only problem here is trying to do everything with one hob. First the potatoes and carrots had to be boiled prior to mashing them. That was followed by the frying of the garlic and onion, lots of both. The liver, chopped and marinated in soy sauce, a little vinegar and barbecue seasoning (I think) was then added to the mix. Finally, the worst part of the meal (for us today) the terrible peas from a can were microwaved. It all looked pretty good plated up but I hardly think you need to see liver and onions. If you do, tell me and I’ll make sure to take a photo next time!

December 25^th A Merry Christmas Day to all! For us it was just another day at the office, well, at the office for me and in the living room for the boss. After the customary boiled eggs for breakfast (at the uncustomary time of lunch) we set off for a walk around the town. My only plan was a leisurely saunter, talk to dogs and look for Christmas things. I found a tree almost immediately, outside the fish restaurant.

I spotted a couple of small boys with a kitten so I barged in to their conversation. The one without the kitten was talkative. However, he didn’t want me going near the kitten; that belonged to his friend! After he offered me his hand and after I had shaken it and shaken his friend’s hand I managed to shake the kitten’s hand too! They were fun.

We walked down by the riverside and wondered if we could guess correctly whether or not the market would be open this coming weekend. My brain says no, but I’ll probably be wrong. There are a substantial number of people working to complete the pavements, you just can’t see them.

He was looking at me, and also looking very weak so Huan picked him up.

She then tried to put him into what she thought was a safe place. He is well camouflaged but he has nowhere to go except this one tree. We wished him good luck and went on our way.

With this being a town walk here is the weekly sluice gate update photo. They seem to doing very well, look carefully and you will see the floodlights for night time working.

Now then, what is this? Google is not very accurate for me today, it could be a Labradoodle, a Giant Poodle or just a Doodle. Please put us out of our misery. He was a big nervous baby to start with until he got used to me. According to his Dad he is almost fully grown. Also according to his Dad he is only one year old. One of those statements is surely wrong!

Let’s finish off with some Christmas photos shall we? Now, is this Santa trying to break into, or out of, the ‘yummy’ snack shop?

And then just down the road in front of another snack shop we found another Christmas tree. Yes, you’re right; we have far too many snack shops for such a small town.

And then after almost falling asleep in front of the computer we move from snacks to dinner. Huan was of a mind to cook something for us this year so I suggested sweet and sour fish. That was probably a lot easier than trying to switch her brain into ‘foreign’ mode and it works well enough for me. Of course she insisted that she add a couple more dishes so who was I to argue or complain. I enjoyed them all!

December 26^th Boxing Day! If you want to learn more about this day, Google is your friend, I found far too much to share here. As for us, well there was no walk in the countryside today. We had been invited out to an end of one year beginning of the next by于桂兰and赵德. I know it is rather early for either the western New Year or the Chinese one but who am I to argue. Besides, Yú and Zhào dé insisted and, it also saved either of us cooking! We did walk to the restaurant though, some exercise is a must. On the way we passed a car that I have driven in the past, in the UK, a Citroen Picasso. This one however had a bonnet display from the man himself!

Instead of showing you the people at the beginning, and mostly because I didn’t get a photo of them all until after lunch, I’ll show you the dishes first, a little different to an English spread.

Of course there was a big plate of rice too but in the Chinese way of doing things that came out after I had finished taking photos and sneaked out for a fag. Anyway, here are the people!

Yes, I was wearing red and my Christmas hat. I did try explaining to them that in the same way that Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival春节 (Chūnjié) as it is more commonly known here, traditionally lasts fifteen days, Christmas lasts twelve days. Most of them think that Christmas is only one day and that Spring Festival is four or five days!

For our final photo of the day, taken just before I went for a much needed solo afternoon sleep, (Huan said she didn’t need one but she did drop off on the sofa), ‘et voilà’ my socks!

December 27^th We might not have much Christmas here but after the last two days I had to have a Twixmas today and I told Huan that I was going to be just a homebody for a day. We did go out after dinner though just to buy some vegetables and bread for tomorrow’s big soup.

December 28^th The weather and our bodies are still playing up so we stayed in for the morning, Huan baked baps and I watched ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. I must say I quite liked it and the clever way of using the songs translated into Chinese. I did search for the sequels but it seems they are stuck in the twilight zone somewhere.

Having been lazy yesterday we both agreed a walk was mandatory today, although mountains were not! We met these three rays of light on the way, all three of them originate from different provinces and of course, being children, it means absolutely nothing to them. It was so nice to see them just ‘getting on’.

We passed through the first little village and before long we were in the countryside.

I was reasonably content to ‘saunter’ today; the director had other ideas and kept trying to find subjects for me. This one must have taken me over ten minutes just because of where it was!

Lo and behold, she found another one less than two minutes later!

Looking for somewhere different to walk I went through these trees and left Huan to walk on the road. Back on the road an old man told us that ‘it was very beautiful’ down the next lane so we followed his advice. Where I walked was fine, the beautiful spot had nothing to excite us really, especially with the construction going on.

Down another road that we had never travelled before, we found a family of cows. Unusually, the bull allowed me close enough to touch him, all the while making sure his calves were well protected I think. The calves soon ran way though and it was not my fault! This bull is the first bovine buddy that has seemed to like having his ears stroked as well.

Why did the babies run off? These two children, a brother and a sister, came haring down the lane because they had seen me and in doing so they startled the calves. Not to worry, no one was harmed and we had a nice chat.

Almost immediately after leaving this little lane, it was a cul-de-sac, we bumped into a couple of snowbirds. God only knows what I was describing here, neither of us can remember!

On our way home we had to cross a main road again where this gent on a motorbike screeched to a stop and asked me what my name was. I told him, he told us his name, we have both forgotten it already, we are bad! It took quite a few prompts for him to narrow my nationality down to British; he was all over the world. That is not unusual down here though. We couldn’t understand everything he was saying as he kept breaking into Hainan Chinese. All I understood was that he had probably had a glass or two!

Did you know that baby egrets are white when they fly and camouflaged when they land?

Approaching Luobote village the weather was cooling down well but neither of us minded.

Huan thinks we don’t get enough photos of birds, well pigeons are birds too!

Going through the village we were stopped by shouts of 等一下, Děng yīxià translates as ‘wait a moment’. Two young girls were chasing after us, they wanted to tell me that they had seen me before and they wanted a chat with us.

Today we will finish off with some flora and some fauna. The first flora is a tree (many trees actually) with red leaves and green ones, we do not know why.

The second is the one that includes the fauna. You can see that, it is a bee, don’t know what the plant is though, too lazy to look it up.

The third, and last, is a particular favourite of Huan’s, we just call them riverside plants.

Back home it was galley duty for me, cook up the vegetables that we bought yesterday, not a difficult job though to be honest. It is also one I happen to enjoy. I could enjoy it even more if we had gas, and the ball for that has started rolling again, albeit very slowly. Fingers crossed we will get somewhere this time. With gas we would have four hobs instead of just the single induction one we are using now. That’s it, an early night for me.

December 29^th Sunday, church day, but not for me. Having walked ten kilometres yesterday we decided to just do Lizard Alley today, and still ended up walking ten kilometres! First we checked on the footbridge over the tributary, it’s coming on well. Mind you, I do sometimes wish that they would use more traditional Chinese construction methods.

Down the road, path, river whatever, we found some more construction, something new. What are they building here? Could it be a road crossing to the other side?

Whatever they are building it interrupted our riverside walk and we had to walk on the road above again. It didn’t stop us seeing the bird though.

Eventually we returned to the lower level and Huan was lucky enough to spot her only lizard of the day. Even luckier for her I could see it well too.

Here’s one that Huan thought I would not get, granted I did have to crop a lot.

It looks as though we have small trees on the bridges for the New Year and not the usual flowers in plant pots. They still look quite nice though.

Egrets were doing us proud today; this one deserves two entries, one for just being there and the second for looking at me when I hooted across the water.

By this time we were back on town side of the river and walking home on the opposite bank where the construction is also coming on well.

Another egret with two entries, one flying and one having successfully landed.

Unfortunately we weren’t keeping an eye on exactly where we were walking and we came to the spot where they have been working on the new sluice gates. There are no stairs up there and no way to progress further forwards. However, there was this ladder…

“No!” came the warning, which I totally ignored.

A couple of minutes later I was wishing I had heeded the warning! Luckily, a snowbird who was a little younger than me helped me on the last bit. Huan missed him aiding me.

All that was left was another view of beautification on the tea street side of the river followed by Sunday afternoon playtime under the Little Island bridges.

December 30^th Shopping day again so I made a little list, checked it twice (or more) and off we set. Here I am outside the building showing you my smart keep me warm in the supermarket suit. For those of you sniggering about the ‘fanny pack’ or ‘bum bag’ whichever you may call it, I use that to carry the necessary paperwork when I am driving!

And there we have it, another week in paradise, well a slightly cool paradise to my liking, but we shouldn’t complain. I’m just sat here drinking my pre-dinner sherry wondering what to call this week’s post. How about ‘a few birds and a lot of food’? That’ll do, see you next time!