December 3rd How can we always be so tired when we have no more ‘real’ work to do in our lives? At least Huan was up before eight today, I was glued to the mattress again. We decided an afternoon walk would be the best choice today and headed off towards the mansions on the hill.
Out on the other side of the mansions Huan found her lizard of the day. I swear that sometimes I have no idea how she finds them. Until I messed around on the computer at home this little fellow was almost the same colour as the foliage and therefore invisible. It was a little easier when he moved to the other side of the plant though.
We found a bird soaring high above us, or should I say Huan found it. I did my best to take a video for her, not good enough for the internet unfortunately. I also took quite a few photos bit only one is even remotely worth sharing with you. You may need to click to enlarge.
Scenery of course doesn’t move and so you can have better photos of that, well most of the time anyway. I can still get that wrong too and without trying too hard to do so!
I was aiming for a gif here, there were two versions, Huan preferred this one.
In the distance I could hear a lot of dogs, when I found them they appeared to be one family. There was no house nearby so perhaps they came from the television building. There were at least two or three more that I couldn’t fit into the frame.
Now we had been trying for these all afternoon and out of the many photos that I took only this one was good enough for you to see their faces. A longer lens is on my wish list but I’m afraid a new toilet has to come first!
I was in the kitchen when we got home, it was an easy one. Yesterday, in the market, we had bought a pre-cooked chicken so it was to be half each. They are small chickens! All I had to do was cook some carrot, some potato and then use the same water for some frozen peas. That’s one we won’t be buying again, tinned peas are so much better. Still, we both ate the lot and enjoyed every last morsel. No photos were taken as I’m sure you know how to boil some veggies!
December 4th Hearing the nurses’ school wake up music at half past six this morning I though I was up very early, early enough for Huan to have a bus‘n’walk day. I was wrong; I must have dozed off again. Still, we were up early enough for a stroll around lizard alley; we haven’t been that way for a while. On the way down the main road we found a skink. I think you have more than likely seen him before but he is a handsome fellow so here he is again!
The bridge across the tributary and its associated walkway is slowly coming on.
Success of a kind was achieved with another egret today. There was only one but we took a few photos so here are two of them for you to peruse for your pleasure.
Our riverside path is improving each time we walk here. You can see it on the right in this photo. It is not quite finished yet but it shouldn’t be long now. Also down between the old upper pathway and the new ‘in the river’ walkway you can see that they have planted some foliage. It looks to me like riverside grass, should be beneficial to erosion protection and also to nature and wildlife.
These next two pictures give you an overview as to how it will all look when it is complete. Of course you can see it better if you come and walk along it yourselves!
Our last photo for today is of the man from the water testing team. We hung around for a while to see if he would go back across the river in his little rubber boat, or if the ‘torpedo’ would be lifted back to its home base. In the end we got bored and went home!
December 5th Donald was returned to us this morning. It seems that his lethargy was caused by us! When the garage charged the battery they noticed the rear door alarm, closed it properly and continued the charge. After two days he still started with no problems. I guess we must have left the tailgate ajar when we took the shopping out on Monday. Still, all’s well that ends well and we were not presented with a bill.
We decided a drive ‘n’ walk would be the order of the day and headed off to Maodao. Finding a car park was easy enough and we then walked around the town.
We knew there was a river nearby and found a way to it.
It was a pleasant walk.
We even had a chat on the way. Huan didn’t manage to get us both in the frame, I had to join two frames together to avhieve this. The gentleman farmer was just telling us that he was planting radishes which in Chinese begin with a very similar sounding character as the first of my name. Radish starts with Luó (萝) and my name starts with Luó (罗) so here I was trying to say as much to the old gent. I doubt I got through but we both enjoyed the chat!
Just a little further there was an old ford, still visible on Google maps in fact, so we thought we would turn left and try and get back to the town. This is what the clear road on the map looked like in real life, no way through there!
Back to the river we went where we found a fisherman’s temporary shelter.
We came across the fisherman just a few minutes away and he told us that there was no way back up to the main road, at least in this direction. Going back we spotted this little gap so I thought it might be the way to go.
Before reaching the crest of that little gap, we had to fight our way past this fellow.
Unfortunately the going did not improve at all; in fact it got increasingly harder. In this picture, taken after we eventually arose out of the foliage, we would have been heading from the right side towards the left. Take note of the banana tree.
And here is the same tree again; we came up on the right hand side of it. The only way I made it up the slope was with the aid of a farmer’s tree planting tool that I found on the way. I was able to use that to lever myself upwards and then extend an arm to help Huan behind me. You can see the tool in the second photo, we stuck it into a water drainage hole in the wall otherwise we quite possible would not have succeeded in climbing out there.
This was me before I took those last three photographs, lying down on the job again. To say I was exhausted would be an understatement. Poor Huan was so worried about me that she kept asking if she should call 120, the emergency ambulance number.
I didn’t fall asleep and after a few minutes I was OK to get up and continue our walk back to where we had left the car. Imagine our surprise at finding out that we had only walked 2.2km to get this far, and it took us far longer than usual! Luckily the return along the road was much shorter and before long we found life. The geese belonged to the couple running the little roadside shop, where we gratefully bought some water. I am telling her here that all dogs, whatever their nationality, understand English, while asking the pooch about his black feet.
Just a little further on we were in the town and ordering our lunch. Neither of us wanted much, here’s Huan holding up two Bāozǐ and two boiled eggs.
Back home naps were needed, but first I had to have a shower to wash off all the bits of leaves, the dirt and the blood. Following that, my nap was unsuccessful. I think Huan may still have been worried, every time I coughed, moved are snored she asked if I couldn’t sleep, if I was OK. I bet we’ll sleep well tonight!
December 6th Not an early start today, we both slept longer than usual, that must have been the effects of yesterday still wearing on us. A little shopping was needed, salad makings for the weekend and more Christmas sweeties, so we kept to the town. We did start off by going over Little Island though where I found a lizard! I was not very sure which photo to show you so here are two of them, which one do you prefer? I just love the ‘pose’!
I spotted a little fellow talking to his kitten, maybe trying to share his apple with it, so I stopped by to say hello too. In the second photo he is asking the kitten to come down.
Just outside the Pearl River Crystal Hotel Huan spotted a butterfly that didn’t seem to be moving much. Closer inspection showed that it was missing nearly half of one of its wings. Huan asked me to see if I could hold it but when I tried it did successfully fly off.
Speaking of the aforementioned hotel, we have not shown you the swimming pool for at least three years now, maybe more. Do you think swimming is good for people with dodgy hips? Maybe we should venture there once again.
From one water feature to another, our last photo of the day. This is a minor update on the new sluice gates, or whatever the correct terminology is for them. The first half of the river is now complete. They have demolished the temporary dam and started building a new one on the other side. I must say progress is much faster than I thought it would be.
December 7th Saturday is market day, is everybody happy, you bet your life we are! We were up early enough to take a long route to the market but the master baker decided to bake some bread rolls so we took the usual route instead. My first subject was this little dragonfly and I really thought I had missed it. I had just a second to snap only one shot but it came out well.
Is someone drying a carpet in the new car park overlooking the river? It almost looks like it but it would appear that they are going to paint the surface and by the looks of the three stripes at the front they have not yet decided on the final colours.
Huan thought that this jackfruit tree had so many small fruit on it that it would never grow a ‘full size’ one. She didn’t spot the keys though.
At the market the crowds were already swarming, luckily we didn’t need much today.
I asked Huan what was in this large bin and she told me that it was soy beans and that the guy was making soy sauce. While had been watching I had only seen him putting beans in jars so he gave Huan a demonstration and poured some sauce for her.
The poor chap was probably disappointed that we didn’t buy any after his hard work but we have soy sauce already in the kitchen cupboards. What are they doing here? It appears that they are ‘cooking’ the sugar cane but we were not sure if was so that people could chew on it warm, (they usually chew on it cold) or if it was to make squeezing the syrup out easier to make drinks.
Maybe it is time to make another ‘walking through the market’ video, what do you think? Our last photo of the day is a table of assorted content. On the left are different kinds of teas, on the right are different types of alcohol. In the small jar is some sort of alcoholic rice and then sealed up in the bamboo tubes is yet more alcohol, this one at 52% proof.
December 8th A day late
bringing this post up to date again. What happened yesterday then? Well we were
up early enough for Huan to have one of her bus ‘n’ walks so off we went to the
bus stop where I found this. I guess it is some kind of anime again but why is
outside the
At the end of the journey I realised where we were and Huan realised that we were in the wrong place. It’s nice enough for a walk though.
It may not have been obvious in that last photo but there are various types of water fowl there. Huan had been aiming for peacocks but we had arrived at Shuǐ yún jū mínsù jiǔdiàn, a resort with a big water slide and some black swans. My hip did not want to walk up any big hills today so we stayed low and looked at birds.
We also investigated an egg but could not decide what it was. To us it looked a bit small to be a duck egg and we have no idea what size swan eggs are. There were no chickens around.
Huan had taken some of her breakfast stuff to try and feed the birds. I’m not sure but I think the birds are more intelligent than we are! Some of it was eaten but far less than I expected.
The ducks meanwhile were keeping their distance.
Could this be a clue, were they swan’s eggs after all?
Looking back as we left the company of the swans we noticed that the ducks had plucked up enough courage to nibble on the snacks.
Last time we were here we did not try the ‘west gate’ because we knew from the outside that it was closed. Today we thought we would give it a try. On the way we passed a few trees with holes in them, like these two. Google was no help whatsoever, what do you think?
The pedestrian traffic on this road was nil. The only people we saw were the cleaning crews who told us that there was no way out on this side.
Now youngsters would have no problem whatsoever getting out, but the boss and I are not so good at climbing anymore. However, we are good at squeezing our bellies in and getting through small spaces, like this one between the old wooden table attached to an old metal gate and the workings of the barrier.
If you greatly enlarge that last photo you might well see a few ants. However, I think we ended up with most of them on our clothes. We did get out though!
Now all we had to do was find those elusive peacocks. Will this suffice?
No? Ah well, I didn’t think so. Back in Nansheng we found a new path by the river.
More teeny birdies were seen, even this vain one looking in the mirror.
Our plan was to walk upriver to the bridge in the distance and then back down the other side before lunch. As you can see by the second photo, we had to go back the same way. Even we could not squeeze through the bamboo thicket.
More birds were found on the way back so our tame ornithologist was happy.
Once again back in Nansheng it was time for lunch, pork for Huan with radish, tofu and rice, chicken for me with cucumber, tofu and rice. Spot our stainless steel SUS304 labelled dishes.
Waiting for the bus we remembered where the peacocks were, just
across the road from the bus stop in an apartment complex called
What’s going on? Why are they all taking off in a hurry? Is it me? No, the king had arrived!
With the time approaching noon most of the peacocks had begun hiding from the sun but here’s a couple more for you. It’s funny but without the tail being displayed I find the white on prettier than the other birds. I wonder what the peahens think.
Speaking of hens, here’s a tame one displaying her colours and for once, because she is not wearing her hat, you can see her smile!
Before we returned to the bus stop I found a path for us to follow at some time in the future. Hopefully there will be no snakes down there!
Of course Huan to ‘get me’ again so here I am pointing out the name
of the apartment complex, 孔雀城, Kǒngquè
chéng or as previously mentioned,
Naps were needed after lunch today as we had been a few days without them. For me, after coffee, it was into the bath with some lavender bubbles. I haven’t had a bath for a long time and I felt that it might benefit my weary hipbones a little.
December 9th Monday, last day of the Blog week, and shopping day. Lots of snowbirds in the supermarket today but we got through fairly quickly. Outside I had to take a photo, or three. I wonder if you have seen this car badge before.
It is the badge of this car, a Songsan SS Dolphin, based on a 1958 Chevrolet Corvette.
Now to maybe disappoint you. It is, in fact, made by BYD; the
Songsan designers do not have a manufacturing licence. Being made by BYD it is
a hybrid EV, no V8 under that hood. It is also only front wheel drive. “Sacré
bleu!” I hear you cry. As for me, well I would be glad to own it; proud to
drive it, if only it was anywhere near what’s in my wallet! The cost, even here
in
After an afternoon of bringing everything up to date it is now time to love you and leave you. We’ll be back soon so don’t go too far. TTFN.
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