January 21st “Another opening, another show,” ooops, we’re not doing that one tonight are we. My brain is doing its usual ‘empty vessel’ impression, very common these days. We both do seem to be sleeping better on our new mattress. Of course it could just be that the nasty bug has left us both exhausted! We went for a morning stroll via the bathroom shops again, to see if we could find a decent mirror cupboard combination. Almost immediately we saw something we had never seen before, an egret on the power cables. Heavily cropped I’m afraid.
At the roasted fish restaurant we were so early this morning that their doors were closed. I had never seen them like that before so had never seen their fashionable door handles.
Our first car of the week, this one featuring some rather faded cats.
Bathroom shops failed us so we went to the market instead. Spot the mask wearers. Actually there are not many although I was one of them, not to protect me but to protect others from me!
Now we have another egret for you, the second of the day.
The weather has certainly taken a turn for the better, just look at it.
Would you believe we found a third egret, possible related to the second one. There is only one photo of this one, mostly just because I like this photo, ‘stepping out in style’.
Well, we didn’t find any lizards, squirrels or snakes today but we did OK for white birds. We did hear many more in the trees, the smaller ones that are not easy to see never mind photograph. Back home, after lunch Huan had a nap, I couldn’t due to my leg again. For those of you worried about my leg, (little sisters), I will visit the hospital after the Chinese New Year holiday.
Chef Bob was on duty again today, a very simple one, shrimp fried rice. There’s even a photo for you this week. Can you spot the errors? Error number one of course is not really an error; it’s just Huan’s choice of rice. I would prefer plain white rice but she is convinced that multicoloured rice is far healthier for us. The second error comes down to me choosing the shrimps in Baijiahui from their freezer and not noticing that they still had their shells on. It wasn’t a problem for me, I just eat the shells anyway, but Huan had to remove them. Both of us enjoyed the dish!
January 22nd Huan had a plan, we were going to do the Rendishan walk today. No arguments from me so when I got up and padded off to the kitchen to make our morning coffee I was quite surprised to find that the plan had failed. Today is 小年 Xiǎonián in the Chinese calendar, this translates as Little New Year, it is the whole week before the actual New Year. Huan had decided that she needed to make dumplings hence the failure of the Rendishan plan. We did still get out though, for a local countryside walk. Yesterday we had an egret ‘stepping out in style’ and today we have Huan doing exactly the same.
As we were walking we noticed that more work had been done on our dam so altered our route to take another look. It looks like we will have a landscaped outflow too.
Our altered route was quite pleasant today, we even saw some moos.
And to our surprise more birds, the first of which we have only seen in Nansheng before.
Do you sometimes see things and wonder what they are for? These look like the preparatory foundations for something very big. Could it be a railway bridge? Somehow we doubt it.
Here’s a shot for memory’s sake. A long time ago I walked along this ditch, Huan stayed on the road. On the pipe in the centre I spotted a snake, and froze of course. I never did get a photo of it. To this day I won’t walk that way again.
Chinese farms, at least in
This route gave Huan her turkey fix, it would be weekly if she could arrange it or maybe even daily. The second one was taken through a fence but still worked out fairly well.
From a big bird we move to a little bird.
Heading through Luobote village on the way home we had a request to take photos from three young girls. There are only two in the photo, the other one changed her mind and became shy. The girls will not see the photos and it was the taking of it that interested them so I made Huan accompany them for a change.
On the way out we had seen ‘normal’ cows and on the way back we found a ‘water’ one. Unusually this one was quite placid, I would guess because the farmer was not far away and there was no family around that I could be a danger to.
Huan had another express delivery so we were heading back along the exact same path towards our gate and the courier lockboxes. I do enjoy this walk though.
And our last photo for today is our very own gate, all nicely prepared for next week.
January 23rd I suggested Feicui Park Clockwise for our walk this morning and Huan agreed. It has been a long time since we went there. Of course she started ‘directing’ long before we got anywhere near there, starting with this too small and too far away little birdie.
I didn’t argue about the next one though.
Just above the tree tops I spotted another little bird, a beautiful red and white one.
Here’s a question for you. Does the driver of this car really believe in what he (or she) is advocating for or is he (or she) merely living up to Tesla Model Y expectations? Another question could of course be why does the cat have a halo when we all know who is the real trouble maker in any domestic environment!
Some pareidolia for you now although I am not sure if you can call it that when someone has purposely done it. Certainly from the opposite direction it looked real.
“Can we go up the mountain on this little railway Mummy?” As you can see, the warning sign says no, people are not allowed. What’s the betting that the farmers ignore the sign?
Back on the road the crowds were increasing and the scenery was just as beautiful as always.
Soon we were at the bridge, the crossover point. Well that is what it is for us anyway. For our visiting snowbirds it seems to still be the local ‘free’ car wash.
At the bridge it was definitely a family day out for many.
Only one photo was taken on the way down, partly because we didn’t see much but also because we were chatting to people for a lot of the way.
Back in town it was quite clear to see that the New Year is almost upon us. People were all over the place and traffic was busy too.
Nap time after lunch but I had to surrender to the leg again and leave Huan to it. Once again I was duty cook, chilli con carné a la Bob avec du riz. However, once again also, there is no photo; it was not easy to see the boundary between the two parts of the meal.
January 24th Huan woke up in the middle of the night, or so it seemed, and left me to slumber on. My ENT was marginally improved but all medicines had run out so Huan dragged me, kicking and screaming, back to her clinic. The lady doctor was not there but the gent was and he managed to find me on the computer. You might think he is diagnosing my problems here, you’d be wrong. He was asking about the camera and the picture sizes.
Soon, with three new batches of medicines, we were on our way.
Along with the medicines from the clinic came a list of instructions. While taking these drugs I was not allowed to have any eggs, fish or meat, so basically not a lot of protein. We had to take a walk through the market and buy an assortment of tofu! Aren’t I the lucky one?
Walking back along the riverside Huan managed to find a squirrel. I did not manage to take a decent photograph of it though.
We heard a lot of birds today, even occasionally saw them between the leaves of the trees. However, none of them would stay in one place where we could see them for long enough. Yet again we had to make do with an egret!
On the path below us I spotted a man doing something strange, at least it appeared so from a distance. Huan initially thought he was a workman with some sort of cable. Getting closer I had to look over the top and see what he was up to.
Today was a ‘help the people’ day for me, twice I asked someone if they needed help to get some photographs that included whoever was there. Huan only caught me on this couple, I’m not at all sure what expression the man is using but they were both very happy with the shots I took.
“What have they done to my song, Ma?” I know, it’s not really right, but I couldn’t think of a song about my tree! The municipality do trim the trees now and then, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them shave the left behind branches. And that’s your lot for today.
January 25th Today was our last chance to create the market video, not the New Year market but the normal riverside Saturday market. It will not be open again until the holiday is over.
It was very busy, too busy for us to stop and find out what was going on here.
Did I mention that it was busy?
And this is the point at which I surrendered and called it a day. The fingers are explaining.
And here we are escaping the throng, still without some of the veggies needed for my ‘doctor ordered’ vegetable soup. We could at least get them in the indoor market. The video, mostly of people, can be found here - https://youtu.be/RTnw6wU_ZvI
At least somebody was pleased with his day.
After lunch and a nap I got busy in the kitchen with the big pot. In went potatoes, white radish, carrot, garlic, onion, celery, cabbage, parsley and some cherry tomatoes left in the fridge. Once it was all cooked I gave it a burst with the Braun whizzing machine, no lumps. I tried mine, as Huan had suggested, with tofu ‘croutons’, I won’t be doing that tomorrow!
After dinner, salvation arrived; we had been without internet for almost twenty four hours. I coped fairly well, got stuck into some ‘Ian Rankin’, Huan found it much harder. Anyway, the main problem was elsewhere but when they fixed that ours still didn’t work. These are the times when I wish that I could read Chinese; somehow the router needed re-setting up. The ‘boss’, for that is what Huan said he is, soon had us up and running again.
January 26th We, or I, had planned to video the New Year market today but the weather took a turn for the worse and Huan was busy in the kitchen. Thinking about tomorrow, our normal shopping day, we decided after our dinner (still vegetable soup) to go today. We managed to find a place in the car park, more by luck than judgement. I was dreading the crowds inside but it turned out to be much easier than we thought it would be. Weighing vegetables took no time; mind you many shelves were empty. We would still have to out tomorrow for some extra stuff but that could be from the market.
Back home, the shopping was unpacked, and then we checked the clouds all around us.
January 27th What has happened to our tropical island in the sun? The sun has disappeared and when we went out this morning the temperature was down to 10⁰C, jackets were needed! With New Year’s Eve being tomorrow I thought we should make the video today, so jacket on, cap as well, off we headed.
The street with the New Year market is closed off at both ends but we still had to wait while someone reversed his car out, must have been a very early riser. Unlike Saturday though, we could move around quite freely and not be ‘guided’ by the crowd.
Now then, would you prefer lucky chocolates or a red envelope?
The local pet shop was also there. Just like western children I guess that Chinese children will often ask for a pet for the New Year.
And how can you not be moved by those little eyes looking up at you?
The aquatic world was also represented.
Huan tells me that gifts are normally given tomorrow evening, only for children though, so the market caters for them too.
There are children’s games too, mostly throwing darts at balloons, shooting balloons or throwing hoops. The hoops were not very busy today; in fact the whole road was not very busy.
Huan and I had parted ways at the beginning of the New Year market; she had gone down into the indoor one to buy what we failed to get yesterday. With the top street done I headed off down to the lower shopping street to find her.
It was time then to head to the riverside where the New Year decorations are usually sold. The first thing we found was another traffic jam, that’s more than one this week! I have to say though that the local people keep their cool fairly well.
The riverside market was also not busy. Huan said that they were all shopping on the upper road and in the market! Somebody was watching us as we entered.
Some finger pointing next, first at the couplets that people put either side of their front doors and then at what is supposed to be a snake.
Someone that you always want on your side as the New Year arrives!
Some people don’t just go for the couplets and the ‘福’, they like to put pictures on their walls too. They could be military, political, Chairman Mao, scenic or New Year related like this one.
Let’s have another finger pointing exercise. Here I am explaining to the viewers that I like Chinese decorations more than English ones purely because of the ease of putting them up and then taking them down again. Of course, they probably do take more space in the shed.
As we move from the year of the dragon into the year of the snake we’ll also take a last look at the snake here. There is a clue, look at its tongue.
We finished our video down by the river, my eyes look terrible. I must have been between blinks. You can find it here - https://youtu.be/9_pIiBv6fTo
So, 明年见, míngnián jiàn, we will see you next year! If you are celebrating tomorrow, 过年好, Guònián hǎo, Happy New Year!
