What is happening now?

I have not been sewing as I should.

I have however, done several knitting projects and some crochet projects since being here.  I am not not sewing, just not as much as I should.  I guess it has to do with the fact that I have not got as many people around me who sew like back home and I have been much busier with things at WAB.  I also just signed on to the social committee in our compound and have taken up playing Mahjong every Friday in the compound.      I can certainly say I am busy.  There is no time to be bored here.

I have been working on a project which some of you have seen the seeds of.  It is a long term, hand work project.  I carry a little sewing kit around in my backpack......no longer carry a purse, not functional enough for my purposes.  I finally, actually, moved beyond the prep work stage and have started putting the pieces together.  Of course it is not without its pitfalls as you shall see!

I posted this picture last fall when I took it at the Llama Temple here in Beijing.  Which is also where the picture at the top of the blog was taken.  It was just a small area of tiled wall, it caught my eye.  I thought is was a good omen  at the time, in light of my project......

This picture is the cover of a box we received last fall during Mid Autumn Festival.  It was full of moon cakes, a gift from the compound management.  We sampled the moon cakes, we discovered we are not fans of moon cakes.  A very sturdy, well constructed box with a pretty picture on top to boot!  Of course I had to put it to use.  

It has, since then, been home to my growing stash of hexagons.

There is a bit of overflow!  Hence the need to start putting them together.

Of course this would not be a good way to make progress on a project!  You are asking how could she sew two pieces to the same spot?  I did not, things are not all connected on all sides and it is a bit like a jigsaw and the piece laying flat is connected only to one side and I guess not the one I added the standing one to.......this is not supposed to be three dimensional until I add the batting and backing!!

Unsewing was involved here.  Then more sewing.

And then we got this!!

And then, today, we got these!

When it rains, it pours!  So there will be no more sewing this evening.

Only perusing:)

Love, fondly, sinicerely,

Zaijian,

Ramona

P.S.

Air Quality index today was all over the place.   At 6:00 AM it was 516, at 9:00 AM it was 506

and at 10:00 it was 279!

At 9:34 PM...post time it is 26.

fēng tiān 

tiānqì

In the Name of Progress?

A lot can happen in a short time here.


Today I went to my favorite market to pick up some things for Mike.  I was not prepared for what I found!
As the driver pulled up to the gate where he always lets me out  it seemed very different.  At first I thought it was due to the early hour.  We were there much earlier than I had ever been before because we had to take Olivia to school at 7:00 so she could go to the airport for her band trip to Hong Kong.  Traffic was so good that we got to GE by 7:30 to drop off Mike and I got to the market by 7:50, definitely record time!  (Poor Mike more than made up for it by taking almost 2 full hours to get home...major traffic issue this evening)

So, back to the intent of my post, the market.  I was at Muxiyuan about three weeks ago , right before New Year/Spring Festival.  Many of the stores I frequented were packing up all their stuff and in others there seemed to be sales going on.  I can never really be sure what is happening unless I have a friend along who speaks Chinese.  My skills in that area are limited.  A bit frenzied.  I mentioned it to my friend and we thought maybe they were trying to get extra cash for the holiday as most people go back home (most people only work in Beijing and are from some other place and their families are not here) and don't work for two to three weeks.  People tell stories of their Ayi's going home for New Years and never coming back.....no notice just never show up again!  If I had only known what was going on I would have done things differently!

My favorite part of the Muxiyuan market has been reduced to rubble!

I could peek through the material they put up on the fence and this is what I saw.  So sad.  Frustrating as well because I now cannot find the shops I planned to go to.  I have no idea what the shop owners do now.  I think some got shop space in the sections not being razed as there was a great deal of activity in some spaces I wandered through.  New displays being constructed and cleaning of spaces as well.





 This is a closeup of the shot above.  In the center of the picture there is a man sitting amongst the rubble cleaning bricks.  You can see his black hat and shoulders around a pile of them.  

   

 These two shots show left (above) and right of where he is sitting.  I am sure in a day or two they will also be reduced to a pile to be sorted through.

Bricks.  Gleaned, cleaned and stacked, ready to be used again.  Are they going to reconstruct?  Put in a large indoor market?  A subway?  I am sure someone knows.

Here are two guys salvaging materials or recyclables.  You can now see clear across the space where a labyrinth of shops stood a mere three weeks ago.

All is not lost!  I came across this in my wandering and stood there quite a while before it hit me what these black things were.  It was newly poured cement and these were straw filled pads used for insulating the cement while it cured.  I don't remember this gaping space in the market before so perhaps they already cleared an area and plan to put up new shop space?  Anybody's guess!





Love, fondly, sincerely,
zaijian,
Ramona

Dongyue Temple

There are many Temple fairs during Spring Festival.

We went to one my friend recommended.  It was certainly an interesting place, go here to find out all about it.  I will just include some of my pictures here.

 There were these 'departments' around the perimeter buildings of the temple, they each did something for a specific condition or....whatever and they were full of these statues.  The  plaque went with the picture below.

 Juxtaposition of the old against the new.  Most of these buildings were rebuilt after the cultural revolution,  this temple in 2002, to look like the ancient structures.  I am sure the link will explain more.

 

It was a cold day in Beijing!

Love, fondly, sincerely,

zaijian,

Ramona

Jam

Wanted to go to Wangjing market......

Mike and I went on the subway, 地铁 yesterday to go to the big outdoor market in Wangjing......It was closed:(  We are not the only ones disappointed, however.  Several Chinese people were walking up to the entrance as we were.  Our theory is it closed early because it is still New Years Spring Festival Holiday.  So we walked around the area since we were there....We went into a market that said it was a Korean style grocery.  It seemed to me very similar to many markets around.  It may have had more Korean prepared foods....I am not sure as I do not know exactly what is what when I look at the myriad goodies in the grocers display.  We did find strawberries that seemed to be redder inside than those available outside the compound on the street. (they had some cut up to sample)  And they were on sale!  So we bought them and came home......  

..........upon arriving home, in less than an hour we had jam.

Love,fondly,sincerely,
Zaijian,
Ramona

Yumminess!

Strawberries!

It is time for strawberries.  I don't know where they come from as it is still very cold here in Beijing.  There are vendors on the street all day long. They are very white inside.  They are very delicious and very juicy.  We think they will make pale jam.

Love, fondly, sincerely,
zaijian,
Ramona

Fish for dinner anyone?

You never know what you will find where.

I saw these the other day on the street outside our compound.  I didn't have the camera with me.....Made a note to self to never leave the camera behind anymore....
As we zoomed past this in the car I said to the driver I want a picture of that when we go home......I forgot..he remembered!!  He stopped and pulled over a bit for me and chatted with the gentleman proferring these delectable looking morsels.  Certainly not your everyday.

I really wish I got a better picture.  I might try again another day.  As you can see the fish are slashed along their sides all the way through.  I do not know if these are for sale or display models.  Not being a big fish eater I wasn't especially concerned, got the shot for the novelty of it, just hanging off a truck sitting at the side of the road.......Bon Apetite!!



Love, fondly, sincerely,
zaijian,
Ramona
PS Notice we do have blue skies today, yipee!!!!!

Ice Fishing Beijing Style

On a cold day in February......
After the swim meet we walked to some furniture stores....(signs up, no pictures...no blog on them:()  not far from the school.  This is what we saw.

 I have no idea if these are ponds in the summer or not...will have to investigate it.  They appear to be dug in a field.  It is all fenced in, I guess they have to pay for the privilege of sitting out on the ice and freezing certain parts off!!  This 'pond' in the front with the lines across looks like it is waiting for more fishermen.

So there is still some nature in this massive city!

Love, fondly, sincerely,
zaijian,
Ramona

APAC

Asia Pacific Activities Conference
January 30 - February 1-2, 2013
Thursday, Friday and Saturday Olivia was at ISB here in Beijing at the APAC swim meet.
You can see the information about this meet here if you are interested.  
We are proud of her, she worked hard and swam hard despite missing practices due to having Pleurisy, click on the word so you can see what it is.  
She improved her time in three of her events and came in third in her heat for one of them.

Here are a few pictures.....I didn't have the best camera, I hope to get some pictures from my friend who's son is also on the team.

 Waiting on deck in her 'trench coat'.  There is so little down time between heats.  They line the kids up in the gym then they come in and line them up in seats along the far side of the pool from where we were.  Four sets of seats, numbered for the lane they will swim in and they move along as each heat takes to the diving block.  They even have baskets labeled with their lane, for them to put stuff in so it doesn't get all mixed up and they can clear off the deck rapidly.

Moving along freestyle. 

 Watching a team mate.

Not my pic but of the whole team.  She is one of two girls on the High School team. 

 Sitting in the seats on deck.  Sorry the shots are so dark, I was shooting into the windows with a small camera.

She is standing next to the #5 starting block.

 In lane 5.

Coach Vincent and her fellow female team mate.






Love, fondly, sincerely,
zaijian,
Ramona