My Birthday present

Well, it was a long time ago.....
I haven't shared what Mike got me for my birthday.  I have been wanting a set of scrolls.  The only requirement was traditional Chinese design. I have seen many that I really liked but could never commit to any set in particular.  Mike has rescued me from my conundrum.

And the best thing is, when I came home from the States he had hung them up for me:)  He is so nice to me.  I tried to make a bigger picture but all the stuff on the side ends up on the picture...not good.

I need to get closeups, that is for another day.

Love, fondly, sincerely,

Zaijian,

Ramona

Oh My Gosh it is November!

And I have certainly been neglecting things! Specifically, this blog:(

We have been busy living our lives...isn't that what we all do?

As you can see by the new picture at the top of the blog I went with Keary back to the pumpkin place.  We packed two cases of apples, some bags of the squash we cook down for pumpkin recipes, some bags of apples, some bags of a fruit that isn't quite a peach, and a whole lot of pumpkins into the back of her van.  We felt a bit selfish not inviting someone else to come along but we knew there would be a spacial challenge involved in fitting more people and more pumpkin in.  This is the back of the van with squash and pumpkins all the way up to the seats.  This is the lady that sold them to us.  She thought we were cute.  Especially me and my lousy Chinese.  She liked us so much she gave us several of the pumpkins!!  I made applesauce, and apple crisp.  Peachy crisp and baked then smushed the pumpkin.

My sunglasses broke a couple months ago and Olivia has been wanting a pair of sunglasses and glasses are CHEAP here.  Or maybe I should say inexpensive for prescription glasses at Glasses City.  Sadly I have no pictures of Glasses City.  I will get some when I take Mike to get some new glasses.  It is a huge building that is full of little glasses shops like all the other market places to shop around China.  I have a friend from Finland who can test your eyes and write your prescription for glasses.  (We actually went to the Dr. to have them done here.)   She used to work at Glasses City so I asked her to go there with me and show me how it is done.  The advantage of going with her was I didn't even have to bargain, they gave me the best price right off the bat.  So nice not to have to haggle. But today I can post pictures of me and Olivia in our new sunglasses and Olivia in her new glasses.

These are the new glasses....umm, I know that is obvious they are not sunglasses! They have purple bows:)

These are the sunglasses in case you weren't sure:)

I think they are cute!

She is happy, she has never had prescription sunglasses before.

This is her glasses case, it looks just like my new glasses case....so to solve the problem of not knowing whose was whose I made a little charm for hers from beads I brought.

My new sunglasses:):)

They are taking a bit of getting used to because they are brown lenses, never had them before always the blue/gray sort.

I will try to be better.

(I keep saying that.....)

Love, fondly, Sincerely,

Zaijian,

Ramona

The Railroad Museum

Mike discovered a museum.

Mike likes to go out exploring on the bike on Saturdays.  With the map apps on his phone this is fairly easy to do.....I have no such phone so don't get too far from home on my own.  

One Saturday he found this museum, it was a bit late in the day so he came home and we planned to go the next Saturday.  It is only about a half hour from here by bike.  It was a beautiful sunny day with real, puffy clouds...such a rarity.

The roads being what they are here I didn't take pictures while riding.  Some of them didn't have bike lanes so it is a bit precarious,what with people constantly passing on the right and just about running you off.....

I forgot to take a picture of the sign at the entrance....I am so  bad at documentation!  I did , however, get some signs inside.  Most of them were along these lines....we really couldn't quite figure out what they were trying to tell us, we just haven't learned out characters.  Although we do know it happened in 1947.

However, all was not lost because some signs were significantly easier for us to read....ok, ok I know it isn't technically a sign in the truest sense of the word but it certainly got our attention:)

Gee, I wonder where this train was made??

Or this part below??

 A very large wheel.  I thought the gear looked cool:)  It belonged to the train below.

The shot below is just a China moment I thought was a bit amusing.   He went in and determined it wasn't where he belonged....it is hard to see here but the sign says 'women's toilet'.  So he popped back out and just decided this was the best place to go!  I don't know if he thought he had privacy or not, probably didn't care.  This was directly out the window of the wall of windows at the end of the museum:)

This was a metal plate or tag showing the weight capacity of whatever train it came off of..why would I post this shot?  Because I could actually read it of course.

Need I say more?

Mike, wearing his Virginia Tech hat, holding his Virginia Tech water bottle in front of a GE train.  Yup, bases covered!

 The ride back, my view of Mike, and me....There was actually this section with a good bike lane and fairly light traffic so I braved a shot.  Still enjoying the brilliant blue beyond.

We topped off the day by going to the school to listen to our friends son play in his band at the WAB Community Picnic then heading out to dinner.

Xiao Qing and Keary

Us:)

Love, fondly sincerely

Zaijian,

Ramona

Mike's new plant

In case you are wondering....... 

The new picture on top of the blog is Mikes plant in Tianjin.  Not a lot there yet but this picture and the ones below are a few months old.  I will get him to take some new ones so I can post when we go home.

Mike on the left and a couple of his guys from South Carolina on the right.  The two next to Mike are from his Beijing team.  I cannot tell you exactly what is going on in the construction stuff.  I think he is going there this coming week so I will have him take more pictures.

Love, fondly, sincerely,

Zaijian,

Ramona

Life in China in no particular order.....

Tianamen Square....

Mike had a visitor from Florence come to work for a couple weeks so we took him around to see some sights one Saturday in June.   As with any excursion with Mike we walked, a lot...it was hot.  There is so much to see here in Beijing.  Such a huge city....

A typical hazy day making the sky appear white.  These are flower balls and pillars.  I will have to come back in the winter to see if they leave the structure up that the flowers are in.  Sometimes these are just pot holders...but they sure make them look interesting.

Mike being Mike in the Square.  There is a sculpture he is mimicking.  I don't seem to have taken a picture of it, next time:)

Our visitor....Mike and Mike, (I can't remember his last name).  In front of the Bell Tower.

The Drum Tower.   These two towers sit across from each other.  We didn't go in them but I believe you can.

Bells and drums were musical instruments in ancient China.  Later they were used by government and common people as timepieces.  The Bell and Drum towers were the center of Chinese chronology during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.  The Bell and Drum Towers continued to function as the official timepiece of China and government until 1924, when the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty was forced to leave the Forbidden City and western-style clockwork was made the official means of time-keeping.  You can read more about them here.

Love, fondly, sincerely,

Zaijian,

Ramona

Long time no write.....

I stayed busy
at my parents and was just not too interested in posting.....several people have gotten after me about that...one in particular knows who she is;)

This will just be about the things I did there.  I am in Florence now.

1) I made a big wood pile with some help from Ptarmigan and Dad.  In blistering heat.
2) I made two pairs of booties
3) I finished the quilt!!
4) I made some skirts for my great nieces.
5) I cleaned up a lot of brush, branches, bark and decaying pine needle glop from the wood splitting area.
6) I did other things like mow the lawn but there are no pictures of that stuff:)
7) I drove to Indiana.....and back of course.  We didn't stay for ever!
8) I saw the sewing machine I helped my niece to win;)  (no pic)

It doesn't show well but behind me is a small hill covered with branches from pine trees.  Been there a couple years and half rotting away.  You can see it a little better below.   I hauled it and more down back to compost....see the shot below.  90 plus everyday.  Dad ran the lever, I hefted logs.

From the upstairs window the day after I carted much brush down to the compost.

The day after Ptarmigan and I finished cutting and sawing, she saws, I don't.  Then I hauled off more brush and tons of bark.

Three pallets wide and two deep.  There is a bit more room for more, there is more to split!

Ready no matter the gender of whoever reproduces next!!!

Skirts for the great nieces.

Finally finished this quilt.  She was happy, slept under it the first few nights she had it even though it was so hot out:)

And gave away one I finished last summer....isn't she a doll?

Looking out my sisters kitchen window.

My parents and a niece:)

My sister and Stimpy.

My sister and her hubby with three of their girls.

My parents too!

Love, fondly, sincerely,

Zaijian,

Ramona