jeepers creepers #2

Even if I don’t have access to a calendar, I always know when Chinese New Year is approaching. It’s the firecracker vines, which have been flowering this year more than a week earlier than in recent years. They must be onto something, because the new year this year is almost as early as is possible. According to my calculations, the theoretical earliest date for Chinese New Year is 19th January, and this year it falls on the 25th January (the latest possible date is 14th February). In case you’re wondering, the date for Chinese New Year was set by imperial decree centuries ago: the second new moon following the winter solstice.

In my opinion, this is an arbitrary ‘rule’ that invalidates the entire system of assigning personality types to people born during the years associated with the various animals that constitute the Chinese zodiac. And the behaviour of the Moon has absolutely nothing to do with the unit of time we call the year, which is the time taken for the Earth to orbit the Sun. However, we are about to exit the year of the pig, and the year of the rat will start in less than two days, so here are some of the photos of firecracker vines that I’ve taken over the past few weeks, with exceptions noted in passing.

I had always intended to follow up my report on firecracker vines from three years ago, but I didn’t see any new examples, apart from the first two photos, the first of which I originally posted in Photographic Highlights: 2017–18. It is located at the top of an alleyway that connects the Ng Tung River with Fu Tei Au Road, and it really belongs here:

…and this photo was taken last winter in an area east of Ki Lun Shan Au (Saddle Pass) that I’d only just started to cycle through. Paula rode past without noticing it:

The remaining photos were taken in the past few weeks and are presented in chronological order.

The first two photos were taken in an informal car-parking area in my neighbourhood:

…while the next two, also taken in my neighbourhood, are the result of my attempt to find a mysterious tower that I’d learned from Google Maps is located hereabouts:

You will notice that the colours appear washed out whenever the flowers are in direct sunlight. And I never did locate the tower: not for the first time, I discovered that the ‘balloon’ on Google Maps is in the wrong place! The purple counterpoint in the second photo is provided by bougainvillea.

The next photo was taken on a path that I imagine very few people know exists, even if they live in the area:

…while this is a photo of the same vine, viewed from the opposite direction, that I took last winter:

The next photo shows the entrance to Mr Lee’s garden from the inside:

This is the best that I’ve seen his firecracker vine. By the way, in case you’re wondering, the red Chinese characters on a yellow background read ‘Lee’s garden’.

I photographed the next example on the long and winding road a few days ago:

Although it is very striking as you come down the hill towards it, the bulk of the display seems to be facing inwards and therefore cannot be photographed.

The next photo was taken on the same day. It is located on Kwu Tung South Road close to the exit from swiss roll and is another example of washed-out colours under direct sunlight:

I included a photo of my neighbour’s firecracker vine in my previous report, but if you compare, this year it is much more spectacular:

All the remaining photos were taken yesterday during the bike ride I call ‘journey to the west’. The first three were taken at various points on the network of unnamed roads that lead, eventually, to Ki Lun Shan Au:

I photographed the third example for my earlier report, but I’ve included this follow-up just to show how much larger the vine has grown. Unfortunately, this photo illustrates another problem: when shooting into the sun, the effect is to darken the entire area you actually want to record.

The next photo was taken in the village of Shui Mei, close to the furthest extent of this bike ride:

…while this one was taken on the first of four consecutive narrow paths that we follow:

The final two photos were taken at different points along the Tam Mei loop, one of the detours that we follow on the return leg of journey to the west. Shooting into the sun was also a problem in the first of these, while I had to hold my camera over the top of a hedge and hope I’d captured what I wanted with the second:

The firecracker vines are fading now, so I don’t expect to take any more photos this year, but I’m sure that I’ll be looking to take more photographs next year, especially of those vines that I didn’t quite get this year.

other posts in this series
Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers #3
Jeepers Creepers #4: Part 1
Jeepers Creepers #4: Part 2