photographic highlights 2020–21: part 1

I shall be heading off to the UK for the summer in a few days, and as I’ve been doing for several years, I’ve put together a collection of the best photos taken over the past eight months. And although there aren’t as many photos in this collection as there were in last year’s, I’ve decided, nevertheless, to split it into two parts.

Following my usual practice, I haven’t included any photos that I’ve used to illustrate other posts, and the photos appear here in the order in which they were taken. Clicking on a photo will bring up an enlarged version.

When we walk into Fanling from our village, we pass a tiny pond in which someone has been keeping goldfish. However, the pond has also been colonized by toads, and Paula took the first photo while I was still under home quarantine after returning from the UK:

If I were to suggest a caption for this photo, it would be ‘toad in the hole’.

I took the next photo shortly after ending quarantine. It is a view of the Kam Tin River, looking downstream, and as you can see, there are a lot of egrets:

The next photo was taken in North District Park, by far the largest urban garden in Fanling/Sheung Shui. There are several trees like this, which have been deliberately planted on small knolls to emphasize their roots. And these roots have definitely been emphasized!

Whenever we cycle ‘out west’, we invariably detour down Tunafish Road, even though it’s a dead end, just because it’s quiet and relaxing, with no traffic. Just before the road reaches the frontier, there is a footbridge over the unnamed river that runs alongside the road, and I took this photo simply because I like the perspective effect, which focuses on a mysterious dark square in the distance:

Incidentally, to the left of the footbridge it’s Hong Kong, while to the right it’s China, hence the fine-mesh fence that you can see in the photo, to keep out intruders, one assumes.

Although I was never able to match Paula’s photo, this is my best photo of toads in the pond:

You can’t keep a good tree down. This tree stump, in North District Park, has clearly survived being cut down, and if it is left alone for a few years, then it will regenerate:

When its ‘frontier closed area’ status was rescinded in 2013, the ‘frontier road’ became a regular part of any cycling excursion. However, we’ve tended to avoid this road this year, because construction of a new science park has meant frequent encounters with eight- and ten-wheeled tipper trucks, which have created a huge number of potholes on a road that was never built to carry such heavy vehicles. This is a view from the road, with Shenzhen on the horizon, taken on one of the few occasions when we’ve cycled this way:

It would be easy to suggest that I took the next photo somewhere in England, but for one thing: there are at least half a dozen cattle egrets in the photo:

I used to think that these cows were feral—there are feral cows in other parts of the New Territories—but in this case it would be more accurate to describe them as ‘free-range cows’, because I have seen them being herded from time to time.

Although our flat faces east, I’ve never been able to take any decent sunrise photos, so this is one taken by Paula:

Another reason for cycling along Tunafish Road is the opportunity to photograph wildlife. There is a large pond just before the road reaches the border, and although I’ve taken quite a lot of photos of grey herons here, I’ve chosen to feature this one taken by Paula because of its atmospheric qualities:

The next photo is a view of the river that runs alongside Tunafish Road, looking towards Shenzhen. You will probably have to look closely to spot the flock of ducks coming in to join the black-winged stilts in the water:

Back in November, I was sitting on our balcony when I heard the sound of a truck around the corner to the left. When it appeared, I noticed that it was towing a car, and I assumed that the car had broken down and was being towed to a garage for repair. Then two more tow-trucks appeared, and I rushed indoors to get my camera. I don’t think I’d have been able to take a decent photo if there hadn’t been a cyclist coming the other way (you can see him in the passing place), forcing the procession to wait:

And these cars aren’t being taken for repair. I come across scores of abandoned cars in almost every location I’ve ever visited. It appears to be the go-to option for someone who wants to get rid of their old car.

This photo of a relatively young banyan tree, which I took in a small park in Fanling, illustrates a key characteristic of the species: prop roots. Thin tendrils, which function as aerial roots, hang down from the branches, but once they reach the ground, they quickly thicken up:

I would be surprised if you can identify the subject of the next photo, which I took on a walk down our local river before everything was ripped down recently in the name of ‘development’, unless you’ve seen one before. It’s a tree ants’ nest, and it’s newly constructed. You can tell this because the white areas are secretions produced by the ants that darken quite quickly:

The next photo was taken in the village of Heung Yuen Wai, which we visit regularly as part of ‘the final frontier’ bike ride. It was in the frontier closed area until 2016 and is an interesting location primarily because of this tower, which I assume performed some kind of defensive function in more lawless (i.e. pre-British) times, although towers like this are extremely uncommon. The village shrine can be seen in the bottom right of the photo:

I was walking along a path in our neighbourhood when I saw what I thought was some kind of seed head, like the English dandelion. So I stopped to take a photo, but it was only when I looked at the photo that I saw the tendrils leading off the edges of the flower’s petals. Strange!

I’ve no idea where I took the next photo, which shows a tiny butterfly that is dwarfed by an elephant’s ear:

Although I wrote about ‘the gates of delirium’ in 2017, this gate, located on Ngau Tam Mei Road, is now the leading contender for this title:

Continued in Part 2.