tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82909734590841314132024-03-19T06:36:40.941+08:00the view from fanling<br>idiosyncratic observations on life,<br><br>the world
and everything in betweenDennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.comBlogger724125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-69119473885168767112024-03-07T17:10:00.000+08:002024-03-07T17:10:14.022+08:00gathering of the clanA few days before Christmas last year, I was walking past the entrance to Kun Lung Wai, the walled enclosure in our village, and I couldn’t help but notice the pai bin next to the gatehouse:
I didn’t think anything of it at the time, because structures like this are fairly commonplace. However, whenever I walk back home from Luen Wo Hui, the district of Fanling nearest to our village, I tend to Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-55429972087843054672024-02-29T15:27:00.000+08:002024-02-29T15:27:17.147+08:00a flight of fancyThe other day, I decided to walk past one of the two completed apartment blocks that will eventually form part of the Fanling North NDA (New Development Area). Apart from these blocks, this whole patch is now a no-go area, which means that in order to reach Fanling from our village, we have to take a considerable detour. However, the path that I followed on this occasion doesn’t lead anywhere Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-33070543810951821152024-02-22T16:25:00.000+08:002024-02-22T16:25:25.175+08:00what happened here?Unless we decide to go for yam char, Paula and I go to Tai Fah Wut (Fairwood) in Queen’s Hill Estate for breakfast. There is only one road leading into the estate, Lung Shan Road, and a few days ago, as we were walking along the path running alongside this road, before reaching the entrance to the estate, Paula spotted this on the other side of the road:
This is an enlarged view of the previous Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-12462647668136633232024-01-31T15:49:00.001+08:002024-01-31T15:51:12.155+08:00tunnel vision“Where are all the mountains?” I asked my son, who lives in Switzerland.
After all, the first thing you would think about if this country came up in conversation would be the mountains. However, where Siegfried lives the terrain is merely undulating.
So he suggested that we visit the Walensee, a large lake to the south of where he lives.
On the way there, the rain was so heavy that I could Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-63211732322765550902023-12-31T18:00:00.000+08:002023-12-31T18:00:21.837+08:00extraordinary egret exhibitionI often see egrets in our local river (Ng Tung River), but they are almost always solitary individuals, with just the odd occasion when I see two or three. This is in sharp contrast to the situation on the Kam Tin River (out west), where I frequently see large groups of egrets, together with cormorants, black-winged stilts and even the occasional spoonbill. However, this can be explained by the Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-75038582085280569642023-10-30T14:30:00.001+08:002023-11-01T15:36:57.055+08:00okie baroquieWhen Paula and I visited Switzerland last month, our itinerary was suggested by my son Siegfried, who now lives there, and a major highlight of the week was a walk around the old town section of St. Gallen, a city east of Zurich. Naturally, I took a lot of photos, and what follows is a selection of what I consider the most interesting.
We had parked in a multi-storey car park, and almost Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-79507601015055941462023-10-14T17:46:00.000+08:002023-10-14T17:46:50.511+08:00favourite photos: summer 2023 (part 2)…continued from Part 1.
There are five named rivers that flow for part of their lengths within a five-mile radius of Penrith. This is a view of the River Lowther, looking upstream from the bridge that carries the A6 across the river:
Many farms in the Penrith area have fortified buildings as a defence against marauding Scotsmen, like this one in Newton Reigny, on the road out of the village Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-89200751841771451642023-10-12T13:43:00.006+08:002024-03-16T20:30:10.500+08:00favourite photos: summer 2023 (part 1)I usually post my summer photo collections before heading back to Hong Kong for the winter, but sitting in front of a computer for long periods remains uncomfortable. However, I’ve been back in Hong Kong for more than a week now, and I do want to maintain some semblance of continuity, so here is Part 1 of this summer’s collection. I should point out that all the photos in this latest collection Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-57452269059581471562023-09-29T16:14:00.001+08:002023-09-30T14:08:36.661+08:00swiss madeI’ve just returned from a trip to Switzerland, a country that I’d never previously visited. As a result of this visit, I have a few things to write about, but I’m still finding it difficult to sit in front of a computer for extended periods (see my previous post), so this post is merely a trailer for what will appear on this blog after I return to Hong Kong, currently scheduled for next week.
Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-67849813552218241262023-09-01T00:37:00.002+08:002023-09-01T00:37:36.877+08:00a message to my readersIf you are a regular reader of this blog, you will probably have noticed that I haven’t posted any new material since the beginning of last month. The problem started in the middle of last month. I’d just been for a short bike ride (35km), and when I got home, I found a note in my letterbox to inform me that someone had tried to deliver a parcel, realized that I wasn’t in and left it with a Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-19314690850533045662023-07-05T02:25:00.000+08:002023-07-05T02:25:57.297+08:00an incredibull encownterIn my last post, I described how Paula and I failed to find the continuation of the public footpath to Catterlen after we’d crossed the River Petteril, and as a result we followed an alternative path that led to a few problems with cows as we crossed their field. Well, a few days later we were back to make another attempt to follow the missed path, and this time we succeeded, albeit not without Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-24494115942972382152023-06-29T02:34:00.000+08:002023-06-29T02:34:42.655+08:00goin’ up the countrySince we came back to Penrith at the beginning of June, Paula and I have been going for long walks in the countryside around town. These walks have taken us north, south, east and west, but the most interesting have been through the area north of the town, which is covered by the following map:
This account is specifically about an extended walk that we did last week, which started through the Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-88373067335667879592023-06-02T10:55:00.001+08:002023-06-03T17:51:45.150+08:00photographic highlights 2022–23: part 3…continued from Part 2.
The last three photos in Part 2 were taken on a bike ride ‘down south’, and four days later I was cycling there again, this time with Paula. The cycle track between Taipo and Shatin runs close to the shore of Tolo Harbour—yet another silly toponym assigned by the British during their rule of Hong Kong—and we stopped next to a small artificial island close to the shore Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-84102620874731118432023-05-26T19:34:00.002+08:002023-06-02T10:57:57.207+08:00photographic highlights 2022–23: part 2…continued from Part 1.
I was walking along an elevated walkway near Sheung Shui station in January when I happened to look down:
This is a typical display by a street seller of fruit, which looks quite surreal when viewed from this angle.
The next photo shows the last bridge across the Ng Tung River before it disappears over the border into China. It is located immediately west of the main Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-53073614380297083182023-05-24T13:52:00.004+08:002023-07-05T19:30:53.226+08:00photographic highlights 2022–23: part 1 I shall be heading back to the UK for the summer in a few days, and as I’ve done for the past several years, I’ve compiled a collection of what I regard as the most ‘interesting’ photos among the more than 2,000 that I’ve taken over the past eight months in Hong Kong. As usual, I’ve not included any photos that I’ve used to illustrate other blog posts.
My first photo is one of several that I’ve Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-33211187783653663792023-05-21T19:33:00.000+08:002023-05-21T19:33:15.900+08:00a grand day out #4Since resuming cycling in March following a 14-week lay-off as a result of an accident in which I fractured a bone in my wrist, I’ve been getting out quite regularly, but our first ride last week was the longest—and toughest—to date.
Because of construction along the Ng Tung River, nowadays we follow the cycle tracks through Fanling whenever we ride ‘out west’. We used to take the cycle track Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-79400026035635983212023-05-08T20:37:00.001+08:002023-05-08T20:37:34.420+08:00queen of the hillI first noticed the construction that was taking place southeast of our balcony in 2019, and I took this photo in November of that year:
It was obvious that these buildings were destined to become high-rise blocks, and I remember being annoyed at the time, because our house faces east, away from Fanling. Consequently, no high-rise blocks were visible from here—unless I went up onto the roof. Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-61802829367304407832023-05-03T19:10:00.000+08:002023-05-03T19:10:42.034+08:00monitoring a lizardAs a result of the construction work that started last year as part of the Fanling North New Development Area, we don’t walk down our local river (Ng Tung River) as often as we used to, but we did yesterday. It used to be straightforward to follow the Drainage Services access road, but most of this is now blocked. However, there is a path that runs parallel to the access road through the village Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-32813670534405495932023-04-30T17:30:00.000+08:002023-04-30T17:30:01.577+08:00across the swampWhen I wrote about ‘the garden of earthly delights’ recently, I alluded to an interesting feature further along the path, a boggy area that I’ve named ‘the swamp’. I thought that a more detailed appraisal of this feature would be worthwhile.
This is the start of the path:
I cycle along this path regularly, particularly if I’m heading east, because it’s preferable to following the cycle track Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-4742438970831287632023-04-23T17:01:00.000+08:002023-04-23T17:01:12.115+08:00the garden of earthly delightsI’ve often written about strange and unusual locations that I’ve come across as I explore the New Territories, and this post is about yet another place that fits this description, although in this case it’s a site that I’ve known about for some time. In fact, it’s located in my immediate neighbourhood, and I will have walked or cycled past it scores of times.
If you follow the unnamed road that Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-64250917503390533882023-04-11T19:11:00.000+08:002023-04-11T19:11:14.474+08:00park, parker, parkestThere are dozens of small public gardens in Fanling and Sheung Shui, but only one park: North District Park, which is located just northwest of Fanling Wai. I’d walked through this park before, but one day recently Paula and I were walking past the park, and I couldn’t help but notice several ‘interesting’ trees, so I decided to pay a visit last week in order to take a few photographs. These are Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-57051839122395714592023-03-27T19:16:00.000+08:002023-03-27T19:16:14.954+08:00neighbourhood trees: the top tenOver the past few weeks, I’ve been photographing many of the trees in my immediate neighbourhood. Some of our local trees are quite impressive, and it’s often impossible to get far enough away to capture the entire tree in a single shot. I haven’t attempted to rank these arboreal behemoths in any kind of order, but what follows is my assessment of the top ten.
If you come into the area from Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-41245997490094977412023-03-19T20:12:00.002+08:002023-04-28T17:36:08.166+08:00which options reliably determine lexical expertise?I’ve always enjoyed solving word puzzles, although until recently the majority of such puzzles that I came across, particularly in newspapers, were annoyingly easy. This is the reason I started to devise my own puzzles in the early 1990s. I created several repeatable formats, examples of which I posted on this blog when I started in 2009 (Wedgewords; Chainwords; Scramble Six), which provided the Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-87221117516494081722023-03-13T17:51:00.000+08:002023-03-13T17:51:01.234+08:00a grand day out #3Until the weekend before last, I hadn’t done any cycling since November following a freak accident in which I sustained a hairline fracture of a bone in my wrist. Paula had also forgone cycling during this period, so, naturally, we didn't want to do anything too ambitious after such an extended lay-off. We settled for a ride out west as far as the western end of San Tin Tsuen Road. In other wordsDennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8290973459084131413.post-46666446486412292612023-03-05T17:40:00.002+08:002023-03-20T18:09:15.881+08:00morning teaTwo days before Chinese New Year in 2020, Paula and I went to our local restaurant, Sun Ming Yuen, for yam char (‘drink tea’). We’d been regulars there for many years, originally when it was located in Fanling Centre, next to Fanling station. We were gutted when it appeared to close down a few years ago, but disappointment turned to delight when it reopened in Green Code Plaza, a shopping mall Dennis Hodgsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409579380626581592noreply@blogger.com4