photographic highlights 2024–25

I’ll be heading back to the UK for the summer in a couple of days, and as usual, I’ve compiled a collection of what I consider to be the most interesting photos that I’ve taken during the past seven months in Hong Kong. Also as usual, the collection does not include any photos used to illustrate other posts on this blog.

Many years ago, I was wandering around Luen Wo Hui, the area of Fanling nearest to the village where we live, when I suddenly felt hungry. And I fancied a plate of one of my favourite Chinese food dishes, Singapore noodles. I picked a typical cafe at random and went in. Nowadays, whenever I fancy a plate of Singapore noodles, I still go to the same cafe, and this is a photo of the last plate I ate there:

Several years ago, I went into a Chinese takeaway in Penrith, not to buy anything—I never eat so-called Chinese food in the UK—but I was accompanying a friend who didn’t know any better. While he was placing his order, I browsed the menu on the wall, and my attention was drawn to ‘Singapore noodles’. So I asked the Chinese man behind the counter what kind of noodles they used in their Singapore noodles.

“What do you mean? Noodles!” he replied.

My guess is that he didn’t know that there are four types of noodle in Cantonese cuisine, and the correct answer should have been mai fan (rice noodles). The noodles in chow mein are made with wheat flour.

On one of our rare visits to Hong Kong Island, we somehow ended up in Wanchai (we were supposed to be going up the Peak). And I couldn’t miss seeing an extensive mural featuring lotus flowers. This is one of several photos I took:

On the same visit to Hong Kong side, we also went into Pacific Place, an upmarket shopping mall in Central, and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the men’s toilet:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a luxurious toilet anywhere else.

Sunset on the Ng Tung River (our local river):

A few years ago, I posted a collection of photos of elaborate gates leading to otherwise nondescript houses under the title The Gates of Delirium. This gate certainly belongs in that collection:

The next photo shows a shop in Green Code Plaza, a shopping mall in Luen Wo Hui:

The extraordinary thing about this display is that the shop only sells knitting materials, not dolls.

A sunset picture that I took from our roof:

…and another sunset picture looking down our local river:

And a telephoto that I took from our roof to show the progress that has been made in the Fanling North New Development Area (NDA):

I can no longer take photos like this, because the owner of the roof directly in front of the camera has built a structure that completely blocks our view to the west.

I came across this dragon in the forecourt of Belair Monte, a housing estate in Luen Wo Hui, during Chinese New Year:

I took several photos of a particular morning glory when walking past the construction site down our local river, but this one shows the most flowers:

I don’t often come across firecracker vines, which flower in January, that I haven’t seen before, but I found this one in Ko Po North, a sprawling village east of Fanling:

There is only one location in my neighbourhood where I can see pigeons, the gardens in front of Union Plaza, yet another housing estate in Luen Wo Hui. However, pigeons are almost always mob-handed here:

I can’t remember where I took this photo of a monitor lizard on he edge of a footpath. Notice how long its tail is:

Sometimes when we cycle ‘down south’ to Shatin, we stop for a rest in places that look like pleasant spots to sit for a while. We stopped once at what I would describe as a balcony that projects out over the Shing Mun River, directly opposite the Heritage Museum. I couldn’t help but notice this granite plaque, with its engraved plant motif, set into the floor of the balcony:

A few years ago, I posted a description of an outlandish garden at the start of the path across the Swamp under the title The Garden of Earthly Delights (Hieronymus Bosch would have approved). There is an equally bizarre entrance to a garden on the opposite side of the footpath that I’ve only recently got around to photographing:

My favourite bike ride, ‘the final frontier’ (so named because it passes through an area that was designated a part of the frontier closed area until 2016), passes a temple near Ping Che. On a recent ride, we noticed that there appeared to be some kind of festival in progress, so naturally we stopped to take a few photos. I particularly liked this statue:

Be sure to click on the photo to see the intricate detail.

The only way to cross Sha Tau Kok Road, the main road east out of Fanling, between that road’s junctions with Ma Sik Road and Fan Leng Lau Road, is via one of two subways. I’ve photographed graffiti on the walls of the more easterly subway before, but it was washed off long ago (the walls of the subway are tiled). I was therefore surprised to see this quite impressive tag recently:

I don’t expect it to still be here when we come back to Hong Kong in the autumn.

Nowadays, Paula and I go regularly to Queen’s Hill Public Housing Estate for breakfast. In addition to seven 40-storey residential blocks, there are two secondary schools here, and after breakfast we always have a walk around the public areas of the estate, which is why we happened to notice that one of the schools was conducting a fire drill:

Back in Green Code Plaza, I took the following photo of the central atrium from the mezzanine floor. The bright light source is an amusement arcade that calls itself CHECK POINT, and I was struck by the fact that the word ‘CHECK’ reads correctly even though it’s a mirror image:

Two days ago, we were riding along the cycle track through Taipo Waterfront Park when I spotted what looked like an interesting mural. Naturally, I stopped to take a few photos; this one is of the full mural, which appears to be anti-drug propaganda:

And that’s the highlights of my most recent sojourn in Hong Kong.

favourite photos: summer 2024

Paula and I will be heading back to Hong Kong in a few days, and as I usually do, I’ve put together a collection of what I consider to be the most interesting photos that I’ve taken during the summer. I took more than 600 photos during our two trips to Toronto last month and this month, but with two exceptions (see below), I’ve not included any of these in this collection. These will be used next month to illustrate things that we did in this fascinating city during our visits.

We often go for walks (if we’re not cycling) when we’re in Penrith, and we frequently visit the Thacka Beck Nature Reserve during these walks. On one occasion, we saw a rainbow as we emerged onto Bowerbank Way, part of the Gilwilly Industrial Estate, on our way to the reserve:

The entrance to the nature reserve is marked by the litter bin on the right of the photo.

One option after we’ve exited the nature reserve on the far side is to continue along Thacka Lane in the direction of Newton Rigg Agricultural College. We frequently see horses in the fields bordering the lane, including this pair, who appear to be looking for attention:

Foxgloves are common on the fells (local name for the mountains of the Lake District), but I was surprised to see this specimen growing out of the crack between a wall and the pavement in front of Penrith Methodist Church:

I spotted this splendid example of a stile as we cycled through the village of Reagill, south of Penrith:

Notice that no mortar has been used in the construction of the wall, which is standard practice around these parts. The rock is limestone. You can also see this technique being used in a wall alongside the road leading out of Penrith towards Great Salkeld, where the principal rock is sandstone (although some boulders have also been incorporated, sourced from boulder clay, the ubiquitous glacial deposit around here):

The next photo shows a view of Blencathra, one of the few Lake District mountains with a Cumbric name (although it is often referred to by locals as ‘Saddleback’) that I took while out cycling:

This road used to be the main road to Keswick, but it was replaced by the A66 more than half a century ago, making it ideal as part of a cycling route nowadays.

‘Sunset’:

When I asked Paula which bike ride she would like to do to mark her birthday, she immediately replied: “Haweswater”. I took several photos here, but I particularly like this one, looking back towards the head of the valley:

When we flew to Toronto last month, I had a window seat, and I suddenly noticed that we must be crossing the southern tip of Greenland. I always switch my phone off when flying, and in the time it took to get it up and running again, I probably missed the best shots, but you can still see the glaciers in this photo:

On our second flight, the plane passed many miles south of Greenland, so there was no opportunity to take more photos.

The walk along the River Eamont, from Eamont Bridge to Brougham, south of Penrith, is a pleasant excursion, and we followed this route on a walk at the end of last month. The river appeared to be flowing unusually fast, but the water level didn’t appear to be higher than usual:

Notice the three ducks in the bottom left corner of the photo.

The day after our Eamont excursion, we did a bike ride north of Penrith that included a road we’d never cycled along before. At one point, I noticed an unusual plant that dominated the verges on both sides of the road:

This is Himalayan balsam, an invasive species that, in this location, was almost the only plant on both sides of the road for about two miles.

This photo shows a quaint road bridge over the River Lyvennet in Morland, southeast of Penrith:

I discovered just this summer that there’s a skate park next to Penrith Leisure Centre. I took several photos of the colourful graffiti on the sidewalls supporting the ramps, including this one:

On our second trip to Toronto, we were taken to watch a major league baseball game, and on our way to the stadium, we passed this installation, which I saw as a ‘must’ photo opportunity. Paula took this one with my phone:

Another ‘must before we go’ was a bike ride to Ullswater, which we tend to avoid at the height of summer because of the sheer volume of tourist traffic. On this occasion, we approached the lake from Matterdale End, and where to take a photo from was self-evident as we descended the hill towards the road that runs alongside the lake:

The subject of my final photo is a tiny flower that I spotted just a couple of days ago growing out of a crack in the external surface of the low wall surrounding my neighbour’s backyard:

I have no idea what kind of flower this is, so if you can enlighten me, please leave a comment below.

photographic highlights 2023–24: part 2

…continued from Part 1.

Over the past few months, I’ve taken quite a few photos of the construction of the (unnecessary) Fanling North bypass along the north bank of our local river, but this is the best, mainly because there was no wind, and the reflection on the river provides perfect symmetry:

The track on the right is now the only way to get up and down the river.

This year was our first time watching the Chinese New Year fireworks since 2018 (they were cancelled due to the protests in 2019, and in 2021–23 due to covid; I was ill in 2020). Many of the spectators spent all their time trying to photograph or film the display, but I put my phone away after taking this photo of the view across the harbour to Hong Kong island:

During the 1980s, I worked in Aberdeen, on the south side of Hong Kong island, and I travelled with a friend who worked in the same area. One of our running jokes centred on the number of cars we saw with windscreens full of ‘danglies’. I was reminded of this time by a truck that parks in our village:

I would say that the driver’s view is seriously obscured.

I’ve written about cotton trees before, but this is the only photo I’ve taken of my favourite Hong Kong trees this year. It was taken from our balcony and shows Queen’s Hill estate in the background:

Cotton trees have two unusual features for broad-leaf trees: the flowers appear before the leaves; and, like conifers, they have straight trunks with several branches growing out of the trunk at the same level.

There is a central garbage-collection point in our village, and on one occasion someone appears to have tried to dispose of two full tins of paint. Unfortunately, the lids came off, and paint splattered everywhere:

Two wheelie bins are still covered in spilt red paint.

In March, Paula and I were cycling along the Drainage Services access road that runs beside the Shek Sheung River, which joins the Ng Tung River (our local river) on the other side of the main railway line, when I spotted what appeared to be two small islands:

This is a close-up:

In fact, they’re probably flotsam from somewhere upstream, but from where is anyone’s guess.

A small stream flows through ‘the swamp’, and where the waterlogged area ends there is a small pool. I’ve photographed this pool several times in an attempt to capture the abstract patterns of froth on the surface, and this is my best effort:

Since the new running track in the PLA barracks opposite our house was inaugurated, there have been all manner of mysterious (to me) goings-on. On one occasion, an enclosure was constructed next to the track, presumably to monitor some kind of competition. This enclosure was completely dismantled at night for four or five days, and of course I took a few photos. This is the most interesting:

See the line of soldiers standing stiffly to attention. They’re all dummies!

In my recent survey of graffiti that I’ve recorded over the past few months, I included one example that I saw during a rare visit to Kowloon. During that visit, I also came across this example of abstract street art:

As with the graffiti, I couldn’t guarantee to find this location again.

Although I’ve been aware of koels (Hong Kong’s noisy birds) since we first moved to Fanling in 2008, I’d never actually seen one until last month. I was sitting on the roof enjoying a cold beer when one appeared on a dead branch on the tree next to the house. Naturally, I went downstairs to get my phone and took this photo:

Unfortunately, it moved its position while I was downstairs, and this photo doesn’t convey just how big this bird is.

I wrote about ‘the garden of earthly delights’, located near the start of the path across ‘the swamp’, last year, but since my survey, it has been allowed to decline. However, I did photograph this bathtub lotus pond recently:

We had a lot of heavy rain last month, and after one such downpour, I noticed a small group of egrets in a large pool of water opposite our house. However, when I stepped out onto the balcony to take a photo, they all took flight:

There are six egrets in this photo.

Paula spotted this cluster of fungi growing on a dead tree stump as we were walking through Fan Leng Lau Pleasure Ground last month:

Paula and I cycled out west to the Tam Mei valley earlier this month. The intention was to follow the loop of roads up and back down the valley, which we hadn’t done for quite some time. There are a lot of murals to be seen hereabouts (Wall to Wall, Fish out of Water), but on this occasion we came across something new. There are murals on both sides of this gate:

The words on the flag wielded by the figure on the left read ‘out in safe home’, which is a classical Chinese chengyu, or four-character idiom.

I spotted this shop window in the Queen’s Hill Shopping Centre:

Don’t ask me what they sell here.

The ‘garden of earthly delights’ may be in decline, but it appears to have inspired the neighbour on the other side of the footpath. This gate leads into the garden:

…and this is a close-up of the top half of the gate:

This is another fungal discovery in Fan Leng Lau Pleasure Ground. It wasn’t visible from the path through the park, but Paula wandered off the path and found it. The stalk is at least 30cm long, and unfortunately it appears to have been broken off deliberately:

I’d been wandering through Fanling’s industrial district on the lookout for graffiti and flame trees to photograph. I’d stopped briefly in a small garden when I spotted this truck:

I’ve seen quite a few bizarre company names during my time in Hong Kong (dating back to 1974), but this takes the biscuit.

I go out routinely for a short walk as soon as I get up in the morning. A few days ago, I was walking back along the road to our house when I noticed what looked like a spectacular sunrise. The sun was illuminating small wisps of cloud high in the sky, but unfortunately I didn’t have my phone with me. When I got home, I took this photo from our balcony:

The sun is just behind the horizon at this point, so the small clouds are no longer visible.

And that concludes this year’s ‘most interesting’ photos. Look out for next year’s collection.

previous highlights collections
Photographic Highlights: 2015–16
Photographic Highlights: 2016–17
Photographic Highlights: 2017–18
Photographic Highlights: 2018–19
Photographic Highlights 2019–20: Part 1
Photographic Highlights 2019–20: Part 2
Photographic Highlights 2020–21: Part 1
Photographic Highlights 2020–21: Part 2
Photographic Highlights 2021–22: Part 1
Photographic Highlights 2021–22: Part 2
Photographic Highlights 2022–23: Part 1
Photographic Highlights 2022–23: Part 2
Photographic Highlights 2022–23: Part 3