Perfect drying weather

Now that the typhoon has gone, it's back to hot and windy weather again – just perfect for drying stuff, including fish. 

The smell takes a bit of getting used to but when dried, these will taste heavenly!

Summer planting

The Mui Wo municipal council may be lacking in many ways but what is does well is ensure the town looks pretty with fresh bedding plants.

 The workmen are hard at work putting in fresh flowers in time for the Dragonboat Festival.

Fluff and stuff

The recent strong winds appear to have knocked the stuffing out of the kapok trees.

Flame of the forest

Rain preceded by long dry spells are causing the flame of the forest trees to burst into flower. Isn't that just magnificent?

First BBQ in Mui Wo

We've passed the BBQ pits at the beach so many times and always said: "Let's do a barbecue there." Especially as the pits are free, on a first-come-first-served basis.

But it took us two summers before we finally got our arses in gear.

Being BBQ novices, we took a while to get the fire going. When it did, though, it was all a barbecue could be. Lovely even heat, slightly (ok, very) charred food, good company.

As we got all our supplies from the BBQ food shop in town, supplemented with forks and wire mesh from the shop by the river, everything was surprisingly hassle-free.

We're planning one again, this time for autumn, when we can sit by the fire and warm ourselves and tell scary stories... of salmonella poisoning, perhaps?

Caterpillar season

Walking in summer can be like going into a caterpillar booby-trapped zone.

There is hardly any warning as the furry bodies are suspended in mid air on tiny, tiny threads – so fine you don't notice them until they brush against you or, heaven forbid, you suddenly get a mouthful of fluff.

I break out in hives if I so much as brush against them so I have to look extra carefully when I'm on my hikes.

Sorry for the pathetic quality of the photo above but it's already better than the one I took on my first attempt – the caterpillar somehow swung itself onto my camera, resulting in a lot of girly screaming, frantic foot stomping and a Blair Witch Project-like photo, below: