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Auntie No 2 at her front door
If you're fed up of me harping on about Auntie, you should stop reading now. To tell the truth, I'm a little bit fed up of me harping on about Auntie, but she does lead me to reflect on so many aspects of life. After a visit to her house I felt thoroughly miserable - not (just) because of the enormous amount of junk she has surrounded herself with, nor the dirty, derelict house, caged animals that she thinks she is saving, virtually bare wooden bed even. It was something about her innocence and humility. Poverty can be absolute and/or relative. I'd like to think that Auntie's not that badly off relative to the rest of the population of China, but that's simply not true. By local standards she is poor. To what extent has she 'chosen' to live like that, and to what extent is she simply incapable of living another way? I know she likes to eat, rest and play at our house. She knows how to wash clothes and dishes, tidy things away. She shows a sense of understanding what is valuable, what is not. I can't help feeling that with a little bit more support and guidance, Auntie could have a better quality of life, in her own home. At the moment she is living in poverty and there is no safety net - no welfare state to offer an income or arrange home help. The good news is, Auntie seems to have found a way to cope, but when I visit I find it hard to walk away - I feel that a small input (guidance, support) could make such a big difference in Auntie's life.

 
We'd run out of cash, so I nipped out to the Bank. Only thing is, the nearest ATM seems to be in the town of Miyun, more than one and a half hour by bus from He Xi. It's not a comfortable journey either, as it's usually so busy there are no seats - but at least it's cheap, only 35p! I took the opportunity to stock up on goodies (butter, yoghurt, fresh meat, peanut butter) that are impossible to find in the shops here. I also picked up a couple of friendly British guys, Steve and Dan, who had just arrived in China after 3 weeks riding the Trans-Mongolian from St. Petersburg!
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A narrow section of ridge on the descent
Steve and Dan had been planning to visit Jinshanling Great Wall, but I persuaded them that our own local piece of ancient history was just as interesting, wilder and more atmospheric, quieter, more convenient and a lot cheaper - this seemed to go down well with the lads, so after lunch we headed up Crouching Tiger Mountain. It was very hot, but we were soon up on the higher towers enjoying the views down to Gubeikou and the Chao He river.

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Dan demonstrating his rockclimbing skills
The good thing about these undeveloped sections of wall is that you're free to scramble around at will, undisturbed by T-shirt sellers and annoying health and safety police. At the second to last tower I noticed that there was a hole in the ceiling which must once have housed a ladder - so up we went. There were a few tricky steep moves on small but decent holds to access the lush grassy top of the tower - but coming down was the hard part.

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Steve admiring Dan's rearend
 
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Ali and the girls lounging on the kang
At least a third of our living area is occupied by this built-in kang (stove bed). This traditional sleeping platform is made from bricks and the interior cavity leads to a flu system that channels exhaust from the coal-fired stove in the winter. The kang is widespread in North China, especially in the very cold NE provinces. These days it's hotter outside, and we retreat to the kang to lounge around and read, write our diaries, update the blog, sew etc etc. What we don't do on the kang is sleep, though there would be room for about 8 adults. We have two modern beds in two tiny rooms off this one but we might be tempted to vacate those as the temperature drops to sub-zero, especially given that there is no other heating system in the house, which is single-glazed and poorly insulated. We intend to leave before the winter!

UPDATE: Short slideshow added to Home page this morning.

 
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When I heard the tofu sellers calling at 6 am I thought it was a bit anti-social, then I learned that they get up at 2:30 to start making their bean curd and soya milk. Is that really 'morning', or does it count as not really going to bed?! This bag of dou jiang (enough to give us a large glass of soya milk each) and this 500 g block of tofu set me back 2.5 RMB, that's about 25p. Tofu is common here, and an important source of protein when meat is relatively expensive. 

Once out of bed, the early bird has plenty time to sweep the yard, open the windows, boil drinking water for the day and prepare breakfast. Today I attempted something I've been thinking of for years - making chocolate-filled baozi (steamed bread). These might even be the first chocolate baozi in China, so I thought I'd get video evidence [see More movies].

 
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Banner photo session
Freda and Edie launch their own website today - Little LEAFhouse Daily. We spent the morning taking photos for the banner and arguing about what to call it. I've got a feeling this is going to be more extra work for me than anyone else! A good Home School project nevertheless. This site will be password protected, so let us know if you want to visit.

 
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Sunflower in He Xi Village
Inspired by Paul's recent blog revamping, I decided to spend some time on our own pages, and have finally added some pictures and videos to the Gallery [button top right]. It takes time to upload large files, so this work will be on-going... 

 
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It seems unfair to mention Freda's laundry chores without mentioning Edie's dish-washing. I sometimes feel like we're camping indoors, due to the lack of furniture and work surfaces, especially in the kitchen. What should be our dining table (when it's too cold or wet to eat outdoors) is used for drainage, but we still can't really wash up in the sink, becausee it's precariously balanced on wobbly wall mounts. Never mind, Edie's lived in China long enough to pick up the habit of squatting for such activities. Here she's scrubbing the bowl from the rice cooker, which would probably be out of service in the UK since a link was discovered between aluminium cooking pots and Alzheimer's disease. Given that potatoes and bread have now replaced rice in our diet, we're not at too much risk.

Anything else noteworthy in the picture? The white tiles are bulging on the walls, likely to fall down in the next earthquake. The makeshift table, of which you can just see the corner, is a wooden workbench placed over a giant wok. The uncle who owns the house was the only person in He Xi registered to slaughter livestock. The large, built-in, tile-surround wok was used to boil pig parts. Since he left the village domestic pig-rearing has stopped, as there is no abattoire nearby. Yunnan  is waaaaaaay behind on such health and safety regulations and we've seen many DIY pig slaughters outside people's houses. I suppose this is a reminder that, up here near Beijing, we are a long way from Yunnan in many ways.

Anyway, thanks for all your hard work girls!

 
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When Freda was scrubbing clothes on the washboard 'Old Lu' turned up with his dog. He marvelled at Freda's diligence and spent the next ten minutes philosophising on how virtues are more important than money. Mr Lu lives along the back lane and we don't see much of him, which is good given that his dog peed on our broom as it left the yard. Now every passing dog that manages to enter tries to do the same, despite us having washed it several times. Thanks Mr Lu. Come again, but leave your dog at home next time!

 
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Ali's Crouching Tiger Mountain mural
....or in this case, the drawing. When a house-owner says. "Sure, draw all over the walls!" they are either incredibly easy-going and/or trusting of your art skills, or the walls' days are numbered. In this case, the latter is true. By the end of August the architectural plans should be ready for the complete renovation of the farmhouse. Thus, meantime we have free rein to paint whatever we like on the walls.  This is great fun and feels so naughty, especially as institutions here usually ban people from even sticking anything up on the walls - schools, health centres, offices are always so bland and inpersonal as a result. Well, we have well and truly personalised this place. If they also like our art work, there might be some redrafting of plans required to save the murals!

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Edie and Freda were so excited by this opportunity that they called their friend, Liu Yue, to come and join in.
 
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When I got back from my morning run and opened the yard gate I discovered this snake exploring our courtyard. Ali and Edie were pottering around inside, oblivious. When Mr Liu nominated himself snake charmer, he ended up chasing it around our shoe rack with a pair of tongs, finally grasping it by the tail with a gloved hand. I was sorry that our neigbour had taken over, as we knew the snake wasn't poisonous and I'd have liked to have the chance to study it for longer. Education and sentiment are frequently cast to the wind here and, accordingly, the snake was immediately carried off to the dustbins. It was hard to intervene, though Freda said to Mr Liu in Chinese: "Mum says please don't kill it". The next time we discover a slithery visitor we'll keep quiet ... until we're ready to remove it that is!