Went to garden number two today and spent 3 hours cutting down the weeds again. Afterwards I went to Bahn Na Mai to try and find Brians house. Didn’t see it so will have to ask him again for its exact location . Then went on a tour via Eddies village , Bahn Nahtee ?and back to Ban Dung – So overall spent 3 hours biking. Now I intend to start building up the mileage again – as the weather is now cooling down.
Took eddie some DVD’s in the evening – one for himself and one for Brian.
Had a day at home today working on my computer & learning some more Thai . Watered the vegetables and orchids the shallow well is now empty – Having to use the deep well so it is taking longer.
Took some more pictures of our orchids to upload to my web site
Orchid
This is one of many now in flower.
Been for my for my 90 day report at the immigration department. Everything was in? order and there we no queues so I was in and out in 5? minutes . Then we went for a stroll through the market stalls which run? along the Mekong river. Saw nothing of interest so after taking a few pictures we returned home.
View of the Mekong with Lao on the opposite bank
Loading goods for lao
This appears to be the Kingfisher I saw yesterday. It is a Blue-eared kingfisher – similar to the common kingfisher but the redish underparts are more intense.
This isn’t my photo – but the closest match I could find.
I went to the lake today to do a bit more tidying up. While I was taking a rest I heard this splash in the water. When I lookerd around I saw this beautiful kingfisher sitting on one of the pieces of wood left sticking clear of the water.It had had a redish breast with orange feathers on the underside of its wings and blue tail feathers. I now need to see if I can identify it.
I then went to see Tim who was working on the farm in Pho Pan. I was recruited into helping her collecting the “Kii yaang”. This is the rubber which has solidified in the bottom of the cups over a period of time and needs scraping out. It is a laborious Jobs and when I left to come home there was still over a 100 trees/cups to do. This can be sold but the price for it is not very high – I think currenty only 15 bahts per Kilo.
Tims is cutting the rubber tonight so I will see her in the morning when I have to go to Nong Khai.
Finished off clearing the Shrub from around the Lake and watered the Tigu trees we recently planted. They should not need any more water as they are planted close to the lake and the land is always wet.
Baby Tigu plant
Halfway through clearing this patch of scrub ready for Burning
Found Tim with a small package of food wrapped in Banana leaves yesterday . I just had to ask what it was. It was minced rat and banana – another prized local delicacy – so I had to find the recipe and here it is . It appears that the frog season has finished and now its the rat season. I bet you thought you could eat them any time of the year.