A New Addition to the Family

The weather is getting warmer, and this week the Plum blossoms are in bloom - it's so nice to see flowers and greenery again!


At Wushan square there was a huge festival going on.  We stopped by to do a few rides and look in all of the stalls to see what wares were for sale.

Peter and Sue, checking out the rides on this warm, sunny day.
 

The latest Spring fashion - short shorts with thigh high stockings and high-heels.  Provocative!


Some kind of bakery item for sale with different fillings...
 

... and dried, salted fish also available!


This man was also making some kind of bread and putting on quite a show of pounding it.  The pounding was drawing quite a crowd.


Raisins for sale!


The crowd was enormous and we were the only white faces in a sea of Chinese.  Many people stopped to stare at us!


There's Sophie, surveying the crowd.  "Hi Dad!"


Sweets for sale!  The boys didn't see these but were bummed out when I showed them this picture later.  "I can't believe we missed those!"


The boys did however stop at the knife stall to look over all of the dangerous weapons.  Cool!


We stopped at the pet/bird/fish/flower market, which is always good gawking.  One thing that is big here, for a pet, are crickets.  Here's a giant cricket available for about $10 US!  Why anyone would want such a noisemaker in their home is beyond me, but it is BIG business here!
 

This shop sold cricket houses, cricket water dishes, cricket baskets, and all manner of other things cricket.  Some parts of China I will never understand!


BIG NEWS - we have a new family member, "Blackjack".  Jack's 11th birthday is coming up in a few days, and he REALLY wanted a pet.  Since we've been through the salamander fiasco, the rat fiasco, the hamster fiasco, the bird fiasco and the hermit crab fiasco with Jack, we thought it would be about time for a rabbit fiasco.  Usually Jack has done a great job taking care of his various pets for about a week, and then I end up having to complain endlessly about the smell, which falls on deaf ears.  Then I end up cleaning up the mess of whatever the critter of the day is.  Now that Jack is 11 however and so much the more RESPONSIBLE, we thought we'd try it again!


The rabbit is quite lucky to have us, I must say, because we bought him a huge cage, by Chinese standards.  Most cages for a rabbit this size would be slightly bigger in volume than the rabbit's body itself, so our rabbit has a veritable mansion.  However, he does have three children to contend with, so life isn't all roses.


Of course Sue is a big kid too, and she LOVES that little rabbit!  Here's "Blackjack", saying, "HELP!"


Here's Blackjack saying, "Don't EAT ME!"


We went down to the lake with some friends today, where Jack looked for more critters with his net.  I guess 1 rabbit and 800 tadpoles just isn't enough!


(LEFT) Jack and "Blackjack", and (RIGHT) Sophie levitating over a patch of green grass, squirt bottle in hand.
 

There's a small aquarium here, that's actually pretty good.  We were looking at the fish exhibits, when this guy went by with a bowl of 4" square cubes of meat and some fruit.  We followed him and found this polar bear in a cage. See what I mean about cage sizes?


A seal getting his dinner...


Another end to a relaxing weekend, as we prepare to introduce "Blackjack" to his new home.