爺爺畫的氣球 -- Balloons for Little Bee

#2013-0929

爺爺畫的氣球：一隻淺綠色的鳥，一個小丑的笑臉 . . . . 加上原本就印有笑臉的第三個氣球，都要送給可愛的小蜜蜂當玩具 ----- 這是爺爺的好友「詹爺爺」 (Peter Chan) 所提供的小男孩最喜愛的禮物！

When Peter handed me these balloons and said, "For your grandson!" I asked him if he had color markers [that I could make drawings with]. His wife, Jane, brought out some color pens and I started to draw at once. I drew the eyes and the wings on the first balloon so it looked very much like a bird. I drew two human eyes, a tiny nose, and a huge mouth on the second balloon so it became a clown's smiling face. (On the third balloon I drew nothing, because it had had a smiling face printed on.) Then, as I expected, my grandson Little Bee liked to play with these balloons very, very much.

Don't Kiss Me So Hard!

#2013-0927

I pulled up at the roadside thinking that it was high time for my father and me to have lunch at Ren Ben Ziran (人本自然 "Humanistic Nature") again. It was about 12:20 p.m. and we had spent almost three hours in the hospital where my father underwent a physical exam and some medical treatment. He must have been rather tired and . . . -- Well, was he as hungry as I was at the moment? But it was no easy job for an 83-year-old man to get out of the car when he was so sick.

Suddenly we heard a loud BANG coming from the rear of my car, and we both were greatly shocked, our bodies being shaken in just a second or less but our minds being so puzzled and frightened that we continued to be in a state of frustration until we and the other driver (a Mr. Shen) followed two police officers to the nearby Police Station, where I and Mr. Shen completed the legal process of making a report. Oh! What an unpleasant day! -- It was Monday, September 23, 2013. The accident was actually caused by Mr. Shen. And this is the point: When his BMW was backing from the parking space outside the road, my RAV-4 already stopped at the roadside!

Now, after four days passed by, my car has been entirely fixed. I must appreciate the help of my insurance company. I am also grateful for what the automobile repair shop has done: Rather than patching it up, they replaced (or substituted) the damaged bumper with a new one.

Bohemia Art Club 2011

#2013-0920

I was attracted to such a wall-painting (See far below) when Jean and I followed the Zhan family to the entrance to He Kang Restaurant (禾康) on the campus of National Chung Hsing University. That painting looked so familiar to me but it's quite clear that its artistic style was very different from what I had expected. I noticed some words written on the background of the painting, which read: "Bohemia Art Club 2011" -- What does this mean? I asked myself, burning with curiosity.

But I really had no idea about this or that kind of things (or people). How can I get to know so many different "beings"? [By "beings" I mean all that exist, including human beings, animals and plants and minerals, as well as those that are invisible and those that are abstract.]

Well, just take "Bohemia" and/or "Bohemian" for example. A Bohemian is a resident of Bohemia. Bohemian or Bohemians may also refer to: (1) Bohemia (波希米亞), a region in Europe, something related to the former country called "Kingdom of Bohemia" (波希米亞王國) or to the modern country Czech Republic (捷克共和國) and their language Czech language (捷克語); (2) Bohemianism (波希米亞主義 usually not capitalized), a culture movement; (3) Bohemian style (波希米亞風格 usually not capitalized), a fashion movement; (4) The Bohemian (法國印象派畫家雷諾瓦的畫作，標題為《波希米亞女孩》), a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir completed in 1868; and (5) The Bohemian (19世紀末法國學院派畫家布格羅的畫作，標題相同), a painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau completed in 1890.

(Left) The Bohemian by Renoir    <------>    (Right) The Bohemian by Bouguereau

The above two pictures can be seen in the English Wikipedia [by clicking on the links above] while the following "mural" is what I saw this morning on the wall near the door to He Kang Restaurant on the campus of National Chung Hsing University. Do you know why I put them here on the same page? Are you interested in knowing more about each of them? Can they be carefully compared with one another in order to discover something totally new? . . . Good luck to you, dear readers!

The Mid-Autumn Moon (明台賞月)

#2013-0919

有人問：北宋文學大師歐陽修的「月上柳梢頭，人約黃昏後」寫的是中國哪個傳統節日？ 我的答案是「上元節」（就是農曆正月十五），並非七月十五「中元節」或八月十五「中秋節」。

是否真如此？請諸君細讀歐陽修《查生子》全詞：「去年元夜時，花市燈如晝。月上柳梢頭，人約黃昏後。今年元夜時，月與燈依舊。不見去年人，淚濕春衫袖。」詞中所謂的「元夜」應該是「元宵之夜」沒錯吧？

這首詞，與唐朝詩人崔護的名作《題都城南莊》有異曲同工之妙，該詩屬七言絕句：「去年今日此門中，人面桃花相映紅。人面不知何處去？桃花依舊笑春風。」單就「藝術構思」而言，兩者幾乎全同，若拿歐陽修的《查生子》與崔護的《題都城南莊》仔細比對，則前者似乎更具民歌風格，也更能表現出語言的迴環錯綜之美。

而無論如何，今夜乃是 2013 癸巳年（蛇年）的中秋之夜。我與琴漫步於住家附近，在明台中學的「小習池」旁，手持「傻瓜相機」拍下今年的中秋月，願與您分享。對了，刊頭（右上角）那幅，還有底下最後一張，是經過剪裁並加工處理過的，但願你也同樣喜歡！

Let's Visit Sun Moon Lake Again!

#2013-0918

Last Friday Jean and I accompanied Lynn and Catherine to Sun Moon Lake, one of the most beautiful places in central Taiwan. [For that delightful one-day trip, please click: #2013-0913A.] As it was also previously scheduled, Jean and I took our grandson Little Bee and his parents Antony and Anita to this famous scenic spot for a more relaxing visit, starting on Monday.

We visited the Peacock Garden on Monday afternoon. Then we went to Einhan Resort (映涵) for dinner, and when it was getting dark we took a leisure walk on the nearby Ita Thao Pier (伊達邵碼頭). We stayed at Sun Moon Lake Youth Activity Center (日月潭青年活動中心) for the night. On Tuesday morning we went to the Butterfly Garden (蝴蝶園) and had a look inside. We then walked along the Lakeside Trail (伊達邵親水步道) for some time. After that, we moved to Xuanzang Temple (玄奘寺 a Buddhist temple) where we stayed for a longer time enjoying "the best view" of Sun Moon Lake. Like Jean's and my previous trip here last Friday, we had lunch at Sun Moon Restaurant (日月餐坊) yesterday. And, finally, we all ate delicate ice-cream after lunch at the same store as Lynn, Catherine, Jean, and I did last Friday.

What a wonderful trip we had yesterday and the day before! It was Little Bee's first real visit to Sun Moon Lake; however, before he was born, he had been carried here by Anita in her body! [See also 明潭二日 (食、宿) and 明潭二日 (蝴蝶園、纜車).]

日月潭的孔雀園 (The Peacock Garden)

#2013-0916

「走！看孔雀去！」----我們今天帶著 小蜜蜂 前往日月潭，參觀位於環湖公路旁的一座專門飼養孔雀的動物園。

這座「迷你型」動物園設立於 1968 年 10 月。園中約有 200 多隻孔雀，主要是藍孔雀，亦有白孔雀、綠孔雀，還有其它名貴禽鳥，例如：金雞、銀雞、長尾雉、台灣藍鵲 (Formosan Blue Magpie; also called "long tail mountain lady") 等等。

而我們一家大小最感興趣的，莫過於藍孔雀了。藍孔雀也叫印度孔雀 (The Indian Peafowl)，主要產於巴基斯坦、印度和斯里蘭卡等地。在求偶季節，雄性鳥會「開屏」展現他那華麗無比的尾羽 ---- 他 (the male peacock) 還是印度的國鳥呢！

「孔雀漂亮嗎？」「孔雀漂亮極了，對不對？」「可是 . . . 他們今天沒有『開屏』！」