December in Review

 

Today the weather has changed. From cooler, cloudy and misty days, the wind has picked up and warmer air arrived, blowing cloud-shadows across the face of the hillsides on the other side of the Mekong.

The warmth will be welcome. When the mornings are cold, our north-facing house feels chilly with no sun. Double duvet needed. I have a seat in the one sunny corner of the garden to sit and read!

Damian and Da have started work on a new house at the back of ours, replacing the ugly platform that was there. It's good to see rapid progress and will be a great improvement.

My birthday was a lovely day with plenty of messages courtesy of Trevann's post on Facebook!

FB really is a two-edged sword. We all despise its nasty algorithmic marketing and data-stealing ways but it also delights when it enables us to keep in touch with old and new friends.

When not scrolling through our phones, we went for a lovely long walk across the other side of the river, up the hill to a favourite spot where there is a forest temple and then back across the ferry at sunset for a well-earned cocktail at the Belle Rive Hotel. A once-a-year treat.

 Then of course Christmas was upon us. It doesn't greatly impinge on us here. Our lovely Swiss neighbours gave us some cookies, there are the inevitable Christmas trees in the hotels and a smattering of Santa costumes but otherwise the day passed peacefully.

To be fair, these aren't Christmas presents, they're gifts for the temple for merit-making.

Christmas dinner may not be traditional but it was mighty filling

Meanwhile work continued on the Nam Khan River bank project.

And the banana flower continued to develop.

And, talking of weather, there's something brewing out to the west. Holly is on her way! Currently at Heathrow and flying into Bangkok tomorrow. We'll meet her at LP airport on Monday. Can't wait!

This little girl was trying out her outfit for Hmong New Year in the village.

So different in the dry season. We've had no rain since September. But it's lovely to have clear air again today.

Mostly Banana Flowers

We were ridiculously excited to discover that one of the banana trees in the garden had developed a flower while we weren't looking. Photographing this event took up most of November it seems. How beautiful is that. We're not convinced that the fruit will be good. Apparently some varieties are not good eaters. We shall see.

In other news:

Trevann has been playing with mud pies, making concrete stepping stones

The bourgainvilleas are gorgeous at this time of year. We've had no rain for a month or more but they don't seem to mind.

Baby bananas starting to develop.

There's a simple roadside shrine at the base of Mount Phousi where candles are lit on full moon nights.

When it's full moon all the temples are lit up and it's a beautiful time to walk around town, enjoying the warm evening air.

Yes, we have more bananas.

Just a French colonial style house with a tuktuk parked outside. 

The Nam Khan River.

Town centre temple

I planted the avocado that I grew from a stone. It's doing well.

Amazing little spiders.

We called in to see our landlord Damian, who is laid up following ACL surgery. His house is on the next hill along from ours so has a similar though different view.