Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Pretty Flowers #2

One of my first bookmarks was made out of the photo above.  Closer-up of box corner below:

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Pretty Flowers #1

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Solitary Nail

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Focus Shift with Razor Wire

This and the next half-dozen or so posts were captured while hiking up the hill past the temple and garden area.  A lot of stuff from this hike was posted before; these are random things from this trip that I found interesting or different.

Regarding the above, don't see a whole lot of this type of security in Taiwan - at least the places we went and stayed.  Focus shifted below to the building:

Taiwan - New Taipei Street Scenes, Play Yard Fence

...the fence on the other side of the school play yard; bus stop on the street to the immediate left.

Taiwan - New Taipei Street Scenes, Rainy Court

A basketball court on the way to our bus stop.

Taiwan - New Taipei Street Scenes, Bicycles

This and the next two posts will be of pictures taken on the streets in the area immediately surrounding the apartment in New Taipei City where we stayed, which belonged to Chenjean's older sister Sue-Liang.  This was our second extended stay there, and both times we had the place to ourselves, as Sue-Liang and her husband now live in the United States.  It was quite handy, as public transportation into Taipei proper was close by, and it was on walks to the bus stop that I captured these scenes.

But there're always the good ones "that got away", as they say.  At times we would be walking down the street, I'd see something and make a mental note to capture it on the way back or another day, but then the chance is gone.

Early one morning, when the light was nice and even during a steady but light rain, we passed a guy that operated his oven out on the sidewalk of a back street.  Bread was baking inside, which you could see through the glass in the door, and the rain created a billow that rose from the top as the water sizzled into steam.  Had the Bigger Cahoona with me, but at the moment it was well tucked under my rain jacket, and since we were in a hurry to catch a bus decided to come back the next morning.  But the opportunity never came again; my intention to re-capture a moment evaporated along with the steam rising the day before.  Think it would have been one of my all-time favorite culture shots.

Maybe another day...

Taiwan - New Taipei Temple Area, Vendor

A vendor stationed near the temple to take advantage of the extra people-traffic...

This'll be it for the temple area - now we'll move on and take a hike up the hill.

Taiwan - New Taipei Temple Area, Lanterns and Buildings / The Way of Books

Now for my favorite of the lot, these red lanterns with the grey, somewhat dingy buildings in the background.

But are bookmarks still used, or are they going the way of scrolls and dot matrix printers?  I was amazed to learn, about ten years ago, that my niece in college up at Baylor did not read hard copy books but relied almost entirely on digital media in obtaining her education.  Think that takes away from the experience of going to the library, looking up a book in the card catalogue, and rummaging through miles of shelving.  And of the feel of a book in your hands as you turn the pages.  Reading can be a tactile experience that adds to the pleasure of learning, in my opinion.  Can't stay with the whip and buggy forever...

To be fair, I lately have taken to buying almost all of my new books on the iPad.  It's handy being able to instantly search a name or other reference back to where it was first mentioned, or looking up a new or unfamiliar word.  In fact, that became so much a habit that I recently found myself pressing a word to look it up, right on the printed page of a magazine I was reading!

Taiwan - New Taipei Temple Area, Lone Betel Nut Tree

Made a bookmark out of the lower third of this picture, which turned out to be surprisingly popular.