The Spring Weekend-Plum, Cherry Blossom and Spider

Spring is coming, which means the weather is changeable (as people say “the stepmother’s face” ha-ha) and the best time to see cherry blossoms. Many Taiwanese like to travel to Japan where a wide variety of “ sakura” (さくら) are in abundance. Not wanting to go too far, I chose the shortest driving route to explore the spring flower sightings.

Taiwan Cherry, native to low-medium elevation broadleaved forest,hang like bells

One day ago, I got up earlier around 7:00 and headed to Mei-ling where just one-hour drive to my house. Mei-ling is famous for many crops of “mei” there (“mei”=“plum”, normally blooms in cold weather) and the top of the mountain is around 1,059 meters high. Due to a seasonably cold winter this year, some plum flowers are still vibrant on the hill in the end of February, kind of an added bonus!!More than that, it also has some different flowers such as Taiwan Cherry and the Common Melastoma bursting with the hillside at the moment.

Plum Flowers ="Mei"

Flowers growing alongside the hillside, I got into the seasonal spirit and soaked up brilliant colours of green, purple, red, light purple, pink and some lovely white.

Bees and butterflies undoubtedly match with flowers, but surprisingly, even the spider could not resist the attraction from flowers. Have you ever seen a spider spin its web to grab the flower? Is the flower an elf and be caught by the evil, black-and- yellow spider? I stood there for a while and still felt unbelievable about what I discovered.

I didn't dare to bother “the spider “fishing” a dying flower” in the wild nature, anyway, that is what makes the nature is, isn’t it? Birds singing, Spiders fishing, flowers blossoming…and nearly at noon time, people gradually surged to enjoy the beautiful scenery…the mountain is so so so alive!!! And it is about time to down the hill.


See more about Mei-ling:  
http://www.siraya-nsa.gov.tw/MainWeb/article.aspx?L=1&SNO=04000685

Hatta Yoichi and the Great Wusanto Reservoir

Hatta Yoichi, a great Japanese engineer, who built up Wusanto Reservoir for Taiwan, has its own memorial park in Tainan. The park is completely Japanese style and many interior decorations and materials are donated by Hatta’s relatives. I have been here many times, and today I saw more many Japanese visiting there.

Some red lanterns hanging to celebrate the New Year here

After visiting the memorial park, I turned right to walk along the Wusanto Reservoir road, there is a steam locomotive on the hill, which was made by Belgium and once used for carrying rubbles, working staffs and the residents in the past. Its great contribution is as important as Hatta Yoichi; therefore, people preserve it well in order to honour the efforts have been put to the Wusan Reservoir dam construction plan.

When the second war happened, Hatta Yoichi died and his second son went for the war and didn't survive as well. Hatta Yoichi’s wife was extremely desperate and finally jumped into the pump station of Wusanto Reservoir to commit suicide at her age of 45.

Hatta Yoichi adopted the latest “Semi Hydraulic Fill” technique to design the Wusan Reservoir dam, which is better than that in the US and became one of a kind in Asia, later was called as “The Hatta Yoichi Embankment”. The spirit of Hatta Yoichi is on people’s minds. With his excellent skills and the team members, including local Taiwanese labours, the Wusan Reservoir dam that was built by their working hand-in-hand together is very beneficial for agriculture and water supply in the Southwest Taiwan. It also symbolized the peaceful cooperation between Taiwan and Japan at that time.

After he died, Taiwan local farmers and colleagues who worked with him before set up a statue for him to praise his contributions to the southwest plain. Its design amis to deliver the image that a great engineer is always seriously thinking for better constructions. And behind of it is the tomb of the Hatta couple.

The statue is built under the trees and from the angle of it, Mr. Hatta can directly looks upon the great Wusanto Reservoir, which is really a master’s work in Taiwan’s history.

八田與一和烏山頭水庫

一位偉大的日本工程師Hatta Yoichi，為台灣建立了Wusanto Reservoir,在台南有座自己的紀念公園。公園完全是日本風格，很多室內裝飾和材料都是由Hatta Yoichi的親戚捐贈的。我去過很多次了，今天我看到更多的日本人在那裡參觀。

在參觀了紀念公園後，我右轉沿著烏山頭水庫公路行走，山上有一輛蒸汽火車，是由比利時製造的，曾用於運送粗石，工作人員和居民。它的貢獻與Hatta Yoichi一樣重要。因此，為了榮誌烏山頭水庫大壩建造計劃的努力，人們將它保存得很好。

第二次戰爭發生時，Hatta Yoichi去世了，他的第二個兒子參加了戰爭，也沒有倖存下去。Hatta Yoichi的妻子非常絕望，最後跳入烏水頭水庫泵站，在45歲時自殺。

Hatta Yoichi採用最新的“半液壓填充”技術設計了比美國更好的烏山頭水庫大壩，並成為亞洲之一，後來被稱為“Hatta Yoichi大堤”。Hatta Yoichi的精神在人們的腦海裡。憑藉出色的技能和團隊成員，包括當地的台灣人的勞工，有著大家攜手共同建設的烏山頭水庫大壩，對台灣西南部的農業和供水非常有利。這也象徵了當時台灣與日本的和平合作。

在他去世後，台灣當地的農民和同他一起工作的同事為他建立了一座雕像，頌讚他對西南平原的貢獻。它的設計目的在傳達一位偉大的工程師總是認真思考更好的建築的形象。雕像的後面則是Hatta Yoichi的填墓。

雕像建在樹下，從它的角度來看，Hatta Yoichi先生可以直接看到偉大的烏山頭水庫，這是臺灣歷史上真正的大師級作品。

Get some Nordic Sense in the cold winter

Far more than Viking in the past, well-designed brands such as IKEA, NOKIA, and PANDORA are the image of Nordic lifestyle nowadays.

IKEA (home furnishing products #Sweden): http://www.ikea.com/

D.I.Y???well..not so perfect for me!

NOKIA (mobile technology # Finland): 

http://company.nokia.com/en/about-us

Oh,yes, I have one! 

PANDORA (jewelry #: Denmark) http://www.pandora.net/zh-tw/explore/pandorauniverse

(Source:PANDORA Official website)...girly things!!

 IKEA, NOKIA, PANDORA …what else products are from Nordic island? Three things here are probably known by many  

The Moomins

It originally published in Finland, just look at these white, roundish fairy tale characters with large snouts, you are on your way to healing. Although they are carefree, living in the Moominvalley, they have had many adventures along with their various friends.

(Source: Wiki)

 Beowulf

This article is about the Old English epic poem and I saw the fantastic movie version many years before (2007), and two famous actors I know: Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins are in the film. As the poem is set in Scandinavia, Beowulf- a hero of the Geats, the Monster- known as Grendel, and the Monster’s mother-a mysterious,  and coquettish woman (never given a name in the text) vividly jump out of the movie and are full of Norse mythology.

Thor

With fierce-eyed, red-haired and red-bearded appearance and wielding the magic ironhammer, in Norse mythology, Thor, son of Odin, owns the greatest strength and is associated with thunder, lightning, storms, also is the guardian of human beings.

He is absolutely a great guy in Norse legends, while the first time I know about him is from the movies, and the actor Chris Hemsworth really brings the tough god alive for us!