Pingle

We took a two hour bus trip to this ancient charming little village last Saturday.  Pingle--where time stands still.

  

I would like to carbon test this bridge.  Perhaps I'll have to settle for picturing lovers strolling it back during some bygone dynasty...

  

Boot repair.

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This nifty little beanie was fresh off her needles.  I loved that she wanted to pose!

This gal is constructing shoes from the base up!  I'd love to be her apprentice.  When things go down, I don't know anyone who makes shoes.

Chinese chess on a lazy Saturday afternoon which probably looks the same at high noon, tea time, after school, pre- supper, post- supper, pre-breakfast, midday, day in and day out...

This one is for Shelly.  Why don't you take your mending business out on the street?  Or into a mall parking lot?  Or under a bridge?  We're so stifled by convention.

 "It's not easy being white..."

 Smiling seamstress.  She bolsters my theory that the truly happy amongst us are not wearing 3 piecers on Wall Street...

I KNOW this gal and I could be best friends...if we didn't have to talk.  This is the first cable I've seen anyone knitting here.  And knitting in a leather mini-skirt...well, I'm just saying.  She's cool.

 I caught this shot of this little girl just before she got all giggly and normal and started flashing those annoying rabbit ear things with her fingers.  That wienie on a stick is the MOST common snack I see kids toting around.  I can smell them before I see them.

My lunch!!  This noodle base looked like putty.  She kneaded it in a bowl and then pounded it over and over and over, forcing the "dough" through the holes.  voile!  Noodles!

Looks like I'm not the only one eating noodles!  I have NEVER seen babies loved and doted on like I see every single day here. I never tire of them.

Radishes.

This baby was playing with a pair of scissors about half her height.

A peak into a private residence.

The 15 pictures before this and the 10 after were of two obnoxious little boys who wouldn't stay out of my camera range.  The fact that I captured this was nothing short of a miracle.  Because we were out in a remote village, we saw what appeared to be families with more than one child.  That rule has always been lax in the country for farmers.

Randomly placed shoes on a roof.  Perhaps they are drying.

Oh, how I love this picture.

I'm accumulating a ridiculous number of pictures of brooms and mops.  That post is yet to come.  This one sneaked in.

Initially, I thought this was a basket in the making, but I'm now leaning towards a fence.

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"Look guys!  More Americans.  I tell ya.  They're somethin', aren't they? Funny lookin'.  Hey, did you hear the one about the guy from Brooklyn..."

Coolie hat/lid.  Oh, for unlimited time and appetite...I would taste the wares of every street cook I meet.

I even find the haphazard junk and trash artistic.  The centuries of grime make for some great contrasts.

Our Chinese friend told us this little toy vending soul is 97.  I think I paid top price for a little wooden clacker deal, but she didn't groan when I took her picture.

The mountains where we would have gone with more time.  Heaven only knows how hard the enterprising locals tried to make that happen for us.