A visual delight in April.

A scholar's gardening.

Spring colours.

On the new season.

To the Year of the Horse.

A poetic rendering of a failed attempt to visit a Buddhist master.

To my new neighbours after the rain.

A story of plum thieves.

On Pu Zongmeng 蒲宗孟 (fl. 11th century), courtesy name Chuanzheng 傳正, etc.

A 13th-century account of hot pot.

Frosty views of the new year.

On the current solar term.

郭尚賢嘗云服餌導引之餘有二事，乃養生大要，梳頭、浴腳是也。尚賢每夜先髮後腳方寢，自曰：“梳頭浴腳長生事，臨臥之時小太平。” Guo Shangxian once suggested that, in addition to taking medicine and practising gymnastics, there are another two crucial matters for cultivating one’s life: hair-combing and foot-bathing. Every night, he would not rest before [attending to] his hair and then his feet. As he remarked: Combing hair and bathing feet are to cultivate longevity: A grain of serenity at the moment of repose.   * From Tao Gu 陶穀  (903-970

A winter visit.

Persimmon season

A glimpse of Anhua, Hunan: past and present.