“What a strange thing! to be alive beneath cherry blossoms.” ― Kobayashi Issa
outdoors
Your First Line of Defense
I’m not a very gifted umbrella user. I find them unwieldy and that they often have a mind of their own. I find that they are very fickle- you kick one around, treat it irreverently, or make a smart remark about one and you’ll find that it will spitefully turn inside out on you during the next down pour. But god love them when it’s raining, you always want to find yourself armed with one.
Here in Taipei, umbrellas can be used for many more reason than just sheltering from rain. In fact here are the top 5 uses of umbrellas in Taipei:
- for protection from the rain
- for protection from the sun
- for emphasis when trying to make your point – older people tend to wave or shake their umbrellas at you when they are trying to make a point
- to hit or maim others on the sidewalk- umbrella violence peaks on days when it has been raining for consecutive days
- to shoo away stray dogs, cats, or kids
As if those 5 reasons weren’t enough to entice you to carry an umbrella, the selection of polka dotted umbrellas, striped umbrellas, and novelty umbrellas will let you color coordinate and match your every whim and mood.
Hope in the Darkness
Having spent almost 2 weeks:
- hiking through the rural countryside
- dealing with flooding “motels”
- having an allergic reaction to a Nicaraguan bee sting
- visiting a woman owned coffee co-op, talking to banana plantation workers suffering the after effects of being poisoned by Nemagon (a chemical pesticide)
- nearly getting locked in a clothing assembling factory in the free trade zone
- and a million other things (Posts for another day)
I just wanted to collapse. Instead, I let myself get talked into waking up super early to go on a hike through some dark, dense, and damp forest.
I woke up early, met with my hiking buddies, and we started exploring Selva Negra, a cloud forest in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. I had never been in a cloud forest before, so while it was really (really) early, the experience of stepping out into the strong morning sun for a quick hike with friends before breakfast was rather startling. However, I was more startled by just how quickly we were then swept into the shadows as the low lying clouds of the forest blocked out the sunlight and the fog, mist, and dampness surrounded us.
The trail that had been recommended to us seemed a little bit unkempt, as we found many fallen trees, a broken bridge, and several rivers we needed to cross. Somehow all that didn’t seem to matter the more enveloped in the mist we became.
The momentary respite from the mental and physical drain of traveling around Nicaragua studying the history, the culture, and the ongoing development projects was washed away. In the still, quiet beauty of this cloud forest I remembered that while the country of Nicaragua still faces many obstacles, it has great strength and much beauty to offer.
“The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods” – Robert Frost
Bridge to Beauty
“A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” -Henry David Thoreau
Always Take the Road Less Traveled (Except When Raining)
According to the multiple weather forecasting websites I visited while checking the weather for Thursday, all were pretty much saying the same thing be it in words “partly cloudy,” in picture with a picture of a little sun peeking out from behind a cloud, or in numbers a 20% chance of precipitation was forecasted. The rest of the week was showing signs of rain with deteriorating weather making those days not prime for adventuring, so I decided to take my chances with the decently forecasted weather, make a break from the city, and head to Yehliu Geopark.
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