Richard Peters -in the Sai Kung Country Park

Fireflies and Moonlight

This is the season for fireflies. Now is the time to get out there into the cooler night air of autumn, find some bamboo or a dark clump of trees and wait for the little green insects to make themselves known to you. One of the nicest sensations I have experienced is to be surrounded by the incessant serenade of crickets, the moon rising ever-higher above the still landscape and then to be suddenly aware of these incandescent beauties gliding between the leaves. Tonight one of these wonders rested in the palm of my hand, giving it an eerily green Hallowe’en-esque glow.

These luminous beetles are not the only nocturnal things that can be seen at the moment. The Hong Kong autumn brings out some of the best the country has to offer and the lower temperatures make for pleasant evening walks. Some of the broader-leaved trees have finished for the year and are dropping their mustard sienna leaves: the dry weather helps them crackle underfoot. Fungi abound (after a bit of rain) and add a musty tang to the usually resinous odours of the forest. Near streams the frogs have only a few more weeks to add their creaky chorus before the cold finally silences them.

Owls are active all year round and one near our village, a very philosophical Scops Owl, goes through a thoughtful session of single hoots most nights. Big blackish-blue or brown Koels, usually more active in spring, may add their shrieks –the monotonous ‘brain fever’ sound.

If you are lucky, you will meet a porcupine or two. They sometimes travel in family groups. If you manage to find a quill or two then sniff the rounded end: distinctively musky and not unlike notes in strong perfumes. I think they smell like hamsters! The sleepy cows in the country park are soporifically docile and are even-more so at night. A family group chewing the cud is actually quite a comforting sight in the twilight. Barking Deer you will probably hear and not see, but you’ll think them dogs anyway. Monkeys are quiet at night unless you go near them in which case they will gently coo to each other.

If you are really lucky then you will bump into a wild boar. These big beasts’ eyes beam intelligence and their keen nose means they will probably smell you long before you know they are on your path. They have a wonderful porky-bacony scent, will grunt a lion-like roar and thrash aimlessly through the brush into the dark. If you are unlucky then you will meet a wild boar sow and, if she has piglets (particularly in spring), might decide to take you on. In that case get up the nearest tree: this is something you needn’t worry about because it will be terrifyingly instinctual –believe me, it’s like having the devil himself after you!

One thing for which we can be grateful is that the wretched mosquitoes are gradually fading away. The snakes, not that they’ve ever bothered me, have also found holes within which to rest up for the winter.

Fireflies (or glow worms as I always called them) are such tirelessly exciting things to spot. At first, you think you are seeing things. Then you think you are going mad and then you think, ‘wait, can they be…’ and there they are! Then you spend the rest of the walk standing still staring into the darkness hoping one will zoom past.

So what are you waiting for? Get thee to a darkened Hong Kong thicket and start your search. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

 

Eins, zwei, drei -leere Ihr Krug! (One, two, three -empty your pitcher!)

Well, there it is -another first (surely can't be too many of those in life left?) in a German Bierfest.

The Hong Kong Marco Polo Hotel German Bierfest is in its' 19th year. It has the air of something not quite right for Hong Kong -a tent full of beer swilling foreign devils singing gwailo oompah...

Except, of course, the tent appeared to be full of locals (and a few of their paying bosses). Maybe it's a sign of how far (or low) things in the Territory have come that it is considered acceptable or even normal for ordinary Chinese folk to be swilling beer-jau with the foreign devils and singing along to the gwailo's dreadful oompah. Whatever next -will the Chinese begin emulating western-style elections with one-man-one-vote? Surely not.

 

Sitting with a contingent of decent Hong Kong Welsh Choristers, Bren was suitably attired in dirndl and skirt. Next year I must get me some proper Bavarian lederhosen complete with Bollenhüte unt edelweiss.

You can imagine the evening -beer, lots of questionable meats, beer, pretzels, red-faced chaps showing their knees, beer, alpenhorns, beer and... beer.

Brenda won the alpenhorn-blowing competition. I swelled (and continue to swell) with pride at her excellent blowing skills. This is a side to Bren that has not had enough airing. Prepare to hear the sound of the alpenhorn wafting across the Sai Kung hills.