Study corner
mandarinboy
September 13, 2008, 05:17 PM posted in General Discussion
When my family went to China this summer I had to stay in Sweden to work. With all that free time at my hands I decided to start building my own study corner where I could sit and study Chinese. The reason is that it feels so much easier to study for me if I do it in the garden listening to the water splashing and the wind rattle the bamboo leafs. I have planted a lot of bamboo, added some marble benches, planted Japanese sherry tree etc. While studying in Beijing I did most of my studying in the purple bamboo park. Even if it not finished yet it is still a nice place to sit and study. Next summer I will plant much more bamboo, add a rock garden, a fish pond and some lotus flowers. This is for me good study strategy, relaxing and inspiring.
mandarinboy
September 13, 2008, 07:42 PM
It is a start on something that will end up as an Asian garden. The original intention where to just make some vegetable plant boxes for Chinese vegetables but once I started it expanded. My wife liked it very much so now she have more or less ordered me to build a full fledge Asian garden twice as big as it is now. Good for the family, I sit and study my wife likes to fix with the vegetables and my daughter love the water stones. Sadly I live in Sweden so the season for this is very short. Anyway, this winter I will start my new project, to carve out Chinese characters in the flat rock that is beside the garden. I once visited Yellow Mountains and where impressed of the extremely large Chinese characters they had carved out to the rocks on the mountain tops. When working with computers all day I really need to do something with my hands as well.
calkins
September 13, 2008, 10:14 PMNow I'm really impressed...佩服 (just learned that from xiaohu!).
你是一个优秀的工匠！
changye
September 14, 2008, 12:55 AM你真是个爱风花雪月的风流才子啊！今晚好好欣赏十五的月亮吧。
mandarinboy
September 14, 2008, 05:53 AM谢谢。你们太客气。
What we grew in the hotbeds is油菜 (qing cai). I guess that everyone living in China have eaten it a lot. It is a very nice vegetable to grow in any country. I take only 3-4 weeks from saw to harvest. It will continue to grow as long as the temperature is more than 6 degrees centigrade. You can steam fry it or fry it in a pan. I like to chop it to pieces and blend it in minced meat when I make a sort of burgers. Easy, fast and tasty.
calkins
September 13, 2008, 07:13 PMVery cool! Where do you live? I want to come over to study there! Did you build this by yourself? I'm very impressed.