First glimpses of the sunflowers

If you've ever wondered why the name of this blog is "Sunflower Beams"...
When I first started this blog, I was looking forward to seeing and sharing photos of the huge sunflower fields in Xinjiang.

We picked an almost ripe sunflower and ate the raw seeds. The seeds are sweet! These sunflowers were  random ones growing in the corn field, not for harvesting, so we plucked them before they were cut down by the havesting machine. 

Pretty! So much bigger than the tiny ones we get from the florist.

Trying different effects using the camera.

 Contrary to popular belief, sunflowers do not track the sun's movement throughout the day! They actually face east. So if you get lost while driving, you can look at the sunflowers to reset your bearings.

Proof: This photo was taken at about 8pm with the sun setting in the west. Notice the sun is shining on the right side of my face, and all the sunflowers in the background are facing away from the sun. The flower in my hand? I twisted it around to face the camera :)

The first of the wedding guests!

Daan's 大伯 (father's oldest brother, pronounced da4 bai1 by the family) and 大妈 (father's oldest brother's wife) travelled from Gansu to Xinjiang to attend our wedding.
We went to pick them up from the train station.

A food stall near the train station. They sell "sheep's head, sheep's stomach, sheep's hooves. You can see the sheep's stomach on the tray on the left.  

At the train station

There's 大伯 in the middle.

大妈 over on the left. We were having corn and beans (home grown) as an afternoon snack. The corn in Xinjiang is really substantial and not sweet at all, not like the types we eat in Singapore and Malaysia.

Notice Daan is not in any of the pictures. He does NOT like to eat corn. His family was poor when he was young, so they did not always have wheat noodles/buns to eat. Daan ate a lot of home-grown corn, so if given a choice now, he doesn't eat corn.

A taste of Mongolia

There are many ethnic mongolians in the northern part of Xinjiang.
We visited a Genghis Khan monument in 温泉 (Wenquan, meaning hotspring) County. 

Leading a very "large" army to war

Attack!

Fish farm and wheat field in 温泉县 (Hotspring County)

Hello! I'm back to share about Xinjiang!

Big brother brought us to a fish farm in 温泉县 (Hotspring County).
There, they rear 冷水鱼 (cold water fish). I hear such fish are rather tough (when you eat them).
The water is ice-melt from the mountains. 

Feeding the fish. They jump out of the water as we sprinkle the feed! Very very fast, couldn't snap a photo.

Mountains and blue skies in the background

This photo was taken just outside the fish farm. Wild horses grazing in the grassland. On the train ride to Xinjiang, I saw wild camels too!

One of the many many wheat fields.

In Xinjiang, wheat is known as 麦子

Close-up look of the wheat. Not white to harvest yet.

First glimpses of the village

I got the order of my photos mixed up, this post should have come before the previous 2, but doesn't matter :)

Daan's big brought us out for many drives throughout the 3 weeks we were there.
Mid-summer is a time for relaxation because the crops are all planted and it's not time for harvest yet.  

The first of many watermelons we ate :)

Watermelons are especially sweet in Xinjiang, they grow very well because of the long summer daylight hours.
They cost $0.90RMB per kg, that's about S$0.60 for a 3kg watermelon!
Big sister-in-law said that when there was a good harvest, they used to sell for $11RMB for a whole gunny sack full of watermelons.
When I came back to Singapore, someone tried to sell me a teensy weensy slice of pale watermelon for S$1 (!!). Needless to say, I didn't buy it and walked away with a *so expensive!!* look on my face.
The Xinjiang way of eating watermelon is to slice it into HUGE slices on any surface (coffee table, flat rock on the ground... who needs chopping boards?!), using a small fruit knife.
Experts allow the juice to drip neatly onto the floor (with no need of wiping up afterwards because there are no ants!), whereas inexperienced watermelon-eaters (like myself) get juice dripping all the way down their forearms, onto their clothes and all over their faces.
The watermelon skins get collected in a plastic basin, to be fed to the chickens (of which every household has a few).
If you happen not to finish your watermelon (which happens rarely, because everyone loves watermelon, and there's usually so many people around), you can just cover the cut surface with a plastic bag and leave the watermelon on the table overnight. No ants!

Early maize. It'll be another 3 months before harvesting. Crops belong to big sis-in-law's family.

 There is very little rainfall in Xinjiang (compared to Singapore).
It just happened that it rained for a few days when we first arrived.
While we were there from end July to early August, daytime temperature reached a peak of 35 degrees celsius, while it's at a cool of about 18 degress at night.
Relative humidity is low, so you hardly feel sweaty or sticky even on a hot day.

Mist after rain. Taken at 5.15pm.

I like how the clouds look :)

Taken at 5.27pm.

Taken at 6.33pm. See how fast the skies clear up!

Skewered mutton kebabs ready for roasting!

Big brother-in-law and father-in-law burning the wool off the sheep's head and legs. Said parts were kept for cooking mutton rice some days later.

Chimney on the rooftop. Smoke issues from kitchen. I assume the bricks on top are used to keep the rain out.

 Mother-in-law has a large vegetable garden just beside the house!
I was helping to cook one day, and after 4th sis-in-law and I decided on the dishes, she said "ok, you can go pluck the vegetables now!"
Talk about fresh food! :)

Carrots on the left, eggplant on the right.

Green chilli. Found in almost every dish, or cooked as a main dish. In Singapore, my mum hardly ever cooks chilli. No wonder Daan always buys so much green chilli whenever we go to the market in Guangzhou - it's staple food! Mystery solved!

Cucumbers

Old cucumber. Wait for it to get even older, and it becomes the brown, crackly-skinned 老黄瓜 that we use to boil soup!

Mumsy enjoying a bit of cucumber.

Stay tuned for more pictures of village life to come! :)

An apple tree! A pity the apples weren't ripe yet.

View from Daan's family home

Well-paved roads, HUGE corn and sunflower plantations that stretch on and on, mountain ranges in the far background all around. Blue skies on clear days and looming clouds on rainy days.
That's the view from Daan's home. Beautiful.
These were all taken on the summer same day.
I hope to see the different views again in autumn, winter and spring :)

Rainbow after a shower

Sunset

Meet the family!

We drove for about an hour before reaching Daan's family home in the village.
It was a big relief for Daan when we reached, because it had been tiring for him bringing us across China all the way from Guangdong province to Xinjiang. It was about 2 years since he last visited his family. We received a very warm welcome.
The moment I stepped out of the car, someone came over to give me a big hug. I hadn't met Daan's family before, so my immediate reaction was "hug first, ask who later!"
It turned out that was my mother-in-law :)

Daan's homecoming was a BIG event!
Everyone was really happy to see him.
To celebrate, the family slaughtered a sheep.

Posing with the sheep before it was slaughtered.

I took a video of the sheep being slaughtered.
A lot of blood was involved, so I shan't post the video here. 
The sheep was silent as it was slaughtered, it brought to mind Isaiah 53:5,7

⁵ But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

Daan used to be a little shepherd-boy when he was about 4 years old.
Early in the morning, he would follow an old shepherd and take his family's sheep out to graze till evening.
What totally different childhood days we had!
When I was 4, I went to my baby-sitter's home, stayed indoors and watched Charlotte's Web on TV!

Later that evening, we had a little barbecue right outside the house.
In the picture are big sis-in-law, her son, 4th brother BBQ-ing and 4th sis-in-law.

Roasted Xinjiang lamb skewers (新疆羊肉串） are YUMMY and smell wonderful! The pieces of meat are alternated with huge chunks of fat on the skewers.
I love the word 串 (chuan), because it looks exactly like what it means, a skewer with chunks of food on it! :)

Roasted sparrows and mutton

 If you're wondering about the strange look on my face, it's because I was really full, too full, in fact.
As I ate, people kept passing me more skewers. "Eat more!", they kept saying.
The sparrows are usually caught during winter when they are not so active, then they are frozen till whenever you're ready to eat them.
Did the sparrows taste nice? A little too bony for my liking. 

Father-in-law with 4-year-old niece

We e-mailed some photos to my brother some days later.
His reply: "They roasted a sheep, and there are only 3 left now? What? You guys ate 1/4 of the family's livestock? That's not good right?"