Our own Jiaojiehe House:

• Home page

• From the west

• From the north-west

• From the south-east

• Interior shell

• Breakfast room

• Master bedroom

• Wooden heart

• More of the interior

• The garden
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• The original house

• Adding the personal touch

Jiaojiehe environs:

• Jiaojiehe valley and the Great Wall

• More local views

• Winter to summer 2006

• Dream Village House
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• The Phoenix
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• Paradise Lost
  (10th Sep 2007)

• Money talks (2007)
  (30th Nov 2007)

• Beauty and the Beast
  (26th Oct 2007)

• Blot on the Landscape (updated 30th May 2009)

• Money talks (2008)
  (20th Nov 2008)

• Jiaojiehe Awards 2009
  (30th May 2009)

• Private Great Wall Hike
  (9th Aug 2009)

The change from winter to summer in north China is stunning. Here is the view of Jiaojiehe taken from the hill opposite out house in February 2006. Despite the warm sunshine, the stream is still frozen. The red outline shows our house and garden in the middle of the village.

Just over two months later at the end of April, the fruit trees are starting to blossom although nearly everywhere else is still brown. In the background, Yuehong's roses (bought from a garden centre) have just been planted and the pile of earth is from what will become a vegetable plot.

There were several such large holes dug by me to remove builder's rubble and lay in a job lot of donkey shit....

A few weeks later, the roses and annuals are blooming profusely and the new lawns are springing up. It was a glorious May morning.

At the bottom of the garden, the beans are just starting. The local French beans cropped much better than the imported Runner beans which seemed very reluctant to set even though their growth was prolific. Just why I am not sure, so many factors could have been at work. At least I have more than enough seeds to try again in 2007!

After May, we were away too long and too often and life during our visits became a constant battle against the weeds, every time we came back it looked like a jungle, which somewhat made me regret earlier statements about the poverty of the soil.... But at least we seem to have been spared too many herbivorous pests. One reason for this is the hordes of small frogs and one or two toads found in every garden here, I always try to keep a corner of the garden a little wild to give them some shelter. 

I am far too embarrassed to show pictures of the jungle.... This is the middle level in early September 2006, despite appearances the lawns are still 10% weeds with lots of empty areas. Next year, the tomatoes and other vegetables are to be banished to the lowest level as we shall have space in other gardens to cultivate. Only the strawberries (and trees) will be left here.