The sheet was a very effective protective device, keeping my four-footed "children" off the dishes. Foiled by the sheet, they gave up and took catnaps.
This is Buttercup, who, for a few more hours, is still the baby of the house.
Whitey is the senior citizen cat at age 14. She takes lots of naps.
Jennie in her favorite place, a pile of towels on the end of the kitchen counter by the back door. The towels are there to put on the floor on days when Madison would otherwise be tracking in mud on his paws. Jennie lies on top of the stack and leaves the rest of the counter alone, so I let her stay there.
This is Princess Margaret Ann Mouse, aka Meggie (named after Meg Ryan, actually.) She too was in her favorite place on the shelf in the garage. She rarely comes out of the garage, but seems happy as a clam there. Notice the sign warning plumbers, etc. not to open the crawl space door, which is directly under Meggie's shelf, without letting me know so I can herd any and all cats into the house and shut the door leading into the kitchen. Meggie got under there once and I had a devil of a time getting her out.
There really is a cat in the above picture. Charlie's favorite napping spot is under the bedspread on my bed. If you look closely you'll see a small lump on the left center side--that's him. Every now and then I go by and give him a pat and get a muffled "meow" in response.
Shortly before the guests were to arrive I removed the sheet from the table and poured ice water into the glasses. The little green and white striped boxes on the plates are cloisanne' bells from China, which I used as favors. The end plate doesn't have a box, since that's my seat, nearest the kitchen.
Here are some of my eight guests enjoying wine and the raw veggies and dip appetizer that one guest brought. I normally have seating for eight, including myself, but I ended up with nine this time due to a mixup on the part of the coorinator. Thankfully, I have a card table and plenty of plates, tableware, etc., so the more the merrier.
I realize I should have taken a picture of the table once the food was out, but by then I was so busy I forgot. Later I was having such a good time that I continued to forget. Therefore, you must imagine the menu, which included, along with my tabouleh and baked mustard-crusted wild caught salmon, zuccini with garbonzo beans, a mixed green salad, home baked rye bread, and for dessert, fresh strawberries over angelfood cake topped with lite Cool Whip. It was a feast for both the eyes and the palate. The food got raves, and everyone asked for recipes for the tabouleh and salmon.
The conversation was fascinating, as it always is. One of my guests is a transplant from New Orleans to Carbondale, and was a Katrina refugee. His home was destroyed, so he moved here to be closer to family in our area. His tales of the storm and the aftermath were interesting and scarey. Before the hurricane hit he escaped in his truck with two duffel bags of clothes, his computer and two pieces of valuable artwork. (He had a lot of additional art pieces, many of which were destoyed beyond restoration possibility.) He told us he lost so much that it has given him a new viewpoint on life. "If I drop something and break it, " he said, "I just think, 'oh well, it's only a thing.' The importance of 'things' in my life has been reduced to almost nothing."
We also talked about China. One couple had been there 20 years ago and we compared notes and discussed changes in the country.
By 9 pm all the guests had gone. By 10 pm, the candles were extinguished, everything was put back in its place, the dish washer was running, the tablecloths and napkins were churning in the washing machine, and I retired to my bed to stretch out and contemplate my next Supper Club, which will be in June. It's going to be hard to top the salmon, but I'll think of something!
This is adorable Phoebe, Carol's miniature horse. Carol says she has let her into the house, but she stayed outdoors while I was there. I've heard miniature horses are so smart they can be trained to be helper animals for the handicapped. And this one is very friendly as well.
This will give you a better idea of just how tiny Phoebe really is! She was happy when I put grain into her feed dish. (I'm not much of a farm hand, having been a "town kid" all my life, but I braved the corral in order to get these pictures.)
After that we went to the Tea Institute. Saw tea growing, how it is dried and served.
Not only are the plants in the foreground tea bushes, but the plants on the hillside as far as you can see are also tea bushes.
This man is hand drying tea for some of the more expensive types. All tea starts out from the same plant; differences in taste, aroma, etc. result from when the tea is picked and how it is dried and processed.
The Chinese can be very whimsical. This ornamental pond at the Tea Institute has a "teapot" fountain.
We were seated around a large table and given glasses with a pinch of tea. Then a woman came around pouring hot (not boiling) water into the glasses. Our tea guide explained that water for tea should never brought to a boil, as it "kills" the tea. The water is ready when little bubbles appear on the bottom of the heating vessel.
Baskets of various types of tea were passed around and we were invited to smell the differences. There actually is a difference between the higher and lower grade teas.
Peter, you're supposed to sniff it, not dive into the basket!
A glass of tea made from a "magic" tea flower. Perfectly lovely and also very drinkable.
The Ligong Pagoda at the entrance to the Lingyin Temple grounds was built in honor of the Indian monk who gave the nearby mountain its name. He thought it was the spitting image of a mountain in his home of India and he asked if the mountain had flown there. Hence the name of the hill, Feilai Feng ( the Peak that Flew Here).
Lingyin Si (temple) is known not only for the large camphor wood Buddha, but also for the 470 Buddhist carvings lining the riverbanks and hillsides, dating from the 10th to 14th centuries.
It would be interesting to know how the artists managed to carve these rocks without falling into the river.
All the buildings are temples, active houses of worship, and photographs are not permitted inside. However it is acceptable to snap what you can from outside the door. Below is The Hall of the Four Guardians, containing four huge colorful figures, one of which you can see fairly well.
Above is the Great Hall, which houses the 72-ft high camphor wood Buddha. This Buddha was sculpted from 24 blocks of wood in 1956, and is a replicable of a Tang dynasty original.
Again, shooting from outside the door, I was able to get a pretty good picture of the huge Buddha. Many Chinese were buying incense and bowing and praying in all parts of the park area, but especially in front of this building and inside before the Buddha.
Rainbow, our guide, told us she comes to Shanghai several times a year and the skyline changes with every visit. We saw cranes, steamshovels, and other evidence of construction on every hand. This city of 17 milion--17 million!--people, the largest city in China, is surging into the 21st century with a growth spurt that astounds even the locals. (But you still can't drink the tap water!)
A local woman was selling postcards on the Bund. I bought a clutch of postcards and asked her to pose with me for a picture. She got the last laugh, though, because the postcards were at least several months old and do not feature the 101-story "can opener". By the time they come out with a set of postcards that do feature this unusual structure, other buildings will no doubt have risen to change the skyline once again. As Beijing went into a building frenzy leading up to the 2008 Olympiad, Shanghai is racing to complete shopping malls, hotels, and towering office buildings in preparation for hosting the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. 
If you turn away from the river and Pudong and look across the Bund, you see the hotels, banks, offices and clubs that flourished during the time Shanghai was colonized by the British, French, and Americans in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The contrast between the staid, older buildings and the gleaming towers across the river is fascinating.
The white cloth at the bottom of the above picture shows part of a silk comforter. The colorful silk above it a duvet cover.
More examples of the large stones from Tai Lake, which appear in nearly every large Chinese garden.
I always associated bonzai with Japan, but apparently it is another Chinese art borrowed by the Japanese. We saw a lot of beautiful bonzai arrangements in this garden.
Here's a preview of the lake cruise, but I'm stopping here. The next China blog will be the last for this trip, and hopefully will be up tomorrow.
The largest Canal in China, the Grand Canal, lies just outside Suzchou, and is linked to the city's canals. The Grand Canal, begun in 486 BC, originally was meant to link the Yangzi and Yellow Rivers and the (then) southern and northern capital cities. It remains the world's largest man-made waterway, although the altered course of the Yellow River has reduced the Grand Canal's use for major transport. Its 1,112 miles do, however, link Beijing with the south all the way to Shaghai and Hangzhou.
We did a drive by of the olympic stadium, (the "Bird's Nest"--and yes, it does somewhat resemble a bird's nest)) but the picture isn't very good, even after enhancing. It's set well back from the road, the picture was taken through the bus window, and there was quite a bit of haze in the early morning air. Beijing is noted for its serious air pollution problems, but most days it wasn't too bad. I had brought along a filtered mask just in case, but didn't need it.
This lovely young Chinese woman showed us how the pearls are harvested from the fresh water oysters grown at the plant. She was typical of the local guides at the places we visited in that she spoke a precise English with a similar accent (were they all educated at the same school?) and was attractive and sophisticated. I expect these are plum jobs for young women in China.
Quoting from "Eyewitness Travel, Beijing & Shanghai": " The sprawling grounds of the Summer Palace served the Qing dynasty as an imperial retreat from the stifling summer confines of the Forbidden City." The book goes on to describe how the grounds were remodeled several times through the centuries, most notably by the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who is remembered as one of China's most powerful women.
This is our Beijing tour guide, Anna, another lovely young Chinese girl, age 26. Because of the angle she's holding it, it's hard to see the "SB 3" sign. "SB" stands for "Santa Barbara", which was our designated group name for the trip. The entire group from California was divided into 3 buses, and ours, bus 3, was the smallest group at 21. Each bus had its own tour guides in both Beijing and Shanghai. These folks are very knowledgable about their areas and their English is excellent, if occasionally a little quirky. 
bought some odd foods on a stick. This is Peter eating deep fried scorpion. I kid you not! And he did actually eat some of it.
This woman is carving a jade piece. The size of items ranged from tiny ornaments to huge sculptures. Jade is a semi-precious gemstone, revered in China for centuries. Originally used for tools in Neolithic times because of its hardness and strength, later jade appeared on ornaments and in funerary treasures. Pure white jade is the highest prized, but the stones vary in translucency and color, including many shades of green, brown, and black.
This sculpture was in the lobby of the restaurant adjacent to the cloisonne' factory. Not a Buddha, but another revered Chinese figure whose name, sadly, I did not write down.
This worker is soldering individual metal cloisons to enamelware. The lines of cloisons form separate designs which eventually will be inlaid with various colored enamels. 
This woman was our local guide in the cloisonne' factory. Here she's pointing out the details of a partially painted vase. The items are fired after each application of enamel, painted, fired, painted, fired, etc. then finally polished to a high gloss. Large items can take months from start to finish. Cloisonne' is one of several traditional Chinese arts.
This sign in "Chinglish" attempts to explain something about Cloisonne' to English-speaking visitors. It is typical of signs we saw in other localities illustrating that literal translations are often just not possible.
Group picture! This is one of several that were taken during our China trip. Most of the travelers were from Solvang, CA or nearby, but I was there from Illinois, Barbara from San Diego, and Bob and Mike from Malibu. I'm in the center in the red jacket. Carol is on my right and her brother Bob is on my left.
Carol and I have been planning for months to "dance on The Great Wall". And here we are, along with Barbara! Notice who is out of step.
A few sections of the thousands of miles of the Wall have been restored and are open to the public; however most of its length is in various stages of crumbling ruin and is too dangerous for visitors to climb. Originally a series of unconnected earthen ramparts built by local chieftains to protect their own states, the Great Wall was created only after the unification of China in the 3rd century BC. Watch towers were spaced two arrow shots apart to leave no part of the wall unprotected. The towers also served as signal towers, forts, living quarters, and storerooms for provisions. Many parts of the wall were reconstructed during the Ming dynasty (1468-1644). Those Mings were busy guys.
It was a little difficult to eat and watch the performers at the same time, stopping often to applaud, but we managed.
This is the Tian'an Men Gate, entrance to famed Tien'an Men Square, a huge open concrete space, familiar to most Westerners as the site of the bloody student protests in 1989. Chairman Mao's Mausoleum is a focal point within the square, and his portrait, also familiar to many Westerners, looms over the street opposite the gate.
Mao's Mausoleum is the low building at left center. Our tour passed through the middle of the square from one end to the other, so we were not closer than this to the tomb. Visitors are permitted, but we didn't have enough time.
Carving the Peking Duck. Yummy but very greasy!
Me with the "Peking Duck" who stands outside the restaurant where we ate some of his family.
