Babel School in Taiwan

This week the nature class brought us to Fuyang EcoPark 富陽自然生態公園  . This park is famous for frogs, butterflies and flying squirrels. Unfortunately the rainy weather has partially ruined our walk. I am sure we will have to visit Fuyang Park again to fully enjoy the animals living there and it's nature. Because it rained on us twice throughout the afternoon, I didn't take too many pictures as I was trying to hide under the umbrella trying to stay dry. The hill that the park is located on used to be an ammunition warehouse space. In the 1970th due to expansion of the Taipei city and the residential building being build close by, the depot was moved, but the hill still remained under military control and was closed to public. Situation has changed in 1990th when the plans for a park started to take shape. But only in 2006 the park was officially opened. One can say that thanks to the many years that the area was closed to the public, now we can enjoy the almost unspoil...

Chyba powinnam była studiować entomologię ... Ostatnio pochłania mnie przeglądanie książek i stron internetowych z różnymi owadami. Wczoraj "straciłam" prawie godzinę na obserwacji dopiero co "wyklutej" ćmy.  Nigdy wcześniej się specjalnie nie uczyłam niczego o owadach ani też nimi nie interesowałam, ale odkąd mieszkamy na Tajwanie i to na dodatek w górach, to co rusz spotykam na swojej drodze jakieś mniej lub bardziej ciekawe osobniki i nie sposób przejść koło nich obojętnie.  Chodząc po naszym osiedlu łatwo natknąć się na różnego rodzaju robaki, motyle, pająki i inne stwory. Wiosna jest okresem wzmożonej ich aktywności, więc należy mieć oczy szeroko otwarte. Wczoraj rano przechodziłam obok tych krzaków (przechodzę obok nich codziennie) i coś osobliwego przykuło moją uwagę.  Poza mnóstwem małych i dużych żółtych gąsienic, o których napiszę może innym razem: Cały krzak był jedzony żywcem! A na jednym listku siedziała nowiuteńka, młodziute...

Most of us would take kids to the Water Park in Taipei in summer to cool down. Well ... it's not summer yet so what were we doing there? No fountains, water slides, pools were open - too cold for Taiwanese people. There is a Museum of Drinking Water in the park, but the 3-5 year-olds were a bit too young for that. Besides it was a nature class! And that's what we were doing - observing nature in the park. Museum of Drinking Water is located in a Japanese era building (for more info follow the link). Maybe next time we will visit it inside? Let me first show you the plants we observed: This plant has spores on the under-leaf, just like other ferns. It it called nest fern ( Esplenium nidus - 山蘇 or 鳥巢蕨 - Zanokcica gniazdowa). In Taiwan this fern can be eaten as a vegetable (I love it!), but in Hong Kong it is under protection. We learned very interesting things about fig tree ( Ficus Septica  - 棱果榕 - rodzaj figowca). It's flowers are hidden inside a fig ...