Gardening in Taipei

Those who know me know that I am an enthusiastic gardener.  I'm not an expert, but I like to get my hands dirty and surround myself with peace and nature. I also love to look at gardens and parks.  I think many people in Taipei feel the same.  However, I've got a small yard in a moderately urban setting in which to indulge my gardening needs. Taiwanese live in a crowded urban environment, most often in multistory buildings.  No matter, they find a way to enjoy greenery.

The gathering of pots next to this temple is typical of the gardening efforts of people who live on the ground floor of multistory buildings located in lanes and alleys.

This is a typical sight while walking down lanes and alleys. The planters may be official pots, or random plastic containers salvaged from the recycling truck.

Look closely at our alley. The folks who have the ground floor property have filled their garage area with trees that are poking out into the alley.

This is the lush window garden that is in our bedroom.

I've seen these living walls all around the city.  This one is at the National Taiwan University. The wall is filled with individual potted plants.

Some shops and homes are lucky to have small courtyard areas where they have created green hideaways in the city.

Can you see how this small garden is wedged right up to the building next door?

It's rare to see large open grassy areas. Perhaps that's because they are so hard to maintain.  We didn't see any riding lawn mowers.

I like discovering informal gardens on the edge of alleys,  on balconies and window ledges, and I love the formal parks. However, I think my favorite gardening experience in Taipei was the lot that I walked by every day on my way to the MRT.  When we first arrived I thought this space was an overgrown abandoned lot.  However, I started noticing people digging around in it and taking photos of the flowers.  Before long it became apparent to me that this area, overlooking the entrance to an express way, is a community garden. I hope to show by my photos the progress the community made in transforming it from a winter weed patch into a structured and welcoming green oasis.

Some local gentleman has been weeding, as you can see from the far left of the photo.

If only I could talk to the people I've seen working here.  I have so many questions. I wonder if they are an organized gardening brigade, or do people just drop in to dig as the mood dictates?  I wonder if they had a landscape plan, or is this a randomly planned garden?  Did they have to get a permit from the city? Whatever the answers, the community certainly notices and enjoys this small plot. Those who work in it, are able to indulge in their gardening needs. I know I would be among them if I lived in Taipei.

Central Lush 2-BR Apartment@Guting/Da-an

I love reading the titles of Airbnb listings. Fortunately, the listings include photos and maps so I can figure out where I am considering renting since the titles don't necessarily tell the full story. I have learned to read between the lines to decide if I think the listing is somewhat accurate.  In our case, our apartment is lush because there are some dead Christmas cacti and orchids in the cage attached to the bedroom window.  It does indeed have 2 bedrooms. As far as the Guting/Da-an assignation - that is a bit of a stretch. The Da-an and Guting MRT stations aren't close at all. The apartment is in Da Xue Village (University Village) and is very close to the Taipower MRT and the Gongguan MRT.  I suppose if a potential renter is familiar with Taipei the title of this listing would grab their eye, more than the actual location. Who knows?  We are happy with our selection.

Here's the street sign that indicates you've found our Alley.

Walking toward our building which is on the right, beyond the bicycle.

This is what you see when you first walk into the apartment.

This is the room with the window filled with lush dead plants.

Solomon's room has a crib to the right in the photo.

Here's the two burner cook top and full size refrigerator.  Many apartments have dorm room size refrigerators. I doubt anyone has an actual oven.

If you look closely you can see that we have plenty of appliances: hot water machine, Nespresso machine, blender.  There is also a rice cooker. The door to the left goes to the laundry porch.

Here's where we wash and dry our clothes.  There is no dryer so we hang them on hangars from rods on the ceiling.  We also sort our trash in this room.  It gets pretty crowded on laundry day, but we appreciate being able to wash our clothes.

Bathroom with the Taiwanese shower.  You can see the drain just under the shower curtain.

Bathroom door to the right.  Notice our rubber sandals that we need if we use the bathroom.

The best part of the apartment is that Solomon Soup comes to visit every day.

I could stay in this apartment indefinitely, if I could snuggle with this guy every day.

Soup's On

You may ask, what do we do here in Taipei?  How do we fill our days in a foreign city on the other side of the world?

Mornings are pretty much spent taking care of basic needs, like laundry, mopping the floors, shopping for lunch and dinner, and going out for breakfast.  Taylor and I also take little exploratory trips around the city.  We like to be home by noon though, because that's usually when David brings Soup to our apartment.  That is when the most important part of our day begins.

Soup's first project is to take off his socks.

Tah dah!

We have several story times.

Soup likes to check out his own special cupboard.

There's always a meal or two.

Soup gets tired with all the activity, so he takes naps.

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Grandpa also needs to take a little rest while Soup is snoozing.

Disaster Averted

Last night I broke one end of my size 5 Knit Picks circular knitting needle.

Fortunately, there is a yarn shop in Daxue Village.  I went over there this morning and managed to make my needs known to the shop keeper who knows slightly more English than I know Mandarin.
After measuring my needle she showed me two options for a size 5 circular.  I made my choice and then browsed around in the small, cramped, humid shop.

In spite of the heat, the resident dog wore a sporty sweater.

I thought I was going to get out of the shop with just the needle, and then I spied sale bin.

Who knows if I got a deal, but the yarn is 70% cotton, 30% mystery and quite pretty. I spent 800 twd which is about $25.

What I find amazing about this entire experience is that when I first came to Taiwan in 2011, I was too timid to go out on the street by myself.  Now, I'm out on the street and I'm shopping all by myself.

Where's My Bike?

National Taiwan University

If only I had parked my bike out on the street.

At least there are instructions on how to get my bike on the upper level.

Religion in Daxue Village

One of the aspects of Taiwan I enjoy most is the prevalence of temples.  There are 30,000 temples in Taiwan.  Apparently that is more than any other country in Asia. The temples have been built by Buddhists, Taoists or practitioners of Chinese folk religion.  Pretty much every where you go you run into temples, large and extravagant, small and informal, or modest but distinctive.

A pint size temple in the Hakka Cultural Park which is within walking distance of our neighborhood.

This temple is on a table in a corner of the Gongguan Traditional Market which is across one of the main roads from Daxue Village.

One of the disappointments I've experienced living in our current neighborhood is the lack of temples.  2.6% of the population in Taiwan is Protestant, and they all seem to live in our community.  We've got a large Baptist Church, a larger Presbyterian Church and the Lutherans are here too. I'm not going to include photos, because you know what they look like.

We had a big surprise yesterday morning while taking our morning walk.  We strolled past Daxue Park which we had visited before.  This time, we approached the park from a different angle, and lo and behold - here is our local temple!!!

Now I feel that all is right with my world.  I've got at least one temple in my immediate neighborhood.  There are probably more, I just haven't figured out where to look yet.

No Matter Where I Ramble, Knitters are Nuts

National Taiwan University campus, which is across XinSheng Road from us, is lovely.

The groves of academe.

From looking at the directories, we can see that this is a very serious university dedicated to science and technology.  However, a few knitters somehow got into the school as is evidenced by this giant Tee pee.

My conclusion is that knitters are nuts.  https://www.jamarp50.blogspot.com/2015/07/bits-and-bobs-about-western-scotland.html