A Family Wedding Over the May Day Break

It was rare to get a proper May Day holiday this year, and it happened to line up with my brother-in-law’s wedding. My wife even adjusted her schedule so she could take those days off too. The whole thing started early in the morning, with everyone running around the county picking people up.

The bride is from another city, and her parents came to our county the night before. My brother-in-law’s new home and his job are both in Luohe, but the wedding banquet was held back in our county. So the day’s route was a bit of a loop: the bride and her family stayed at a hotel in the county, the wedding convoy set out from Luohe in the morning, came here to pick her up, then returned to the apartment in Luohe, and after that everyone came back again to our county for the ceremony and banquet.

Relatives from the hometown were all brought into town by bus, so despite the back-and-forth, the overall process was pretty straightforward. There were a few wedding games, the engagement and bride price came to around 100,000 yuan, and the money was brought back with them. I guess the two of them are probably thinking about what kind of car to buy.

Time really moves fast. Back when my wife and I were still in school together, her younger brother was just a little kid. Now he’s married.

May Day Travel? Better Keep It Local

My feeling about holiday travel is simple: don’t go chasing the crowds. If you really want to get out, it’s better to stay close to home and just wander around nearby. Big tourist cities are probably more enjoyable on an ordinary weekend anyway.

The summary of holiday travel is always the same: too many people, too tiring. I honestly don’t even want to imagine taking our second child out into that kind of chaos right now—it would be exhausting. Better to wait a few more years. Once the kid is around six, traveling will probably be much easier.

My wife said she wanted to climb a proper mountain. I suggested Songshan—one of the Five Great Mountains, and close enough to make the trip manageable. She even checked the elevation and decided it sounded doable. Maybe we’ll go in the fall, when the weather is clear and crisp, after the kids are taken care of.

The Season of Willow Fluff

I’d heard that they’ve started using treatments to reduce the spread of willow fluff, and with the recent rain, the situation does seem a little better.

In my memory, the roads back home used to be lined with these trees. Every year when the season came, the air would be full of drifting fluff. A lot of those trees have been cut down now. They’re still one of the main types planted around here, but it’s not nearly as miserable as it used to be. Another few years of that and I probably would’ve ended up with rhinitis.

A Few Casual Photos From Around Town

The evening primroses are blooming in the botanical garden now, and there’s a huge patch of them. I took our younger child for a walk there. We hadn’t been out long before the sun came out, and the little one complained that it was too hot, so we headed back. On weekends, though, the place really fills up with elegant young women taking photos.

It’s also that time when the wheat tips are turning yellow. In another month or so, it should be time to harvest. And just like that, the weather forecast starts showing days of rain in a row. You really do understand why people say every grain comes hard-earned. Harvest season is always a race. The one real improvement compared with the past is that most fields can now be harvested mechanically. Otherwise, cutting wheat by hand with a sickle—yes, that was something I actually did as a kid.

I had originally planned to photograph the wheat fields. On the way there, I passed the bridge where there’s supposedly a tomb of Luo Cheng below it. Whether it’s real or not, I have no idea, but it’s been there for many years. Sometimes a place feels like it should photograph beautifully, and then the actual results turn out awful. Since I was already there, I figured I shouldn’t go home empty-handed. Nearby, the bridge on the Beijing–Guangzhou railway line looked pretty good, so I waited for a train and started shooting like crazy.