I'm baaaaaaak,

exhilarated, confounded, exhausted jet-lagged and even educated, so you know it was a wonderful China tour.  

You asked for photos, and since I've just started to edit the first 200 of 1275 in total, I'll give you some teasers from day one in Beijing:

Temple of Heaven dome;
 the Temple is constructed using no nails, apart from the tiles on the roof to ensure the roof stays on!

Brother Neal and I in front of one of the Temple outbuildings; note our colour coordination, both with each other and with the building signage.

Ornamental roofing area on Temple outbuilding

I'm pretty sure this script says 'Thank you Neal and Judith'

The promenade as we headed back from the Temple area

The promenade is lined with knitters, weavers, card-players, and gamesters of all kinds, and even in the cold weather it's a crowd!

Note the ornamental pieces on the corner of the roof  in the Forbidden City - the number of pieces indicates the level of  importance of the occupants or building use.

I think this is Falkor the Dragon from The Neverending Story, forever frozen in stone in the Forbidden City's courtyard.

You can see I paid attention to this sign

The rich colours everywhere had me totally captivated

And what would ancient buildings be without some artsy craquelure?

I was mesmerized by all the intense colour and the opulent patterning on every building.  Colour in China is deep with meaning.  Yellow is the most prestigious colour, being associated with emperors. Red is the colour of luck, joy and good fortune and is to be found everywhere, in all its permutations. Green means good health and connection to the earth, while blue is indicative of the heavens.  You'll note the tiles on the roof of the Temple of Heaven are all blue.  White is a colour representative of gold (and much less costly to paint), so many houses, particularly in the countryside, are painted white.  

As I move back into my Creston, BC life, I suspect this trip will keep showing up in whatever creativity is to come.  In the meantime, please catch me up in your comments below.  What have you been up to while I was away?!