Finally, summer is over

The temperature has finally dropped below 30 degrees, so it is actually possible to go outside again. I woke up this Saturday morning and decided to go for a random bike ride with my camera. It is rice harvest season so all the old farmers are out cutting the rice:

rice. interesting.

A few people cut it all by hand, but usually you see men on a rice harvester, which cuts the rice, strips the rice off the stalk then spits the stalk out the back of the machine while women follow along behind collecting the stalks and doing this to them:


Anyway, on my bike ride I decided to find out what was at the top of a mountain road I always passed but never took, so off I went. Turns out there wasn't alot up there, but I did get a few good shots:

a quarter of the way up, looking down on some rice fields. You can see a rice harvester at work in the second field.

climbing up some ridiculously steep steps to in inappropriate shoes for a higher angle on the fields below. (You can just see my bike at the top of the shot)

Just a random flower close-up. There were only a few bees around, and I couldn't quite capture them. Any ideas what flower this is?

Of course, after a beautiful, sunny morning it started pouring with rain. When it finally stopped around 6pm, I jumped on my bike to race into town to grab a few things. Earlier I had faithfully told mum that I hadn't had any accidents recently (bike or scooter). Um, yeah. That all changed on my way in. As I went around the back of a car pulling out of a side street, my back wheel slid out from under me on some wet metal grating, leaving me with a knee that looks like I attacked it with a cheese grater and a bruise on my thigh the size of a small african child. So not the best end to the day, but at least I will have something to show all the kids at school on Monday!