The seven-day long National Day holiday has passed. Tomorrow, a black Monday, I’m to leave my warm home early and work at our chilly schoolhouse. From now up to the beginning of heating supply I have to bear the evening chill at our flat and the coldness at school. During this period our bungalow is very agreeable to stay for the cooking stove provides enough warmth for us daily. In the past few days when I felt tired and sleepy I could take a nap on the warm kang to refresh myself. However I have to put on more clothes for keeping warm when taking a rest at school.

Yesterday seeing the weather sunny and the workers gone after finishing the reconstruction of the enclosing wall next to which the heap of my corn stalks is located, I decided to tear it open drying the stems in the sun. And I cancelled my noon break continuing the hard work. Later I felt very tired. Today I rode brother’s trike to school for transporting the dry stalks back. On my arrival one of the wheels fell out of its place unexpectedly. With the help of Mr S and Mr W, it got in place again. S tightened the loose big nuts with the large spanner borrowed by W.

The story of the old frontiersman losing
his horse means that everything may transform into the opposite. It’s universally true
that good fortune lies within bad and bad fortune lurks within good.

塞翁失馬寓轉化，福禍伏倚無際涯。Who knows but that one’s gloomy mood yesterday
will be replaced by an ecstatic mood today？

焉知昨日哭喪臉，今朝心中花不現？

Fulfilled the commission to visit late wife and pay the fee for leaving her cremation urn at the undertaker’s as planned. Then went window shopping at the Foreign Language Bookstore and the Xinhua Bookstore without finding any dictionary or book worth purchasing. The writing brush I bought at the Agency of Ancient Books, Paintings and Calligraphy Works is very satisfying. I practiced calligraphy with it for quite some time.
Yesterday evening I found the iron heating pipes in the corridor of our apartment building had been removed. It seems new pipes will take their place soon.
The newly transplanted cabbage seedlings are growing well with the help of cloudy and rainy weather. They all have raised their heads. Some are obviously bigger and higher than just planted.

CCTV Net News（News Hookup）:General
Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Chairman of the Central Military Commission,
President Xi Jinping stressed to carry forward the fine Chinese traditions of loving
trees, planting trees and protecting trees when participating in the capital voluntary
tree-planting on the morning of April 8. Citizens from all walks of life across
the country are called on to jointly make an in-depth promotion of land
greening on a large scale for achieving continuous real results.

央视网消息（新闻联播）：中共中央总书记、国家主席、中央军委主席习近平8日上午在参加首都义务植树活动时强调，要发扬中华民族爱树植树护树好传统，全国动员、全民动手、全社会共同参与，深入推进大规模国土绿化行动，推动国土绿化不断取得实实在在的成效。

Before I knew it, the Beginning of Autumn
has arrived. You have passed away for ten years.

恍惚秋節至，君去已十載。Our son has graduated from college and
found a job at a state-owned company in the outlying northwest.

子今學業成，賦職天漢外。

Fortunate to have watched The World Listens to Me this evening on the Chinese International channel. It was a program on cultural inheritance in which some successful foreign Chinese were invited to share their experiences with the audiences. As a special observer，Ms L, 92, the first Chinese on the Academy, turned up and related her eternal and legendary art life. Then came a self-called Lively Granny and the Original Curator, Lady L, a high-born restless leading artist. Next, Z, a representative from New Zealand Young Leaders Forum, told how he had been bullied at school during his first days as an emigrant and later won the respect of his schoolmates by distinguishing himself in playing basketball. Finally, Mr W, a veteran inheritor of Peking Opera, now President of Japanese Peking Opera Institute, gave a brief account of his career in Japan and his efforts in promoting the cultural exchange between China and Japan.

On Spring Festival I returned to my native
village Yuzhuang in central Shandong.

春节，我回到故乡于庄——一个山东鲁中地区的小村，

The region is famous for being the Home of Confucius
and Mencius and the Land of Ceremony and Propriety.

这里以“孔孟之乡、礼仪之邦”著称，

Tradition says that this is the birthplace of Liuxia
Hui, Saint of Harmony, who resuscitated a woman who had almost frozen stiff in
his arms without abusing her.

相传是坐怀不乱的和圣柳下惠故里，

The local people still perform the prostration
ceremony during Spring Festival.

这里春节还流行着磕头跪拜大礼，

The family members are seated according to the
order of seniority when dining.

这里吃饭讲究座次分明、尊卑有序——

The women here are deprived of the right at the
dinner table accordingly.

自然，这里的女人吃饭不上桌。

I’ve been sleeping alone at the long nights seeing his
features in dreams.

独宿累长夜，梦想见容辉。
He was
still passionately in love as past and drove over taking me to the wedding.

良人惟古欢，枉驾惠前绥，
I earnestly wish we could live a happy life
together.

愿得常巧笑，携手同车归。

A five hundred-character poem on the trip from the
capital to a county city named Fengxian

自京赴奉先縣咏懷五百字I’m a civilian from Duling. I tend to be out of accord with
the times as I get older.

杜陵有布衣，老大意转拙。How ridiculous I am to liken myself to Ji and
Xie！

許身一何愚，竊比稷与契。As a result, I’ve accomplished nothing.
Nevertheless, I’m still willing to be industrious in spite of my old age.

居然成濩落，白首甘契闊。
As long as I live, I will hope to realize my
ideal.

盖棺事则已，此志常覬豁。