Shenzhen’s Civic Center is a great place for spending some time on a Sunday. Only today it was rainy outside, so I took a few quick pictures of the sweeping roof of the Shenzhen Museum nearby, and then went inside. The kids are dribbling and twirling their basket balls, waiting under the enormous roof for the rain to clear. There is an art store for students inside the Center with portfolio books of reprinted artwork. So the pictures are from those books : cranes in a pine forest, hoopoes in a loquat tree, and a portrait study. The loquat tree is indigenous to southeastern China. And so are the hoopoes with their cute tufty feathered heads, to my surprise. We had them in the garden in South Africa; they are found in most of Africa as well. To add a final twist to the tale of the hoopoe : it is Israel’s national bird.
