HyperBob's blog/

roasting a side of salmon

To smoke and roast a side of salmon you need a good clean burning wood like birch and you should burn it until you have a bed of glowing charcoal.

Cook it with the skin side down, and it does not matter if the skin becomes crisp and charred since you won't be eating it anyway.

Salmon is a very oily fish and you will get melted fat dripping onto the fire. When the embers have died down turn the fish over and give the flesh side about 10 minutes over the open flame to give it a slightly charred color.

Do not over-cook it, If you can pick out an individual flake with a toothpick then the fish is cooked and ready to eat. Dress it down with sea salt, black pepper and some lemon juice and that is it,

Fishing for perch with Elli

I caught 2 perch an one grayling, Just perfect for making Kalakukko which is a Finnish fish pie, or more correctly fish baked into a bread.

Rowan tree

There are rowans in the dooryard;
Rowans in the yard are sacred,
Rowan branches too are holy
And the leaves upon the branches -
And the berries even holier.

Kalevala: Rune 23 - The teaching of the bride. 

 How fair wert thou in simmer time,
Wi' all thy clusters white.
How rich and gay thy autumn dress,
Wi' berries red and bright.
Oh thy fair stem were mony names
Which now nae mair I see,
But there engraven on my heart,
Forgot they ne'er can be.
Oh rowan tree.

Caroline Oliphant, Lady Nairn (1766-1845) "Oh Rowan tree"

poppy #3

There are of course other flowers but it is the brilliant colours of the poppies that rule the roost at the moment.

Some years sunflowers are the major planting and I have also seen bands of blue lavender running along the sides of fields.

poppy #2

The great thing about it is that usually there is an announcement in the local newspapers which tells everybody the location of these flower fields and encourages people to go and pick the flowers for free.

Wordsworth was stoped in his tracks by a "host of golden daffodils" and you can imagine my delight when I came across these poppies. They were dancing.

Poppy #1

Even the slightest breeze causes the stems to sway and the petals to flutter, so it is extremely difficult to do autobracketing and get three exposures of the same scene.

This is the reason why the photos look a bit fuzzy, but I sort of like them that way.

Sometimes I ask myself is it right an proper for a man to get so excited by flowers?