From the Tedddy Bear Hospital

Garlic?

I do tend to do too much, and now I got involved in the medical student's magazine, Æskulap. I even managed to jump into what feels like a hornet's nest as I agreed to do an interview about medication long before the topic comes up in a course at school. A professor in nutrition agreed to talk to me and I sort of hope to get him to pose with a garlic. It will be an interesting week.

Oslo Photo Marathon and the Teddy Bear Hospital

And then there was Oslo photo marathon. Twelve pictures in twelve hours, it was quite an ordeal. Thankfully Bjørn André and his sister were there to give excellent critique. Hunger, the Scream, this is also Western Oslo, A City in Motion (uploded under), Night in the City. I should have brought a tripod, I was lying on the pavement taking pictures all over Oslo and came to understand that I need Ashtanga Yoga again sometime soon.

200 entered on line, 110 started and 80 finished. There will be an exhibition, but that is in a month. It was great though and borrowing Bjørn André's hammock in between shots was a lifesaver. Will do it again next Saturday if given the chance, it was great, but it is more likely that the next big thing is being a teddy bear doctor on the 18Th. The medical students in Oslo are collecting money for a good cause, and part of that is the teddy bear hospital for the children. Some friends said they'd bring their teddy bears. They are most certainly not children any more, but still very young at heart.

Photography

It's quite scary trying to hold an exhibition of sorts. This blog has been a bit of this and that, but I've sort of decided to try to write about the process of learning how to take pictures. Somehow I can't really think of making them, I take them, it seems like the right word for now.

It started when I, after years of craving, got a Ricoh GX200 about a year ago.  All of a sudden I could see with the camera and go chasing after shades of green. I'm not sure what it is with the colour green and me. I wanted some feedback on what I was doing, and on a whim I sent some photos to International Garden Photographer of the Year. Then I got highly commended and ended up in a photobook. I decided it was time to learn some technique and get an even better camera. There is so much to learn and possibly a voice where I can play, having serious fun. It is like learning to talk again. And the process is all mine.

The Maple

A few days ago our 150 year old maple got struck by lightning and cut in two. It damaged and old pear tree as a huge branch landed on top of it. My old friend has to be taken down and one of the very few really big trees in Oslo is no more.

Every week a lovely newsletter from Japan arrives. Here is the last one:


Hello from Japan- this is Kimono Flea Market Ichiroya's Newsletter No 348. (see www.ichiroya.com )
This is Yuka, I am writing the newsletter today.

When Ichiro and I have landed at Bhuj from Mumbai in India during day time, the temperature was around 46 degrees Centigrade(approx 114.8 degrees Farenheit). We have never experienced this hot temperature, so it was so interesting. I could not imagine the heat before but actually, it was not bad at all. The air was so dry.  We take a bath everyday at home and the temperature of the hot water is around 40-42 degrees C, so we thought we could never bare the temperature before we arrived in India. It was not as bad as we expected.

Japanese summer is so famous with humidity. The hottest time, the temperature becomes around 36 degrees(Centigrade). It is approx 98 degrees Fahrenheit in most of Japan. The humidity is what really makes Japanese summer so impressive:-) Probably, the word `sticky` expresses well about Japanese summer. Imagine you are in a sauna- it may be easier.

Of course air conditioning is all over, so it is not too difficult to spend summer in Japan now but since air conditioners create as much hot air as cool air, they make outside air even hotter. Too much temperature difference sometimes makes us sick and it is hard to adjust. We see many office workers wearing cardigans and covering knees by blanket inside of their offices.

In the small villages in Kutch area in India, once we went into the house of the vales people, we did not feel the heat- the floor was cold and some houses had a fan on the ceiling. Even without the fans, the houses had a nice construction with air to go through. It was also interesting, we were often offered nice hot milk tea(chai)at their houses. Icy cold drinks
are so popular in summer in Japan but while we had nice chai in India, I remembered my grandfather(and Ichiro's father too) always had a hot tea during summer, saying we should have hot tea in hot summer.

We remember, at Mumbai, we saw many people were walking along Juhu beach of Arabian sea in the morning. The temperature of morning and night was quite cooler and nice!
In Japan we call the hot night with no air as `Nettaiya`(it literally means `Tropical night`).
People became not patient and use air conditioning at night also,so there is a vicious circle-
we open windows hoping to have a nice air but find unpleasant warm air.

When there was no air conditioner,  these are the things for summer, and now these things gave us so nostalgic feelings.

*kaya--mosquito net
*uchimizu--sprinkle water around the house
*furin--windbells

All houses smelled with Katori senko, pyrethrum coil, and everyone was opening the windows, so we could hear the laughters and the noise from neighborhood.(We could often hear the baseball live game from TV and the cheering voice also).

Hiyayayakko(cold tofu with seasonings)and soumen(cold noodles)were on the supper table very often. Mugicha(cold barley tea) was always around. Mothers were busy making mugicha for children and everyone in the family. Big yakan(kettle) full of mugi cha were always cooled off in cold water. Many people had sensu, folding fans in their bags, both men and women used folding fans very often. Women often had fans with good scent(Byakudan-sandalwood). Parasols and handkerchief were must items of women when going out.
For children(sometimes adults too), haramaki-belly band was the must item. They are still used widely to keep stomach from getting cold.

Furin(windbells) do not make temperature down but the sound gives us some feeling of coolness. We might have mentioned before, but summer kimono are said to take a part like furin. Wearing kimono in summer is like being a furin- you have a role to sprinkle a little cool air and summer spirit. If you wear summer kimono, we recommend to use folding fan and may be a parasol too. When you wear yukata, uchiwa(paper fan) is a good accessories too. You can drive off mosquitos with the fan, and you can tuck the fan into tie obi in the back when you do not need it.

The famous painting by  a Japanese painter, Seiki Kuroda shows a typical woman figure in summer(the title of this painting is Kohan-Lakeside).

A Great Essay in Norwegian about Nutriton

http://www.vibekethorp.no/fetprofitt.html

Nut Crumble, Mashed Potatoes and Vegetarian Gravy

900 g peeled and diced vegetables: carrots, swedes, turips, onions, celery
100 g butter
salt and pepper
75 g rolled oats
150 g nuts
1 onion
1 garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon thyme or mixed herbs

Preheat oven to 180 C
Steam vegetables until tender, drain - reserve water
Purée one third of the vegetables with 25 g butter and possibly some of the reserved water in a blender, add the purée to the rest of the vegetables
Make crumble topping mixing the oats, nuts, the onion, garlic, herbs, slat, pepper and the rest of the butter in a blender
Sprinkle the mixture evenly on the top of the vegetables in an oven proof dish
Bake for 30-40 minutes until lightly brown

Vegetarian Gravy

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons of plain floor
450 ml vegetable stock
1 tablespoon soy sauce
salt and pepper

Fry the onion in a saucepan for 5 minutes, add flour and cook for 5-10 minutes until the flour and onion are nut-brown, add garlic and gradualy stir in the vegetable stock. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add soysauce, salt and pepper to taste.

Mashed potatos

Cook potatoes and sweet potato until tender, add olive oil and rice milk, salt, pepper and a couple of mashed garlic cloves, mash until blended.

Enjoy!

Another Pic from Australia

Pear and Squash soup

two pears

two rather big courgettes

an onion

a few cloves of garlic

two potatoes

organic vegetable stock

cold pressed oil

cream/soy cream

Fry the onion and the garlic in oil until tender, add the rest of the vegetables and the stock. Boil until tender. Run in a food processor. Add cream. Enjoy.

A Couple of Pics from Oz

 

Cauliflower and Lentil Soup

One big cauliflower, vegetable stock, onions, garlic (5-7 bulbs), good oil, soycream, lentils.

Fry onions and garlic until tender in oil, add lentils and cauliflower, cover in water, add stockcubes to taste, cook until vegetables are tender. Puree in blender and add soycream. Enjoy.

New Camera

The Queen Anne's Pocket Melon on the Prowl - Highly Commended in International Garden Photographer of the Year http://www.igpoty.com/competition03/gallery_PlantPortraits.asp?parent=gallery



Sofie, our sweet little commander in chief.

Fastelavens Boller

So rose tea it is, together with "Fastelavens boller" - buns filled with cream, eaten on the last Sunday before lent.

Buns

1/2 litre soy, rice or oat milk ( I don't believe in pasteurized cow milk products and not pasteurized milk is hard to get here)

fresh yeast or a packed of dried yeast (fresh is nice)

some rapeseed oil

sugar to taste, possibly brown cane sugar (this is hard, I haven't used a recipe for years, taste the dough)

wheat flour or spelt flour until the dough gets nice and sticky (a little less than a kilo)

a little salt?

cardamom (half a teaspoon)

some seeds from a vanilla pod?

Warm the milk until 35C, mix with yeast (if dried, use a little 40C water and a little sugar to "wake" the yeast, leave until frothy and add to other ingredients)
Add other ingredients and leave to swell. Make buns on a floured surface, swell on baking plates before put into the oven.

Bake in 200C oven until brown

The buns tend never to taste the same. Use your instinct to try out a new taste.

If Fastelavens boller, cut the buns into two and put whipped soy cream in in between the halves.

Enjoy!

The Sacred Lake

It feels like a long time ago, but it is no more than 23 years, how time flies, when M and I went to see the movie made after E. M. Forster's book A Room With a View. We were romantic teenagers back then, and dreamt of a beautiful, intellectual hero sweeping us off our feet. The lovely actor in the movie fit the mould perfectly. We were enraptured. One of the funniest scenes in the movie was when the hero, the heroines brother and the reverend ran naked around the bathing "puddle" called The Sacred Lake.

There used to be a nice, little lake close to where I live, but it got drained a few years ago, possibly in the name of progress. Last year, though, my boyfriend and I went for a walk in the woods nearby and found the "lake" in the picture by accident. It's not really a lake, and it was by far too cold for bathing or running around naked for that matter, but it was secluded and the light was interesting. My boyfriend is very different from the heroes of my teens, thankfully. I'm lucky to get to know him even if our relationship does not resemble a romance novel. Life doesn't, and that's quite good actually. It would be too syrupy otherwise, but here is our Sacred Lake.

The Christmas Tree

Our commander in chief, Sofie, the hamster, climbed the Christmas tree yesterday, more or less demolishing the needles as she went along. Unfortunately she will have to wait for the climbing orgy until we take it down, otherwise there might be no needles left in say three days.




The tree is beautiful, but every time a needle falls off, there is a huge thud. It makes me nervous, but there are a few hundred needles, so the tree might last a few more days.

There are obviously trends when it comes to tree decorations as well. My mother came here with some new ornaments and they made the beautiful ones from last year look outdated. Well, the tree looks pretty fabulous anyway and has its own acorns.

All I want for Christmas is a squirrel obi

in addition to my my friends having a good time celebrating and resting.

(Pics found on www.tokyo135.com)

Vemund's Reindeer

As Christmas is approaching, the song "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" starts buzzing in my head. Quite the nuisance! But, my partner makes a lovely reindeer with apple and sour cream sauce. Here is the recipe:

Fry chopped onions and a pressed garlic clove in oil or good butter.

Add chopped reindeer meat, fry for a little while, add a finely cut apple.

Simmer in sour cream.

Add salt and pepper.

Works nicely with oven baked potato wedges with rosemary (potato wedges, oil, salt, rosemary
baked inn 200C warm oven until tender.)

Sofie - aspects on being a professional rodent

Our little darling, Sofie Amalie, is a professional rodent, and she never lets us forget it. She is the kindest little girl, climbing my skirt, resting on my lap to be petted, lying on top of her cage listening to classical music with her eyes partly closed, but she has an unhealthy interest in phone cables.

Thankfully she only chews on the old ones, the room where she exercises in the evening is full of cable salad and we need to keep a close eye on her little teeth. She also used to climb the curtains. One night, as I was doing some work on the laptop, I looked around to see if she were somewhere near. The the curtain moved. Soffs was climbing, and she was two meters above the floor. She is impressive, the curtains are not made of lace, they are solid linen. Thankfully she was an easy rescue. Lately she also discorvered how to get down, she uses a technique very similar to that of a human on a ladder. Impressive, but we try to keep her off the curtains none the less.

So, little Miss Pale Carrot Fur is quite a handful. Small and light, she is a fussy eater, mostly into organic vegetables and fruit, keeping her trim waistline and wellmanicured nails. She climbs on me as well. Preferably on the inside of my skirt. She feels like Miss Acupressue though, she has a healing touch.

These are her pawprints, after taking a dive into my teacup (not hot, and just a drop left).

Sofie