Tuesday Open Thread ~ Gone Fishing
“I thought how lovely and how strange a river is. A river is a river, always there, and yet the water flowing through it is never the same water and is never still. It’s always changing and is always on the move. And over time the river itself changes too. It widens and deepens as it rubs and scours, gnaws and kneads, eats and bores its way through the land. Even the greatest rivers- the Nile and the Ganges, the Yangtze and the Mississippi, the Amazon and the great grey-green greasy Limpopo must have been no more than trickles and flickering streams before they grew into mighty rivers.“
~ Aidan Chambers
Good Morning,
Welcome to Tuesday’s Open Thread. As life happens, sometimes we get smacked upside the head with more than we bargained for. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been getting pounded with it for the last few weeks. Oy vey! Will have to prioritize my to do list or drown under the weight of it. Not sure why it made me think of fishing as a theme today since I never really did much of it as a pastime. But right now, I wouldn’t mind sitting somewhere listening to the sounds of a river for a few hours. With, or without the fishing rod.
Looking Glass River
Robert Louis Stevenson
Here a wimple, there a gleam--
O the clean gravel!
O the smooth stream!
Sailing blossoms, silver fishes,
Pave pools as clear as air--
How a child wishes
To live down there!
We can see our colored faces
Floating on the shaken pool
Down in cool places,
Dim and very cool;
Till a wind or water wrinkle,
Dipping marten, plumping trout,
Spreads in a twinkle
And blots all out.
See the rings pursue each other;
All below grows black as night,
Just as if mother
Had blown out the light!
Patience, children, just a minute--
See the spreading circles die;
The stream and all in it
Will clear by-and-by.
Comments
We have a special river here on the mountain
https://www.nps.gov/liri/description-of-the-park.htm
My avatar is another of it's many falls.
"To abide with Tao in the world is to be the same as mountain streams flowing to the rivers and to the sea."
Here on the homestead the "to-do" list can get overwhelming. Efficiency experts suggest doing the quickest tasks first, but I find I do the thing I feel needs doing most first. I usually have a goal or two for the day, cause there's always more things on the list no matter how much you do. Today my main chore is to mow my roadside and back trail, but garden tasks come first, maters, cukes, squash, orka still producing aplenty.
So take care and don't overdo...leads to burn out. Hope everyone has a good day!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
“The old drunk told me about
“The old drunk told me about trout fishing. When he could talk, he had a way of describing trout as if they were a precious and intelligent metal.”
― Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America
"I watched the Feather River glide..."
Please Anja, remember to breathe
That is in all seriousness. Understand what you are saying about drowning in what needs to be done and how to prioritize.
I am back home at my place outside Austin working on clearing and the feeling of overwhelm tears its head quite often. Have to stop and take a break and decide what really is important.
Know what you mean about a river. Ride my bike every morning and cross the river that runs through town coming and going. Always stop and enjoy the flow of the river. When get back home, sit and gaze at river and feel the constant breeze coming off the river and cool down. After a few minutes am in a better place and can move on with my mountain of things to do. Um, mountain, that is another great image to hold in my mind. Have a great day and thanks for the OT.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
Good morning, Anja ~~
I did a lot of trout fishing with my dad. My husband loves to fish, but we haven't been this year. He was just talking about going soon. I hope he does and maybe I'll be able to tag along. I find such peace in our mountains.
Never a dull moment on the place. I was just reading OTC's thoughts about using her land to house people. My husband and I have thought of the same thing. We have lots of acreage and have decided to investigate rezoning some of it for multi-family housing. An RV park for permanent folks, or something like that. We'd love to put in a community garden and just make it a great place for people who have little. This is what the COVID is bringing - innovation to our thinking and a more humanitarian future.
Live in the present, live in love, practice your humanity.
Enjoy the day, everyone.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Good morning Anja. Caveat - my life long weakest skill
is "planning and scheduling" and somehere in some murky archive there is a folder full of work reviews and quarterly evaluations to prove it. You know what? Didn't care and still don't. Always stop and ask yourself "Just what is the goal here?" After you spend a couple of hours pondering that, go back and review your list(s).
Various experts say to never put more than 3 things on your to d list. If you finish them you are smart enough to think of more to add, but 3 is really enough for one person to focus on at a time. Also, don't put projects on the to-do list, just tasks. Not "clean the house", but "clean the toilet". Do it, check it off, done. Otherwise you get buried in the whole "where to start and what to do next and how will I ever get this done" dance. Do your three things, ponder your goal(s) (grin) and update your list, or not as the case may be. When in doubt, consult Wu Wei.
Bottom photo is great. With sufficient gear, forethought, experience, knowledge and skill, the patient human can sometimes outwit the wily trout. Mebbe mo bettah take a folding rocking chair and broad brimmed hat, go sit and let it all sink in, watch the birds and bugs and maybe the wily trout will show itself, or perhaps a turtle.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Love those kind of lists
drove my sister in law and her husband crazy with those kind of specific lists! Would put all sorts of simple tasks, make bed, rinse dishes, etc. and then I could tackle clean the toilet and so on.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
To Do lists tend to get out of hand
Two things that help me are: 1- Do the thing I most dread or dislike first. That energizes me and it is easier to get on with other things.
2 - Think in terms of Must-Do items. Those are the priorities.
Don’t spend your whole day off on chores. Do something you enjoy and if that is sitting doing nothing for a while, that is ok.
I love to look at rivers too. The photos are great. Just looking at them feels peaceful.
Mark Twain’s version
(From memory so it will not be verbatim ) If you are required to eat two frogs, eat them immediately and eat the larger frog first.
I have zoom court shortly.
The judge is doing this from home. He has COVID-19. He has bad internet connection. My feeling is a trial will be impossible, but we shall see.
I have a new lawn mower being delivered. It is big enough to keep my front 3 acres under control.
I just cannot allow myself to be overwhelmed with tasks. I just perform them, try not to worry about it ahead of time.
But then, I am prone to avoid worry, sort of find it exciting to experience the performance.
Be safe! Lists are your friend!
Look forward to the day you get to choose how to make it enjoyable, rather than productive.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Fishing. Hmm.
This calls for a recipe or two. I have sourdough starter discard waiting for me, which I refuse to discard, so tonight it'll be sourdough pizza. This sourdough pizza dough recipe is courtesy of King Arthur Flour, and works great.
1 c sourdough starter discard
1/2 c warm water
2-1/2 unbleached AP flour (King Arthur, of course)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp instant dry yeast (I know, I know, cheating- but I'll be hungry and don't want to wait for bulk fermentation)
Pitch 'em all together in the mixer bowl and let the dough hook beat them up for 10 minutes. Cover up the doughball in the mixer bowl with some plastic, and let it rise until doubled in size 2-4 hrs. I go for 2 hrs, and leave it in the cold oven with the just the oven light on to speed it up a bit (that gets up to 90-95degF).
Makes 2 small or one large pizza. I'll split it in half, roll it out to size, and let it do a second rise for an hour or until I either like how fluffy it is or I get too hungry (sometimes thinner is better!). Preheat to 450, blind bake 5 minutes, pull it out and add all the good stuff, bake 10 more or until you like the color at the edges.
Now, to the fish part. The single best pizza I've ever had was at Mac's Pizzeria in Port Elizabeth, Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Lobster pizza. Cooked lobster meat (we have a few frozen warm-water tails to use up), butter, crispy bacon, a little thyme, mozzarella, fontina, salt and pepper. Seed and dice up some Roma tomatoes, mix it all together, slather on said blind-baked pizza dough to heart's content, drizzle on a little good EVOO, bake as long as you can stand it. Serve with rum. Lots and lots of good rum. Yum...
Be well, and soon come!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
lobsta and blueberry pizza
Kid you not. Was in some little hole in the wall joint up in Maine.
Their special of the day was lobsta and blueberry pizza.
Couldn't quite meld the two together in my mind.
But, apparently the tourists loved it!
BTW, Maine is known for their lobsta's and wild
blueberries. But on a pizza? Creative abundance
distribution. Red lobsta, blue berry and white dough.
All american colors.
question everything
Maine lobstah
is a whole different animal, literally. Cold water Maine lobstah is a true delicacy, and we wouldn't use it for 'za: there are only a couple of presentations that my wife would even allow if we had access to any of it. It is for special occasions only. Oh, yeah. I'd like to try that flavor combo, but only if we were back in New England.
The Mac's 'za uses warm water Caribbean lobster, which is an island staple, and available as farmed even at Costco. It just isn't the same set of flavors at all. Gotta go back and fix the recipe. Not that I would throw either one out of the kitchen, of course... But if I were to try to suggest using real Maine lobstah for a pizza in our kitchen, I would expect to get unceremoniously brained with a cast-iron skillet the next time I had my back turned. However, YMMV... (;-)
Soon come!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Call me crazy
Tonight it is fresh haddock on the grill (with Bay Seasoning), covered with sliced tomatoes from the garden, with a layer of red onion rings above and topped off with thin sliced ham. Sorta like a pizza without the dough. Have tortilla shells for that. Oh, and fresh roasted sweet corn wrapped in foil with husks on as a side.
Yum.
question everything
That sounds really good!
We make a compound butter with chipotles in adobo, sauteed shallots, and lime juice, roll it up in parchment, chill it and slice it up into corn-ear size slices, and then keep it in the freezer for times like this when the Olathe sweet corn is coming in. We have 6 ears that'll go for tomorrow's dinner. You're making my mouth water...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
hmmmm. Used to do something vaguely similar with sole;
rub wih salt & pepper then coat with a mix of Inglehoffer or Plochmans and Grey Poupon with pick-a-peppah, dust with panko and layer with sliced tomatoes and bermuda onions, but then I'd wrap in in lettuce, Portuguese kale, or any other greens with big enough leaver and bake it en papier. Sometimes I miss it, but we're just too addicted to fish tacos and straight up grilled salmon.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Salmon rubs
I'd be interested in what types of rubs you prefer for your grilled salmon.
Dust with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper about one
hour before cooking and let sit out to get to room temperature. Grill at about 300 F until it gets to 145. Mind you, this is fresh caught wild pacific salmon about 1" thick at thickest.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Will do soon!
Sounds great and I'll try it! We were using a rather complex rub my wife came up with, but we got tired of it. The simplicity of this sounds refreshing in comparison.
Thanks. I've saved that to play with. My current pizza
dough is more flatbread-ish. Quick and dirty.
1 cup starter
1 & 1/4 cup AP flour
2 t extra virgin olive oil
mix well, then dump on floured surface and knead until smooth (and looks like it should, which I can't describe but you probably know anyway). place in lightly greaded bowl and cover. The longer it rises, the easier it is to to spread/roll/toss/otherwise work with, but I have used it as soon as 1-2 hours after kneading. ( It's a modification of an old gozleme recipe I found somewhere)
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Killed two bottles of wine with a friend last night
Got some good news in regards to making a little extra money this month, and have come to a renewed appreciation that I have some pretty amazing friends. They really showed up for me in the last couple of days.
I include all of you in my appreciation and enjoyed reading your comments and recipes! Lobster pizza. Yum! Have to get ready for work, so unfortunately this will have to suffice for the conversation today.
Thanks to you all.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Anja, be well
my thoughts are with you. Looks like you are turning the corner.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DrwY21nP1Q]
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Canta y no llores,
Porque cantando se alegran,
cielito lindo, los corazones.
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Sing, don't cry,
Because singing makes rejoice,
Sweet little heaven, our hearts.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
On the other paw
That bear could be spitting out those fish.
Streaming bears
Surf out to explore.org and look for the section on brown bears or Katmai or Brooks River (all are correct but I forget which they use). They've got 6 cameras you can stream including one with the perspective of the photo.
watchin' the river flow
Hi all,
There is I think a Japanese saying that to paraphrase is something to the effect "you cannot see the same river twice". Yep, it is always different, the eddies, currents, etc. Every time you go look, it is not the same. Watching the river flow is one of those therapeutic things like listening to the ocean or watching a fire. Or two bottles of wine.
I love fishin', but don't get to do it much these days. Not to brag, but I can clean a trout in 60 seconds blindfolded. Lots of youth spent in the Sierra Nevada will do that. A great accomplishment in life for me was when I caught a trout on a fly I tied myself, at about 15 or so. There are no words to express how I miss fall Albacore off socal. Often when I led trips for Albatross, way out to deep water, we would get some Albacore.
Watchin' the River Flow - Bob Dylan
Rolling Stones version with Bill Wyman on bass (after he had left)
hope y'all can watch the river flow... and maybe get lucky and catch a fish...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Heh, I was half way raised on Albacore. My mom could
fillet one with a hunting knife and a pair of pliers extremely rapidly, but not as fast as your trout. Lightly breaded with corn meal, salt, and pepper, pan seared and served with limon wedges. Still love it, but have to make it myself.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
dinky trout are easy compared to big fish
Wow EL! I never tasted fresh Alby until my 20's. Always blows folks minds what real fresh tuna tastes like. I was always amazed at the deckhands skills in cleaning those big fish... 25-35 lbs. is a lot of fish! They would take a while for me. Those guys did it like I do trout. LOL. We loved being able to announce on the mic/PA: free alby burgers and sushi, all you can eat. I always carried wasabi out there. the stuff dreams are made of. Thanks!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein