Focaccia

Posted on by cheryl

Focaccia, infused with garlic, herbs de provence and topped with cheese.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021

There is something about kneading dough with my hands that I find meditative and therapeutic. I love baking breads early in the morning, just before sunrise when it is still fairly silent all around. Dough playing, I find myself usually standing at the kitchen table, looking out over the soft lapping ocean waves with meandering thoughts over the week´s activities and happenings. And when did that bread dough begin to come together from sticky flour and water, to form a pliable soft ball? I haven´t a clue, but after about an hour of kneading, it usually does that on its merry own.

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Soufflé pancakes

Posted on by cheryl

Soufflé pancakes, served with a dollop of butter and a lacing of honey.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021

Soufflé pancakes

It´s all in the flick of the wrist. At least, that´s one of the elements of success in making this soft as cloud, soufflé pancake. Plus, my lemon custard cravings of late meant I had plenty of egg whites to put to use for all sorts of meringue related recipes.

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Neighbourhood weekend walk, Tromsø, Norway

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Daylength today on 24 Jan. is about 3:38 hrs. Here, the sun casts a warm glow over the coastline of Tromsø, in Northern Norway.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021

Short compilation of video and photos of the day´s walk.

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Zen ensō 2021

Posted on by cheryl

New Year´s 2021 along the Swedish west coast, Sweden.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021

In Zen, ensō is a circle that is hand-drawn in minimal uninhibited brushstrokes. The circle can be drawn complete, or incomplete. More important, is that it expresses a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. The transition from the last hours of 2020 to the first hours of 2021 in my view, is much like ensō in Time. All things in transition, endings into beginnings.

A medley of moments towards Zen ensō, the tail end of a circle, to begin a new. Moments of New Year´s Eve, weaving into the early hours of New Year´s Day, 2021.

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New Year´s Eve 2021 and dragonfly vision

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New Year´s Eve, along the Swedish west coast, Sweden.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2020

While humans have a trichromatic vision, seeing colours in combination of red, blue and green because of light-sensitive proteins in our eyes called opsins, the remarkable dragonfly has no fewer than eleven different visual opsins. Some species of dragonflies have 30 visual opsins [1]. Dragonflies and damselflies are colourful, diurnal insects that depend strongly on their keen sense of vision for an array of activities, from catching small prey in the air to forming territories. The compound eyes of dragonflies contain three to five classes of photoreceptors, with distinct spectral sensitivities covering the UV to red spectral range. These photoreceptors combine to produce a mosaic of images for the dragonfly, although how this visual mosaic is integrated in the insect brain remains uncertain.

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Saffranssemla

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A saffranssemla. Like a semla, only with saffron added, along the Swedish west coast, Sweden.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2020

I did a post-Christmas grocery store run yesterday in Sweden. To my horror, I saw trays of semlor being brought out from the bakery department. I took a double take on the trays, to see they were not actually large cream puffs, because, why not? But, there were no cream puffs. The trays were filled with luscious marzipan and cream filled semlor, headed to the bakery shelves. A lovely sight, but a little early, I thought.

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The Maine Coon

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The Maine Coon with large golden eyes, that I call Chewie (Chewbacca), Swedish west coast, Sweden.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2020

It´s been a quiet Christmas 2020 for this one too. He was born in Norway and at 8 years old, he weighs about 9 kg. He loves water, and loves playing in his water bath. He loves sleeping thereafter on top of an electric blanket, particularly the one found in the master bedroom. He often sleeps on his back, all four paws in the air. Else, on his side, lengthwise, with his long paws draping off the edge of the bed.

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