Ci Defaid 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇮🇳

A Sámi reindeer knife

The reindeer leather sheath for the Sámi knife was beautifully made, but has been damaged in storage

A Sámi reindeer knife that was given to me by my boss when I was working in Tromsø. The sheath was made from reindeer leather, but sadly has been damaged in storage.

The Club marks th Chinese New Year with a beautiful display

At The Club today is this beautiful display marking the Chinese New Year

The first few bars of Tom der Reimer (C. Lowe) is just for the piano.

[Unearthed this score while preparing to move] Carl Lowe wrote quite a large number of songs (Leider), but Tom der Reimer is one of my favourites. My recording, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), is magical. The piano accompaniment mimics both the running stream as well as the silver bells.

Mangoes growing on a tree in our building's garden. Photo taken from our bathroom window using a 250mm mirror lens.

The lens I used was a Rokkor 250 / 5.6 mirror lens. It was the shortest (250mm) mirror lens made at the time and may still be. It it mounted on a Minolta to Micro 4/3 adapter.

This photo of mangoes was taken with a 250mm mirror lens, a rather uncommon beast. Because of its construction it is both short and very light for its focal length. I no longer have any Minolta cameras, but the adapter allows me to use it with a Lumix G6, so I do pull it out now and again.

Installation at The Club for Valentine's day. The circular base is a platform intended for couples to stand on for photos. Hidden behind the hearts on the base are lights that were turned on in the evening.

Well, The Club is going all in for Valentine's day. Besides this installation at the entrance, there's all manner of nonsense, including grape stomping, wine and beer stalls and a flea market. We just had a pleasant family gathering over dinner without any of the extraneous frivolity.

Onions frying together with some yellow bell peppers

Freshly ground dry masala and grated ginger with finely sliced green chili

Paneer pieces in spicy sauce

Paneer fry -- paneer sautéed together with a richly spiced sauce; simple but very tasty. It was paired with black eyed beans and green onion sourdough pancakes for a simple dinner.

This is from way back before digital photos, so it is a photo of an old photo of me playing the piano.

Living way North in Norway, low humidity makes keeping a piano in tune a struggle and piano tuners hard to find. Hence I had to learn to tune it myself -- I needed more time than a Pro, but some music background and a little (but not too much) Physics was what was needed.

Piano tuner's goose neck key

Still digging up artifacts from the past. Does anyone recognize this or know what it might be used for? Alt text has it. But why would I even own one?

Wine glass with white wine made from the (red) Sangiovese grape beside the bottle it was poured from

The Fratelli winery, unusually, makes a white wine from Sangiovese grapes in addition to the normal red Sangiovese wine. It's rather nice. The winery is located only a few hours drive from Mumbai and I hope to find time to visit it this year.

A glass of the probiotic appetizer drink kanji beside an empty bottle

Kali gajjar ki kanji (काली गाजर की कांजी) is a fermented probiotic drink that comes from North India. Kali gajjar ("black" carrots -- actually purple) are fermented with spices to produce a tangy appetizer. We don't get purple carrots around here, so this was a gift from a friend. Nice.

A CD of redhat Linux 5.2 -- actually CD1 of 3

More curiosities come to light. A set of CDs for Redhat Linux 5.2 -- released late 1998. I did try running redhat (way before Fedora existed), but it didn't work for me, so I landed on Debian. All my current PCs are some derivative of Debian or another (Kubuntu, Lubuntu or headless servers Devuan)

Cash, border collie, enjoying a nice cooling mud bath

That's awfully familiar...

Tag in the shape of the state of Texas that came with a foster dog

Ex-foster border collie, Taff, still groggy when he came back home after being neutered

Still digging up memorabilia while preparing to move. The tag in the shape of the state of Texas came with Taff. The good folks from the Border Collie Rescue Texas did the initial work of pulling the over 100 dogs from a puppy mill gone bad. The dogs got sent to rescues all over the US.

This is a slide-rule, where the gradations have been wrapped into a spiral and the cursor is the back cylinder in the middle.

Well, preparing for a move results in digging up some really odd things. I bought this way back in 1968/9 and for a while it was my most used tool. I'm guessing most of you have never used a slide-rule, but how many have used one like this?

Pulao with peas, carrot and mushrooms

After breakfast at The Club withe my wife and a girlfriend of hers, dinner was simple: pulao, with curd and a side of kali dal.

Coffee beans from Coorg. The two upper ones came out of one berry and the lower, peaberry, was the sole content of another berry

Coorg coffee berries on the plant

I mentioned that my wife brought back some coffee from Coorg. She also brought two berries which yielded three coffee beans, two flat beans and one peaberry. I no longer have my coffee roaster, so they will remain as is; just a memory from Coorg.

Well, that's exactly why the dog park we used to frequent had wash stations with hoses.

Mantis -- possibly Iris oratoria

Just a random Mantis, type unknown, seen while I was wandering around

And yet, the original meaning of intelligence is acquired knowledge (vis: military intelligence)

This girl was probably a McNab -- a land race from California that were bred for working cattle.

Berit, most probably a McNab, was smart and a joy to foster. She landed a new home on a ranch with both cattle and horses, where she could divide her time between helping with chores and providing the two children with companionship. A pure joy to be around.

Gobi parathas with sautéed mushrooms and egg

Nothing like a solid breakfast after a morning swim, and gobi parathas fit the bill completely. Tossed in a few sautéed mushrooms for good measure. Now I can face the day.

I grew up with a wet-nosed sibling, so I'm immune to that. My wife, however, used to take her food and eat it in the bedroom, because our border collie, Senneca, could project guilt across the room. Dogs know who are easy targets and who aren't.

Methi paratha (a flatbread made with dough that has been mixed with chopped fenugreek leaves).

The flavour of Methi (Fenugreek / Trigonella foenum-graecum) is quite distinctive and associated with Indian cuisine, although I'm told it originally came from Turkey). The leaves give a wonderful taste to parathas: flaky flatbreads laminated with ghee. A simple but heavenly accompaniment to dinner.

Single origin espresso shot: very dark roast, poor crema

single origin espresso shot; lots of crema, weak flavour

My wife went to Coorg with some girlfriends and brought back some coffee. I tried a couple of types, but so far, nothing that works well for espresso. Maybe a blend might work?

An egg, fried with curry leaves (Murraya koenigii) and thinly sliced green chillies on a besan chilla. Some ground sumac has been sprinkled on the egg.

Never too old to learn new tricks, my trip to Allibaug taught me to add a few curry leaves and some thinly sliced green chili to the oil before frying eggs. The result is quite nice and pairs well with the ground sumac I usually sprinkle on them before serving. Yummy breakfast.

We plan to make our move to the new place next month. There are only minor details left to complete and it's just a matter of coordinating with the workers to get them done.

I mentioned a while back that our current place has been in negotiations for re-development. The latest development is that the society has issued a Letter Of Intent, which has been accepted by the proposed developer. This is the last stage before completing the final Redevelopment Agreement.

foster dog laying on his back with one fore paw draped over his chest

Well some dogs take the stress of being fostered differently from others. This boy, Cian, a BCx(?) clearly had found a way to adjust to his new foster home.

My companion and partner, Senneca (RIP), resting in front of a tree at the Boyce Thomson Arboretum.

Dogs can't talk; that's a strength, not a weakness. Our relationship is stronger and deeper when it isn't muddied with words. The thousands of years we have lived and worked together have created a connection between us that is primal in nature.

Decoration at The Club in the colours of the Indian flag

breakfast plate with poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, and accompaniments

Today, 26th Jan, is Republic day, so after my morning swim I indulged myself with breakfast at The Club.