White Long-headed Poppy (Blindeyes)

White Long-headed poppy - (Papaver dubium dubium L. var. albiflorum) called also Blindeyes from North-West Bulgaria, May 2016. Despite the white form being rarer variation of the typical red one, I found in this area only white and none of the red. Anyway, these white poppies are very beautiful and kind of unusually looking in the midst of the much more common red ones.

White Long-headed poppy - (Papaver dubium dubium L. var. albiflorum), called also Blindeyes

White Long-headed poppy, another view

Visit to Styrsö, Sweden

Few years ago I had a chance to visit Styrsö, small island close to the Swedish City of Gothenburg (Göteborg in Swedish), which can be reached with the Gothenburg's public transport net with no additional coast. It was just after 2008's Christmas and despite the cool weather (from 0C midday to -10C in late evening) everything was very charming and nice. The ambient was something that I started identifying with the country in general, somehow everything is calm, organised, purposeful and made to look nice. There is also touch of simplicity and all this combined with the nature and climate makes the atmosphere very particular. It's hard to describe it with one word or sentence, so I'd call it "One very Swedish feeling".

Red House  Styrsö, Sweden

I must mention here that this type of houses are not simply "generic red house", the paint is called Falu Rödfärg. It is an integral part of the Swedish culture and houses painted with Falu Rödfärg are one of the most iconic views from the country. If interested read more here: falurodfarg.com

Yellow House, Sweden

House Gothenburg

Styrsö Island House

House, Styrsö

Village's road, Styrsö Island, Sweden

Styrsö Village, many of the houses are further inside the owner's land, which gives them the "Forest House" feel

Styrsö cemetery, frozen and calm

Styrsö Sunset

Sunset Styrsö (my favourite picture of this series)

Paleo diet - minced pork

I've been asked to show some dishes from my version of the paleo diet. I'll have another video explaining all components of that diet, the meaning of them, why I am doing it, how I'm doing it, but for now I'll show just couple of dishes that I'll eat today. First and main meal is going to be minced pork, which I bought from the local shop, fresh pork with fat, minced. Next component is going to be fresh chopped onion and pepper, and parsley fresh and chopped also. Also we'll add an egg and couple of spices, black pepper and paprika. First we mix the egg and the mince. The mince is about 200 gr and the egg is about 70-80 gr. We mix until it's consistent. We'll eat this row, but the taste is not really different of runny eggs. It's quite common food. Also the minced pork is quite common to be eaten row. There are many national dishes in Europe and Asia that include row mince. Add a handful of fresh chopped onion, parsley, chopped onion and a bit of chopped pepper. One of the issues of this dish for people who are not accustomed to the paleo diet, and are used to eat salt daily, is that it is tasteless. To overcome this we can add some spices like black pepper or paprika. We need to spent about couple of weeks eating only raw food without salt and sugar so our sense of taste could sharpen and we'll perceive the normal raw meat as quite salty and tasty. Mix all ingredients well. We'll have about 300 gr of main meal at the end.

Red Persian Buttercup

These bright red buttercups were shining in the silver-green surrounding after the rain.

Single Tent-Cape paper and life-sized models

In some of the previous posts I showed models and use of my double Tent-Cape, but there was another manner of folding sheet of fabric in the form of tent, which I used when in need during the last 20 years. This type of tent uses square sheet of waterproofed fabric (tarp) with sizes 2x2m (which is most suitable for my height of 1.8m, but in a pinch I would use 1.8x1.8m/6x6ft). This tent is much shorter and not very comfortable, but is simpler, uses smaller square sheet and allow me to sit inside. This sheet can be used as hammock and rain-cape also.

The pitching up requires first to pin down with a peg one of the corners, after that to stretch the sheet and pin down the middle of the opposite side. After that fix down the pole, which is longer then the half of one of the sides, After that tie the front flap to the pole and preferably tie to top of the pole with string to peg in the ground, which will pull against the first 2 pegs.

I guess for somebody it may not be very clear this explanation and I'll do video of how the pitching up is done some of the next days.

Square sheet of some water/windproof fabric

Folding it, so we can find the middle of each side

Mark/fold the line between corner and middle of the corresponding side

Mark/fold the line between corner and middle of the corresponding side

Same for the other side

Another view to show better how it looks

Folding the line of the front flap

Sheet folded in the shape of the tent

For simulating pitching up, I used 2 pins to show where are the pegs, which will stretch and fix the sheet to the ground

For the pole which supports the tent I used toothpick. In reality it is a stick 1.4m long, from which 0.4m are nailed into the ground and is fixed with string/buttons/wire to the front flap. Also there can be used piece of string to pull the pole in the opposite of the pegs direction.

Another view

Real life sized model from tyvek (few months ago somebody wanted me to show him how it looks and I made this then and took picture)

Devil's Apple (S. linnaeanum) from Bni Bouayach, Morocco

I took these pictures an year ago during my visit to Morocco. While the quality is not great, the plant itself is interesting. I stumbled across few of these just outside of the village Bni Bouayach. The temperature was around 46C and the ground was completely dry and burning hot, but seems they were thriving there. I would assume it is a Devil's Apple (S. linnaeanum), but I am not 100% sure, so if I am wrong, correct me, please. It looks a bit like spiny tomato and is pretty easy to be mistaken with the wild eggplant, which is actually closely related species. Also it is worth mentioning that the species is poisonous, so be careful if you come across one.

Devil's Apple (S. linnaeanum) from Bni Bouayach, Morocco

Devil's Apple (S. linnaeanum), closer view

Walk along river Botunya

Video from my walk along river Botunya (spelled also Botunja or Botunia) during the spring. The mussels shown are probably Duck mussels (Anodonta anatina) (If I am wrong please correct me)

A few more pictures from Tangier

I have a few more pictures from Tangier, which while are not the highest quality photography may happen to be interesting in general.

Cannon at the Tangier's beach

Tangier's Beach

Another view of the Tangier's Beach walkway

One of the main streets of Tangier

Cafes in the Tangier's Medina

Some older (rather not maintained) parts of Tangier

Tangier, near the coast

Small closure with very tall orange trees in Tangier

Typical cat from Tangier, skinny and with strangely shaped heads

I always assumed that the stray cats around the world in 21st century are already very mixed and uncharacteristic, but from what I've seen recently, that is not true and there are a lot of regional races, some of which have striking and particular looks. One of these interesting types of cats I've seen in the northern parts of Morocco. Obviously most of these cats are undernourished, but even these that live close to fisherman's areas and are rather fattish exhibit similar looks, light bone structure, wide muzzle, etc. The cat on the picture is stray from some market in Tangier and came to see me while I've been buying food. It was skinny and a bit cautious, but piece of meat helped to gain its confidence, so I could take the photos.


Fishers in the Tangier's evening

Evening walk along Tangier's coast

View from my window in midnight

Walk through the hills in North-West Bulgaria (Panichka, Dudovets, Kumanitsa)

Another Youtube clip and the reason for posting so many videos lately is that I dont have access to computer and the internet is very sketchy, so its much easier and faster for me just to upload a video from my phone then choosing photos and making gallery in blogger, but hopefully soon I'll get again close to the civilization and I'll be able to upload photos.

In this particular video I am showing several short clips of my walk around the hills Panichka, Dudovets and Kumanitsa in North-West Bulgaria. The weather was very pleasant and overall the scenery was great.

Pitching up my Tent-Cape and rain test

I made this short video to show how to pitch up my tent-cape. I made this in wind and it took alltogether with cutting and sharpening the four supporting sticks couple of minutes. After that the rain started and there were no leaks so I decided to spent the night in the tent and seems the nature of this type of folding sheets makes it not only waterproof, but also warm and wind resistent.

Short overview of place in North-West Bulgaria (between Krivodolska Mahala ...

Due to continous snowfall in the mountains I decided to wait few days in village in the North-West of Bulgaria, called Krivodol (Krivodolska Mahala). There are several small hills (Panichka, Dudovets and Kumanitsa) and river (Botunya) nearby, which I have shown in the video. Also there were a lot of the local variety of snails, which are eaten on semi-regular basis and are in quantities suficient to sustain anybody who needs it.

Hiking through Lyulin Mountain

Today I decided to see group of hills next to Bulgaria's Capital Sofia, called Lyulin. The highest point is Dupevitsa Peak (1,256 m or 4121 ft). The place is not particulary high or unaccessible, but is somewhat wild and I've seen very few people there. At some point the track which I followed desappeared and I had to walk through pretty dense woods and at one moment I thought that is going to be impossible to go any further, but somehow I managed to cross it. I started from Knyazhevo district, walked first toward Vladaia, after that Bonsovi Polyani, Lyulin itself and finally Gorna Banya. The whole thing took exactly 10 hours (10am-8pm) and I estimated that I walked something like 40-45 km. I filmed few of the moments during the day and I joined them in one longer video in which hopefully can be seen some interesting things.