Willie-wagtail (Rhipidura Leucophrys)

on graduation & parting ways

Night of the Woods: Chapter 3 / unknown / When We Were Young - Adele / We May Never Pass This Way (Again) - Seals and Crofts / Mikko Harvey, for M / John Berger, “Will it be a likeness?” from The Shape of a Pocket / forever - Charli XCX / Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters / nice2KnoU - All Time Low / @alisonzai

Springtime willow tree and Eurasian Jays, a view from my window.

never underestimate the healing power of a patch of sunlight

if i could turn into an eel. well that’d be ideal.

Merlin rocket engines

American Crow - ML201955231, Daniel Jimenez

This little friend was in my dream last night

UGC 1810: Wildly Interacting Galaxy from Hubble : What’s happening to this spiral galaxy? Although details remain uncertain, it surely has to do with an ongoing battle with its smaller galactic neighbor. The featured galaxy is labelled UGC 1810 by itself, but together with its collisional partner is known as Arp 273. The overall shape of UGC 1810 – in particular its blue outer ring – is likely a result of wild and violent gravitational interactions. This ring’s blue color is caused by massive stars that are blue hot and have formed only in the past few million years. The inner galaxy appears older, redder, and threaded with cool filamentary dust. A few bright stars appear well in the foreground, unrelated to UGC 1810, while several galaxies are visible well in the background. Arp 273 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation of Andromeda. Quite likely, UGC 1810 will devour its galactic sidekick over the next billion years and settle into a classic spiral form. via NASA

Could you please share the recipe for the soup you made with the bug noodles? That looks amazing and I want it in my tummy.

Sure!

The ingredients always include onions, garlic, and carrots. Usually potatoes too. It depends on what I have in the fridge, but it can also include celery, parsnip, grated turnip, cabbage, green beans, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, or zucchini.

I suppose corn would also be soup compatible, or perhaps bell pepper, though I can't recall ever putting those things in this kind of soup. All vegetables are friends when you boil them up together so it's probably hard to go wrong here.

I can't really give specific amounts because it will depend on the size of your pot, and I don't measure soup ingredients.

I chop up my vegetables and garlic and put them in a big pot with a little olive oil, and cook them on medium heat until the onions have gone clear and things are starting to look a tiny bit brownish on the edges. Or maybe not quite that long if there's a lot of stuff in the pot and it's taking a while and I'm feeling impatient.

Then I add water, or perhaps meat or vegetable stock, just until they're covered, leaving some room for the tomatoes. Sometimes when I boil parsnips and carrots together in the same pot (which is very good and better than having either vegetable individually) I save the water to use for soup because it's so dang flavourful and sweet.

At this point the salt and pepper also go in, and some Herbes de Provence, or something similar. I'm currently out of the blended H de P so for this soup I think I added thyme, basil, parsley, and dried chives. Might have put some ground coriander seed too?

The little noodles also go in now, or sometimes I do barley, or sometimes neither. I got these bug shaped noodles at the Bulk Barn, but that's only in Canada so I have no idea where people in other countries should look for bug noodles.

Then I bring it to a boil, and after it has boiled I turn it down and add a can of diced tomatoes and let it simmer for a while. If it has noodles or barley or something like that then it simmers until they're cooked.

Very shortly before it's done simmering I add some frozen peas, because they really don't need boiling, just to be heated up. If they boil then the colour and texture won't be as nice.

Then I eat soup for 2 or 3 days and it's nice! I like to have it with some buttered bread or rolls.

Usually I end up with so much vegetable stuff in the pot that there isn't much room for liquid, but that's ok, I like it when there's lots of soup in my soup.

I wish you a very good soup!