Edamame!

Sing with me, "Mame, mame!"

Gyotaku

On Saturday, a kind person from the department took me out to Goldstream Park with his daughters, to see the end of the salmon run. Piles of dead fish were stinking by the sides of the river, and seagulls were busy picking at them and the few live ones left laying eggs on the shallow gravel beds. We saw at least ten bald eagles sitting on trees or in the marshy bit, looking fed.

I took the opportunity to try gyotaku, or fish printing. Apparently, Japanese fisherman in the 1800s wanted people to actually believe them when they said their fish was thiiis big, so they made prints using the fish. So, I wiped the dead fish down with the sponge, thinly painted it in orange, green and pink, and rather squeamishly pressed paper down on it to make a picture. It's actually fairly amazing how the scales and gills and eye show up.

I have a picture of a dead fish on my wall!

Moonlight

I woke up at about 5am this morning, and thought I'd left the light on. It was the moon, shining squarely through my skylight and onto my pillow.