Autumn Story

This autumn is so beautiful, so mild and warmed by the sun's rays that I have come to long for the dreary days I was used to in the past when everything worked normally.

When every season knew its name.

Sometimes all sorts of less than friendly reasons prevent me from doing what I planned or following my habits.

Like shopping before the weekend.

This week I stayed home and celebrated shopping day in my little garden, with a little barbecue and my eyes on my trees ready to face the coming winter. Now I realize the difference between those trees and us humans. When winter comes we dress up thicker and thicker, that is, we put more and more leaves on us, while the trees do the opposite...

My birches are still quite shy, they are not completely bare, but they will soon give up the last leaves.

They are young though and, like many young people, they don't put their clothes back on. I have had to dedicate this day to sort out the clothes thrown all over my little yard.

Every work in the yard reminds me that in one corner there is an old barbecue, actually, it doesn't remind me because I think about it all the time. It's a barbecue made of bricks almost a hundred years old, a barbecue like people have in the country. I didn't even want to build one like in the magazines (nor could I), I like to say I want it to be rustic and authentic. To give me the impression and remind me of my grandparents' food, they didn't put much value on the image of the tools used but on the quality of the food when they cooked. This grill of mine makes me think that food is the same as it was in my childhood, although it can't be like that anymore, now we like to delude ourselves, to lie to ourselves nicely!

Why do I love barbecue? Mainly because I can eat fish because of it, I don't cook fish in the kitchen. So especially fish has the "honor" of frying there.

I didn't go to the market today but it's a good thing there's a fridge. I have two fish there waiting for this day and that helps me to be able to tell something about #marketfriday. Because Denise, @dswigle is waiting for our stories.

I have a sea bass and a salmon trout, the former is sea fish and the latter freshwater. Both fish are farmed and I can say right now that the former is tastier. They arrived immediately on the grill, they were cleaned from earlier so I didn't waste time with the preparation.

After the fish were in place, I had a few minutes left to look at my stubborn flowers. Stubborn to keep blooming, even though they have the icy sword of winter hanging over their heads. Alas, how I love them for this stubbornness... yet natural.

I'd like to think that I too will be stubborn when I feel a sword above my head.... or a scythe. I like to hope so even though I know I'm not exactly a fighter.

During this time the fish began to fry. I like grilled fish and because I no longer have to clean the scales, an operation I don't like. On the grill, the scales burn and clean very easily.

The fish are toast on both sides and now I am going to apply what I learned in Greece. That is to make these fish particularly tasty.

I start with a cup of red wine, which I drink. Then it takes a lemon and oil, preferably olive oil. I ran out of olive oil and then used sunflower oil, also cold-pressed.

Then pour a little oil and squeeze half a lemon over the fish, leave for a few minutes and turn the fish over. Here I repeat the action with the oil and lemon. I also add salt and pepper.

This simple action makes the fish particularly tender and tasty. Before I saw how the Greeks grill, I used to eat the fish almost dry because on the coals the heat evaporates all the liquid from them. I was unhappy that they didn't taste like the ones I ate in a restaurant. Now they are much better than in a restaurant!

The fish are almost done and I've even put bread on the grill.

Still the Greek method, they put thick slices of bread on the grill which they then drizzle with olive oil.

It's true that the food doesn't look great but I assure you the taste is. Beneath the burnt skin is tender, sweet-sour-savory-spicy fish with a smoky, seafood smell. It's the only way I can quell my longing for the sea.

My birches growing by the grill are jealous and keep touching me (gracefully) with their branches, trying to get my attention. Now I have to give them a few looks...

We can feel the approach of rain, it has been a gloomy day that will now become rainy. Good thing I finished the work in the garden and the barbecue. The rain is coming, the first drops of water have started. There's room for a song. Rain On the Window · Nazareth!