Korean wildflowers

With Spring now in full bloom, the morning walk shows me a lot of flowers. Here, the pear orchard just outside the school. BTW, if you are lucky enough to be able to get some Korean pears, enjoy. I'm really looking forward to the season, as these pears are similar to apples in shape and texture, but with that lovely pear flavour.

This tiny little purple flower is bedded in the middle of dead leaves, other weeds and is so delicate that I just had to snap it.

Pushing up in the middle of a tangle of rusting machinery and broken parts, this ivory and blue flower has the sweetest scent.

This bank of bluebells form the backdrop for a shady part of the morning walk - this will be a welcome place to stop in the summer heat.

A close up of the blue bells shown above.

A morning walk

Some views of Seoshin.

Hi! The morning walk through Seoshin takes me past a lot of fairly typical Korean scenery - here is a field planted with early spring rice, well on its way to filling some bowls.

This is a panoramic view of Seoshin, showing just how misty the early spring mornings are these days. The tilled field in the foreground will be planted with that other staple crop - chilies.

The 'main drag', otherwise also the road to Gyungpyeong Harbour from Seoshin. On the right is the golf course, and on the left is a vegetable garden.

An atypical Seoshin home - this one belongs to a fairly rich family who are able to devote some of their ground to a lawn and a flower garden rather than vegetables.

Here is one of the rice paddies that will be planted with autumn rice.

Walking through this little village, if you are a foreigner, is akin to being a celebrity. You are greeted with cries of 'songseanim', waved at, pointed at and generally made aware of your difference.

If you love centre stage, as I do, it's great.

Some glimpses of Seoul

Gimpo international airport - the main hall area, and below that, the Hangang river that runs through Seoul.

Food

Hi there.

South Korea is one of those countries where the 'burn' factor of food is highly prized. Many of the fields in and around the small village where I live, Seoshin, are devoted to the cultivation of the chili, and it is extensively used in Korean cooking.

First, a look at the outside of a small-town restaurant.

This one, Shik-Dang, will serve you dishes such as bibimbap (rice with vegetables and an egg and chili paste), tokkpogi (rice noodles in a volcanic sauce of red chili paste), or udon ( a type of fish soup with noodles).

This is the view from inside a typical little restaurant, where we had this lovely spread.

The red stuff you can see in the small white bowl is just one of the nearly 200 types of kimchi, a type of vegetable pickle, that forms the staple of every meal in Korea. In fact, many houselholds have a kimchi fridge and an ordinary fridge.

Some more eating adventures in later posts!