Here is a very short video and some images I have taken from mountains located in north of Tehran. At this time of the year, it has the mildest weather and it is a great place if you really need some oxygen.
Please also visit my images on Google Earth or Panoramio:
This video contained a great Greenday music synched to it beautifully, but unfortunately Youtube forced me to remove the music for copyright problems. If you wanted the original version tell me directly please.
Paymaan.
looking west south, in the middle of lake (a point of soil is out of water) is where I was fishing last year, when water level was so low!
For 3rd year on, I decided to go to Laar lake at Damavand peak foot fishing for the rare brownies, yes these are really rare, at least in Iran, where this lake is the only lake holding them.
Hi Everybody,
Tomorrow is the beginning of a new spring, NowRuz (new day), and the day after tomorrow will be the first day of Persian new year 1388 Solar Hejri. So I use this opportunity to say a happy new year to all the friends and family and all those good people who read this, and I wish a happy and joyful and prosperous new year for all Persian, and a new spring for all the rest 
I hope you enjoy your holidays, and be happy.
Paymaan.
9th June 2008 was the beginning of the fishing season in the Laar reservoir at Laar dam, right at west of Damavand peak, and east of Tehran province, Iran. This year, I had the chance to go there to have a great adventure and fishing experience. The lake is native environment of an special species of fresh water fish; Brown trout. This kind of brown trout is called Red-Dot trout locally or in Farsi: “Khaal-Ghermez, خال قرمز”, because most of the fish are silver colored trouts with black and red dots on them (other varieties exist as well).
I tried to get some sleep the Sunday 8th June, as I didn’t get a good sleep for a few days before, thinking I needed to gather my strength and wake up very early and I was to drive about 90 Km to the Laar reservoir and Damavand peak.
Hi everybody,
Monday 9th June 2008, the fishing season at Laar dam reservoir will start. I see people are planning to be there for brown trouts (native to Iran and specially to Laar river), so although I have been at Caspian shore just a few days ago, I am planning to be there, probably to also participate in the season competition.
I am not sure if I can really be prepared in 3 days, but everything of my tools are in my car’s trunk and I am really eager to start the season wih everybody else. I also had the opportunity to take some pictures during my past trip to the Caspian, including a few from the road, which is very beautiful in this time of the year.
I will try to put these on Google Earth as soon as I can, so everybody else enjoys.
Paymaan.
I was shopping for a Laurel in the plant shopping center at the beginning of the spring and some old ladies started to ask about cherry tomatoes and what they can plant in containers in their apartments, so I tried to help them choose what is easier, what is pretty enough, smells good and can be planted in containers and indoors.
Well, this is a question to many people who love plants and greens just like me, but don’t know what they can plant in their apartments or balconies wihtout much need to light and soil.
I always have an answer to this question, it is simply: plant pepper!
Pepper plants have some characteristics which make them perfect for indoor and containers.
There is a huge variety of peppers you can grow at home. It doesn’t need much sun light, so you can plant it in small containers and put them behind the windows. I normally use 8 liter containers and although I put them in my balcony, they are still under a shade (preventing summer heat). The leaves of pepper, are shiny and in some varieties they are very wide, which makes them perfect add on to house greens, and it is a really clean plant.
The blooms on pepper which are in most varieties small white flowers, add to to its value, and then comes the smell. I really like the smell of fresh peppers, specially the mild smell of bell peppers which make you feel so fresh and relaxed. and when the peppers are hanging finally, it is one of the best add-ons to your cooking food, and to be honest, I love to use vegetables grown on my small containers instead of those somehow artificial crops bought from store, which have no smell and no taste at all, and I don’t know with what kind of water and soil they are grown.
Anyway, so the process is easy, in a suitable season get some 8 liters containers, stuff hem with soil, and put a seed or 2 half a centimeter in the soil and spray some water over it for a few days. I prefer light container soil I buy from plant center near me, for about 1.5 USD a 10 kg pack. The prices may vary in your place and your country, I am shopping in Tehran and right from the center.
If you want to plant indoors, the season doesn’t matter much, just keep the temperature so plant doesn’t freeze in winters. 15 degrees centigrade to 20 makes a perfect conditions I guess. If you don’t have enough light, put them under fluorescent lamps.
Remember, Pepper seeds are very slow, so you have to be patient. It normally takes more than 12 days before you see any sign of the plant and it may take even more, so just keep the soil moist and let the nature do the rest for you.
Now how to select seeds or how to find the seeds yourself? You can either buy from shops, or you can use the available seeds in the peppers you see.
Shopping, everybody knows how, ask your local stores, or simply type “pepper seed” in google and you will find a thousand sellers, I have used seedfest.co.uk and I guess north Americans are also easy with burpee.com.
But if you prefer not to buy seeds, it is still easy. Find a perfect pepper of any kind you like to grow, preferrable not a hybrid type (hybrid seeds don’t grow exactly like their mothers, and they don’t smell or taste like those we like, and market is filled with them). The pepper you want to use must be fully grown, I mean it must be colored other than green for most species. If you use seed from a red pepper (which is still green), then the seeds are not grown enough.
So select the perfect pepper, open it and use seeds. put up to 3 seeds in the container and cover it with soil, and if more than one came out, trim the weaker ones.
Be careful with hot chilli peppers, Habanero and every other kind of hot pepper. When these grow, they start getting very hot and even the smell might be hot, so keep the kids away from them.
Peppers don’t need much attention as I said before, if you wanted to give them some food, after a month give them a tiny bit of an slow release fertilizer like green KRISTALLON dissolved in water and that’s all.
Enjoy while your plant are slowly growing, giving you some taste of the nature.
Paymaan.
Our earth lives as green plans exist, there is no doubt about this simple fact. One of the reasons this earth is alive, and living things exist on it is because of those green colors, or better say, green plants.
I love nature, plants, animals, most of them. Actually there are not many animals I dislike, I believe every existence has a reason to exist, and all should exist. I can’t set a preference here, but I surprisingly like the giant animals a little more. Mostly those have lived the earth for millions of years, like crocodiles, turtles, whales, and especially Rhinos!
Well, I am not like Hagrid, but those animals lived the earth so long I believe they own the earth more than we do.
Anyway, I like plants, and I like planting. I have no private land, and actually not even an small yard (live on 2nd floor actually ), so since three years ago, I plant in containers.
I have about 20 to 30 containers, all in my balcony, I plant vegetables in them, yes you heard it right, vegetables in containers!!! and those produce real vegetables, in quality much better than those you buy at market!
The story is like this, you buy a few 8 liter containers, fill them with good and light soil, buy some quality seeds, and take care of them. You see for yourself how they cultivate, grow, flower, and produce real vegetables.
Plants are also so beautiful they double as decoration, and just imagine how pretty they can be having red tomatoes or green bell peppers hanging from them. Last but not least, you can’t believe how good peppers smell, even if they are not yet any peppers on them.
To make it healthier and more fun, I only use natural heirloom seeds. By heirloom I mean seeds which are original types, NOT modified genetically and are really natural. This way, fruits taste natural, smell natural, and you will notice the huge difference between them and those tasteless ones you buy from market.
In this category, I would like to talk about these kinds of stuff, and we may have some interesting discussions for every other nature enthusiast, so be my guest, and tell me what do you like to hear!
Paymaan.
