A Postcard A day - Tuesday 8 December 2020 - T for tapestry, a beekeeper and a still life

 

Hello lovely ladies,

How are you all bearing up? Winter has set in for us in the Northern hemisphere. The fire is roaring and the wind is howling. I'm glad to be indoors.

Let me show you a postcard that arrived last week. It comes from Belarus:

It is entitled 'Still life with apple' oil on canvas, 2017 painted by Uladzimir Hadarovich.  

The painting doesn't look 2017 but I suppose it is timeless. I have a linen towel with a crochet border exactly like that. I made it when I was living in Italy.

I have not been able to find any info about the artist.

But I have found some info about the country Belarus on Wikipedia:

Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) is forested. 

Alexander Lukashenko has served as the country's first president since 1994. Belarus has been labeled "Europe's last dictatorship",on account of the country's poor human rights record and Lukashenko's authoritarian government. Lukashenko continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Elections under Lukashenko's rule have been widely criticized as unfair and political opposition has been violently suppressed. Belarus is also the only country in Europe officially using the death penalty.

Receiving heavy sponsorship from the government, ice hockey is the nation's second most popular sport after football. The national football team has never qualified for a major tournament; however, BATE Borisov has played in the Champions League. The national hockey team finished fourth at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics following a memorable upset win over Sweden in the quarterfinals, and regularly competes in the World Championships, often making the quarterfinals. Numerous Belarusian players are present in the Kontinental Hockey League in Eurasia, particularly for Belarusian club HC Dinamo Minsk, and several have also played in the National Hockey League in North America. Darya Domracheva is a leading biathlete whose honours include three gold medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The stamp comes from an art series, and this one is about gobelin tapestries. 

It features a tapestry by Larisa Gustova. Read more on this blog.

I'm going to keep this short as there is an almighty storm raging and the power is going on and off. It goes off for a few seconds and then I have to wait 5 minutes for my router and computer to boot up again, only for it to be repeated 15 min later. 

This week has been quite good. The weather has been OK until today. 

I have finished my book The Gimmel Flask and I have started to read this:

It is about an autistic young man and his sister who looks after him. They have fled from Yemen and are now living in New York. It promises to be a good book. Has anyone read it?

I talked to my mum the other day and she remarked that my cousin, who always visits her and does her shopping, is going away for a few weeks over Christmas. So mum would be all alone, with nobody visiting. I made a decision there and then to book a flight against my better judgement. So we are flying to Holland on the 21st of December and coming back on the 6th of January. I'm looking forward to seeing her. Every time might be the last one (she is 96).

Consequently we have not put up any decorations, but I have changed the bed to our festive duvet cover:

But in the village the decorations have gone up. Here is the Christmas tree. It is the same one as every year. 

At night with all the lights on, it looks very festive.

I discovered too late that today was a national holiday (shops shut) and tomorrow too. So I baked a loaf of bread with rolled oats, and walnuts and honey. 

This was the view from the living room a few days ago. There is snow on the mountains. The mountains don't look that high but they are, as we are on a high plain.

Today is T for Tuesday, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard,  and we share a beverage. As quite often is the case, my beverage is a glass of wine:

My hubby is like a big child and he loves fish fingers and chips! He is drinking some fruit juice and my drink is a single dose Chardonnay. (very nice actually).

The broccoli is home grown on our plot:

On Friday I did some baking as on the 5th of December we Dutch celebrate the eve of St Nicholas. As my friend's daughter is married to a Dutchman, we decided to celebrate for the benefit of their 5 year old daughter. I brought the cakes and some presents. Grandma from Holland had sent some presents in the post and together we had quite a sack full of pressies. It was a fun evening.

I think I will leave it at that. Help yourself to a piece of cake...

Wishing everyone a happy T-Day and stay safe.

Hugs,

Lisca