A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 14 December 2021- T for Tess, Terry and a cup of tea

 

Hello lovely ladies,

I've started to receive Christmassy postcards from my Postcrossing community. This one arrived the other day. It is a cozy scene of a seemingly old lady reading to two gorgeous little girls. (I love anything to do with reading).

It was sent to me from Germany by someone called Anne, who is 68 years old and is looking forward to Christmas with her family .

She and her husband of 46 years, live in Eberswalde. She even sent me a QR code to find out more about this town.

The stamps are sweet. The one on the left I wrote about last Tuesday  And the one on the right is a joyful Christmas stamp

It is a stamp from 2019  called Santa and friends. It was drawn by Jennifer Dengler .

This is last week's postcard haul. We have a postbox and I found quite a pile of cards the other day.

As we are joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T-Party with all the other ladies of the 'T-Gang', here is a photo with a drink in it:

It's our breakfast. At least three times a week we have porridge for breakfast (in winter). Often we cook a large pot  the night before and heat up portions. I smother mine with maple syrup. My drink is a rooibos tea.

Talking of breakfasts, this is called a full English breakfast. But we have it for lunch as it is too much to have in the morning. We leave out the sausages, but we have bacon and eggs on toast with a couple of tomatoes and some baked beans.

Here is another photo with a drink in it (and some food too, sorry Elizabeth if I make you hungry):

It is taken at our favorite restaurant. My drink is a Radler (lager with lemon). In the dish you can see my first course which is salmorejo, a Spanish cold soup. It traditionally has bits of iberico ham in it but I had a toothache and I asked for some tuna instead of ham.

I want to talk about books again:

I'm reading this book at the moment. It's a dual time line story. There is the WWII storyline set in Burma where five women joined the Women's Auxiliary Service Burma (the Wasbies). They ran a mobile canteen that was attached to the Fourteenth Army.  The present day timeline is about Olivia, an assistant art dealer looking for Japanese netsukes. She visits the elderly Beatrix, who is a collector but she also was one of the women running the mobile canteen in Burma. 

I'm liking it so far. 

But the books I have read over the last month are these.

The first one is by one of my favorite authors Lucinda Riley. 

It's a triple timeline story. It switches from New York, to Ireland and London. In our contemporary story, Grania Ryan has fled her bohemian life (and partner, Matt) in New York following the traumatic experience of a miscarriage. She has returned to the wilds of West Cork to seek solace amid her family, ordinary folk trying to eke out a living on their farm. Her return raises issues which her mother had hoped would remain buried in the past as Grania forges links with their neighbours, the aristocratic Lisle family who have been the cause of much grief to the Ryans. What follows is a rollercoaster ride of a story as we see how the deeds of Grania’s ancestors still have a strong influence on the present.

I'm afraid this one was a bit of a disappointment. I found it sentimental and unrealistic. At times overly dramatic and the protagonist Aurora (a child) has the mind of an adult and does not come across as a child at all. It is set in Ireland but the Irish accent is so exaggerated that I thought i would scream if I read the word 'pet' once again! I have an Irish daughter in law and she certainly doesn't speak like that, neither does her mother. 

The next book, Die Again by Tess Gerritsen, I did like a lot.

The first part of the story is set in Botswana where a group of people are on safari and things go horribly wrong. A survivor, Millie, manages to get back to civilization.  The other part of the story is set in Boston where Rizzoli and Isles try to solve the murder of a taxidermist. The two stories are of course related, but how...?

I loved this book. I love most of what Tess Gerritsen has written (except her romantic novels). The Botswana part of the book had me sitting on the edge of my chair, then I could relax and find out how it all fits together. I read it in a very short time as it is difficult to put down.

The third book is Terry Pratchett's Nation. Now I must admit that I am not a Pratchett fan. I tried reading some Disc World books, but they didn't float my boat.

 But this book is totally different. I read somewhere that Terry started writing this with a certain urgency after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

The story is set in the 19th century when a tsunami hits an island  (in a fantasy world) and wipes out the entire population except Mau, who was on his way back from his initiation-into-manhood. He finds that a foreign ship has beached on the island and that there is a foreign girl that has survived. 

The book is supposedly for children and is about issues such as racism, religion (is there a God? ). It is really funny at times and at times seriously profound. 

Someone at Goodreads wrote this:

NATION is a book about religion and origins. Its a book about universal truths, regardless of class or race or upbringing, about the things that make us all the same. It's deeply insightful and the prose is, as I already said, simply wonderful in parts. So even if you're not a Pratchett fan, read it!

I recommend this book. I loved it.

The weather has been really nice and sunny

Although it has been sunny, the evenings are cold so at 5 o'clockish we light the stove. Here is hubby putting the almond shells in the stove, and behind him you see my little desk, where I am at the moment writing this.

I think I'll call it a day. 

Have a lovely week all of you,

Happy T-Day,

Hugs,

Lisca