A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 7 Nov 2017 - T for wine, cattle and dark matter

Hello lovely peeps, How is life treating you all? I've had a great weekend, and photos are to be seen in a minute. First I must say that I am going to link up with Elizabeth and Bleubeard at Altered Book Lover, and join the T-party. Any blog with a drink related ítem will qualify.

I would like to tell you about the Spanish bota bags which are still widely used in our área. The bota de vino is a wineskin, used for wine (or wáter or any non-fizzy drink).
Traditionally, bota bags were lined with goat bladders, in other cases tree sap or other resins were used to prevent liquids from seeping through.

Modern bota bags have a plastic liner and a nozzle.

Drinking from a wineskin takes a bit of practice. You have to raise the skin until a stream of liquid comes out which you direct into your mouth without touching the nozzle. With one hand you direct the stream and with the other you squeeze the bag. Great fun!

From the photo above you can tell that I am a novice as I am holding the bag too close to my mouth.

I have just finished Reading the book:

I enjoyed it immensely. This is the summary I found on BookBrowse:
A brilliantly plotted, relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.
"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined - one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human - a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.

I found it one of those books that made me think about my life and the choices that i made in it (whether good or bad) and all the 'what-ifs' it evokes. The science fiction element of the book is far-fetched but very frightening. One day they might invent something like that.... oh no, I hope not!

Let's move to something a bit more down to earth. Last Sunday I went on a hike with members of the local photo club. The idea was to photograph the autumn colours.

We went to a part of the Sierra Nevada nearest to where we live, a place called Dehesa de Camarate. The dehesa is a forest formed by holm oaks (encinas), cork oaks or other species, with a lower stratum of grasslands or bushes, where the activity of the human being has been intense in practically the whole forest and are generally destined to the maintenance of the cattle, to the hunting activity and to the use of other forest products (firewood, cork, mushrooms, etc.)

The trees were beautiful. We saw lots of maple, wild cherries and encinas.

It was a three hour walk through the forest to the top. The views were magnificent.

This particular dehesa has traditionally been used to rear bulls. In the photo below you see a building called 'cargador' which translates as 'loader'. They would drive the vehicle to the end of the building.

The cattle would be driven through passeges into a holding área (below) and then one of the hatches would open and the animal could then walk straight into the cattle truck.

The buildings look quite tatty and I think they are no longer used. But I don't know. Perhaps they do still use them....

There was certainly lots of cattle about. They roam free. I managed to catch a few on camera that were not munching.

This must have been the jeep of the rangers. Perhaps some hay for their horses.

Here is a herd seen from above.

And this is one of the beauties I met on the way.

That is it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the walk as much as I did. At least you won't have the muscle ache that I have now. (and I thought I was fit!)

Happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca