A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 16 Jan 2018 - T for carrotcake, books and energy tea

Hello peeps, It's Tuesday again! Well, I am writing this on Monday evening late. It's nearly midnight. We are at our weekend home, where we always go on Monday. This time I completely forgot to bring any of my postcards to show you. I have had a fair few this week. It will keep until next week.

What have I been up to? Well, I have been to a workshop that our local photo club had organized. It was about photographing food (in a studio setting).

The 'teacher' had a tableau set up with a black back ground and explained about light settings and camera settings. It went a bit over my head. Too professional.

Here she has made a composition of bread that someone had got at our baker's, and this is the resulting photo:

At the back there was a platter of cookies/biscuits for us to eat, here on the right:

These are the local goodies. The round thing with the hole in the middle is called 'rosco', eaten the whole year through, but particularly popular around epiphany, 6th January, Los Reyes or Three Kings. The cake on the left is my carrot cake tray bake. 

And this is said cake on a little platter serving as a teaching aid on how to photograph with a white back ground.

I am still under the weather and feeling constantly exhausted. I have bought a new herbal tea:

I haven't tried it yet, but it smells nice. It's green tea with citrus and a thing called guaraná (no idea what that is). It is supposed to give me a bit more energy....

Now I have my drink, I can join the T-party at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's. Please join us with a blog post that has a drink in it.

While I was ill during the Christmas holidays, I read lots of books. I would like to share some that I really enjoyed. I will put them at the end for those who are interested. I get my books on Kindle from Amazon. I only buy books at 99 cents or free books even. I am critical, even though I don't pay much and I choose carefully. I get offers every day but i only buy one occasionally when i think I am going to like it. The following books are the ones I particularly enjoyed.

Wishing everyone a happy T-Day,

Blessings,
Lisca

Jeremy Walsh’s parents assume he’s been abducted by the elderly man he met on a cross-country flight, but it’s the other way around. 

Two unlikely companions meet in midair: 13-year-old Jeremy, sent against his will by his career-absorbed father to spend the summer with his bipolar mother, and Harry, one-legged and afflicted with mid-stage Alzheimer’s, who escapes the confinement of home for what may be his last adventure. Their journey begins, trailed by Harry’s wife and Jeremy’s parents, who threaten to cut it short. It’s a race against time and circumstance.

"In Adrian Magnuson's Taking Flight a curmudgeon losing his memory and a snarky teen fleeing his parents find a common passion in bird watching. Endearing characters, delightful story and a poignant final scene give this book wings along with the beautifully depicted birds.” —Frances Wood, author of Brushed by Feathers: A Year of Birdwatching in the West

I can recommend this, even if (like me) you know nothing about bird watching. It is delightful and funny, and had me shedding a tear at some point. Harry reminded me of my dad, who also had Alzheimers. And I have a son, so I recognised Jeremy as a typical teenager.

In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.

I liked this one for the historical detail, and it was entertaining at the same time. I looked it up and the spy in the story is based on a real woman spy

This next one is a thriller, which kept me on the edge of my seat (so to speak, as I was ill in bed).

A small town hides big secrets in The Dry, an atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.

After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke’s steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn’t tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.

Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there’s more to Luke’s death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets.

This was a rather good thriller and I had no idea where this was going. The plot was really good and I could not have guessed the outcome. An exciting read.