A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 21 January 2025 - T for Sibelius, coffee and cat

 Hello lovely peeps,

A Very good morning to you all. Here is my postcard for today:

It comes to me from Finland and it features Jean Sibelius' house, from the film "Jean Sibelius at Home" 1927 and the book of the same name (2010, 2015).

Wikipedia writes: Jean Sibelius, orig. Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, (born Dec. 8, 1865, Hämeenlinna, Fin.—died Sept. 20, 1957, Järvenpää), Finnish composer. He played violin and composed as a child, and later he studied composition with Karl Goldmark (1830–1915). After initially concentrating on chamber music, he rapidly developed into an orchestral composer. He became involved with the movement for national independence from Russia, and his nationalism resulted in works based on Finnish folklore, such as Kullervo (1892), the Karelia suite (1893), Legends from the Kalevala (1893), and Finlandia (1900). His major achievements were his seven symphonies (1899–1924), the Violin Concerto in D Minor (1903), and Tapiola (1926). His works, marked by a sweeping but melancholy Romanticism, achieved international popularity. He wrote nothing in his last 30 years.

The house is called Ainola, which means Aino's place. Aino being Sibelius' wife:

Aino Sibelius in 1922

Again from Wikipedia: From the time of their engagement, Aino and Sibelius had talked about getting a house of their own in the country, and had looked for a house near Lake Tuusula as early as 1898. When Sibelius's wealthy bachelor uncle died in July 1903, they bought about 2.5 acres (10,000 m²) of land in Järvenpää near Lake Tuusula, using Sibelius's share of his uncle's estate to pay the architect. Lars Sonck was chosen to design their house, which they called Ainola. The Sibelius family moved there in the autumn of 1904, having borrowed a substantial amount of money to buy the land and build the house.

The house has been a museum since 1974.

The stamps are pretty:

I like the odd-shaped 5 cents stamp.

Today we are celebrating T-Day by having a T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. We need a drink for that. Well, I'm bringing coffee. I make a cup of coffee as soon as I wake up. it needs to be a quickie so I use Nescafé ('Gold' is the only instant coffee I like):

But as soon as I come home from Pilates or the gym or whatever I was doing that morning, I will make proper coffee. 

I have two types of coffee:

I like the Colombia but it is not always easy to find as I live in a small rural village. I store my coffee in the fridge. Yes, weird, I know, but it is an old Italian habit that I haven't shaken.

I make my coffee in a French press:

This is a small one for one person. 

Then I heat milk up in the 'frother':

It comes out all frothy and fluffy like in a bar.

Enough about coffee. It's been cold here:

But at least the sun is shining:

Ronnie the cat is doing well. He still vomits occasionally, which annoys me no-end as he always does it at night, in the bed. (He sleeps on top of the bed at the bottom) He wakes me up in the middle of the night making gagging noises and then I have to throw him off the bed as quickly as I can or he'll vomit all over my duck-down duvet. (I've already had to have it dry cleaned once and that is expensive).

Apart from that he is an absolute darling:

That's all for now.

Happy T-Day all,

Hugs,

Lisca