What is in your cup?

[ProfCrash]

hmmm the pictures are a bit small. I think I know why but I won't be able to fix anything until I get home.

[Ivy]

Mi amor.

[astra]

Cuppa #4
mediocre Keemun.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Ivy

Oh if we're posting pretty pics, may I post a pic of my dog?

puppies are always welcome! (any fur kids for that matter!) is it a Bichon?

@ prof crash... I have always wanted to do that on a large scale yet I shudder at the expense of the dirt

I am drinking fair trade coffee with a bit of almond essence, honey and fresh cream

[Ivy]

It's a malteze, KK. Is that your cat on your avatar?

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Ivy

It's a malteze, KK. Is that your cat on your avatar?

yep, one of them. that's Strider, you can barely see Arwen behind him trying to wrestle him down. probably about time to change pics again

edit: new picture! now you can see the little trouble maker better!

[astra]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

puppies are always welcome! (any fur kids for that matter!)

I just have been invited!

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I am drinking fair trade coffee with a bit of almond essence, honey and fresh cream

I wish we had Starbucks in the town....


Meanwhile, cuppa #5
Pu-Erh aged.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by astra

I just have been invited!



I wish we had Starbucks in the town....


Meanwhile, cuppa #5
Pu-Erh aged.

you're a fur kid!?

this isn't Starbucks, it is from a small rotisserie on Vashon Island which is very close to me

[ProfCrash]

Yeah puppies. I love puppies. Fur kids are always welcome. They are fuzzy and provide unconditional love.

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

puppies are always welcome! (any fur kids for that matter!) is it a Bichon?

@ prof crash... I have always wanted to do that on a large scale yet I shudder at the expense of the dirt

I am drinking fair trade coffee with a bit of almond essence, honey and fresh cream

The dirt was the least second expensive part. Those suckers are 26 inches deep. That is a lot of lumber. While the dirt cost this year was horrific (probably about 72, 70 pound bags were used) it will be greatly diminish next year since we will not have to fill the entire thing and we will have fewer pots. DH went a bit nuts with the hot peppers this year, it is a year for experimentation. We should hopefully be down to just ugly pot row and a few other pots by next year.

I would like to have about 10 hot peppers, variety is nice, 5 sweet peppers, tomatoes, peas, carrots, onions, scallions, cucumbers, basil, cilantro, and maybe a few other veggies.

[GeoffC]

juice made with carrots, apples; and a slice of ginger for the zing !

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by dreams

It's rainy, cold, and windy. I'm curled up with my blanket and hot chocolate in my cup.

Still cold? Consider youself lucky. It's 30 degrees here - just the beginning of summer!

Sometimes I really want some coffee - something fancy with cream, sprinkles, syrup...

[desertblues]

As usual, excuse the typo's * .Have got wifi in my room for the first time. Another two posts after this one, and I'm home.In bed now with foodpoisoning+ all the works. Tomorrow better.

23rd day of travel
This will be our last day in Shiraz, an very oriental city.

Iran loves its great poets,who cared for and preserved the Persian language and culture during times of occupation. Several of them have great mausoleum complexes and two of them, Hafez and Sa'di are buried in Shiraz. I visited both complexes.

The Aramgah-e Sa'di, the tomb of Sa'di(Sheik Mohammed Shams-ed-Din 1207-1291), was the first mausoleum we visited.He wrote very elegant verses about gardens and roses, with phrases that people like to use in a refined conversation.
His tombstone is to be found in an open colonnade wich supports a tiled dome.It is a marble one and people let their hand rest on the tomb, for a minute, out of respect. As I did; I love poetry.*
Various rose-verses of his are inscribed, beautifully calligraphed in gold. Young men recite these to their beautiful dark eyed girls.*
There is a big symmetrical rose-garden around his tomb. In this complex is also an underground teahouse, with a big pond full of goldfishes in it. This pond is fed by a qanat( underground irrigation system from a natural spring).I think people are throwing fishes in that pond;I saw a girl with a goldfish in a plastic bag.

The next one was a much larger complex. It was that of Hafez (Khajeh Shams-ed-Din Mohammed 1324-1389),one of Iran most famous poets. He is loved and idolized by the Iranians, somewhat like a modern pop-star.
His name means " one who can recite the Qoran from memory'. He wrote many verses of which parts are still recited and used in everyday speech. Most Iranians can quote some of his work.
His poems have something mystical about them and much of it is about nightingales, courtship and wine. Therefore there is a lot of space for one's own interpretation of his verses. The search for the meaning of his verses is also a search in one's own mind; for the meaning of love, of live.
And again a beautiful symmetric Persian garden, with the usual abundance of fragile flowers, ponds, trees and latticed windows in the wall.*
Karim Khan placed the poet here, in a small shrine. On the marble tombstone one of his verses is engraved. People pilgrimage to lay roses on it and rest their hand on that tomb for a moment.(me too, of course). And people recite Hafez verses in front of the tomb. Yes, me as well, in English; about love and other eternal things.
Some other mystic thing is the Faale Hafez, a ritual by which you open a volume of Hafez, randomly, in order to gain insight in your future.
Outside the gate one could get a glimpse in the future, by paying for a trained parakeet to pick a quote out of a bundle of Hafez verses.
People of all ages walk around, very relaxed, have a glass of tea in the garden. Again, me too + a nice icy Faludeh: a very sweet yellow iced kind of vermicelli.

Again a visit to the bazaar, where I bought a huge copper lamp, for almost nothing (yes, in handluggage on the plane).*
There was the usual mix of people buying and people working. Lots of goods are being transported on carts piled with wares. These carts are drawn by the very old, gnarled bowed men or the very young boys of ten/twelve.And fruitvendors, that move their carts around with one kind of fruit;melons, dates or such. We bought a sweet melon for lunch.
Mullahs, a kind of preachers, which also check the women's cloths for decency, are everywhere; with a flowing black or brown long coat, a white turban and a briefcase. They are not disliked in Iranian society, but there are a lot of jokes with mullahs in them.

In the traditional teahouse Seray-e Mehr in this Bazar-e Vakil, we had a pot of black tea with shirini, sweets, a kind of mille feuilles with a dash of syrup and some green powder. The tiles on its walls told the stories from the poems of Ferdosi( 940-1010).He wrote the Shahnamah(book of kings), a 60.000 couplets epic about the Persian culture, in Farsi.

On to the next sight, the Immanzadeh-ye-Ali ebne-e Hamze mausoleum and mosque. With a chador and without shoes, I was allowed to enter this holy place. The whole wall and ceiling was tiled with thousands of tiny mirrors and two huge crystal chandeliers. In the middle was the shrine:surrounded by green tiles and gold bars.Beautiful, all.

The Naranjestan-e-Ghavam(1879-1886), part of Ghavam complex was the last for today. This building was designed to receive people by the Governor's Court of Fars, during the Qajar period. It housed the family itself, a private bath-house, detention house and stables at one time. There is also a beautiful citrus garden. The building itself was build to impress: an opulence of decoration. All the ceilings are painted, some have gilded wooden beams with scenes of courtlife on it. Some walls are tiled with little mirrors.Doors are inlaid with mother of pearl and all different kinds of exotic wood. Beautiful tiles everywhere on the banks surrounding the garden. It must have been impressive in its time, as it still is now. No oranges or lemons on the trees as yet.

This was Shiraz in three days. Truly, a wonderful city. Tomorrow we have a long drive to Esfahan.

17th of may-tuesday
On the road again, we continue our journey through the Zagros mountains, with some melancholical citar-music in the bus. A kind of Irinian countrysong I think, where someone loses his/ hers job, friends, lovers and/ or cats/ dogs and sits by the fire at night, thinking of the good times. The Orient has a quiet kind of melancholia about it; I noticed that in Turkey as well.

We're retracing our steps a bit,going back north along the other side of the Zagros mountains, via Abadeh, Qomshey and Kisat Kasht, an ancient dead deserted city near Esfahan and a ruined caravanserai.Very interesting all, but there is no shade and the sun is just hot; it being 13.00 PM.
It is a barren, sparsely grown region we see, on this edge of the desert. Mountains like big rocks, without any trees or grass.Yellow, black and lightbrown are their colors.

Poor villages again,like in the North. Everywhere they are building something, but the existing houses are half in ruin. Why don't they fix these? In one village we walked through, the fruit in the shops was almost rotten; banana's heavily spotted with brown, wrinkled old lemons and even the big green melons had brown spots; these poor people. What a world of difference between these villages and the big cities, where they seem to have everything and where most of the men I see are working.

About 40 miles from Esfahan the landscape changes to fertile farmland and trees. Better irrigation? Must be, as there are also some very dry patches in between.And still these bare yellow/brown mountains. This is a harsh part of the country.

[GeoffC]

foodpoisoning+ hope you feel better soon and it doesn't linger overly much !





hot ginger drink ....

[astra]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

you're a fur kid!?

I am a dog, or a dog's soul is hiding inside me. Dog and puppy alternate.

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

this isn't Starbucks, it is from a small rotisserie on Vashon Island which is very close to me

Yeah, I realise but description of your drink inspires a wish for something similar


Water...

[astra]

Originally Posted by desertblues

I'm home.In bed now with foodpoisoning+

Get well!