Postcard from Ukraine

 

I received a postcard from Ukraine via postcrossing. I didn’t realize the Ukrainian people were still sending postcards until now. My Postcrossing partner, Juliia, is a Chinese language teacher living in Kyiv. She likes to travel but can’t due to the war. Her postcard took a month to reach me in California.

The postcard is titled “God Save Ukraine” by Olga Mashevskaya. The style of painting reflects Ukrainian colors and cultures.

Juliia chose a stamp depicting the war with Russia. The stamp “The Russian Navy to the Bottom!” is the third in the "Russian warship...!" series of postage stamps and pictures sinking ships which represent the Russian warships destroyed by Ukraine.  The ship in the background that's still afloat, but has a red gunsight on it, represents Russian patrol frigate Admiral Makarov, potentially the next target for Ukraine.  The stamp is hoped to be prophetic and symbolize the elimination of all Russian warships occupying the Azov-Black Sea region.

She also used another stamp depicting colorful design of Ukrainian Easter egg.

This postcard brought Ukraine to life for me. I searched for more information online. I even tried to order some postcards and stamps from Postal Ukraine unsuccessfully. 

An Artwork about the Evenk's Daily Life 鄂溫克族的日常生活

 I received a postcard from Germany. It caught my eye because it's a watercolor sketch on a piece of newspaper or a book page. This is the work of Michail Grey Wolf Guruev who used to live in Germany. He returned to his ancestor's home in Russia later. 

The artwork uses only a bluish color (ink). It almost looks like comics. According to the information on the back of the postcard, the artwork is titled "The Reindeer, Evenk's daily Life. Milk + Small-Talk" 

The Evenks (also spelled Ewenki or Evenki) are a Tungusic people of North Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 38,396 (2010 census). In China, the Evenki form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, with a population of 30,875 (2010 census).[2] There are 537 Evenks in Mongolia (2015 census).

鄂溫克世居地區跨越俄羅斯聯邦、中華人民共和國和蒙古國三國，其中居住於中蒙二國的族民根據民族語言漢譯作「鄂溫克族」，而俄羅斯境內的族民則根據俄羅斯語漢譯為「埃文基族」，並衍生出「鄂溫克語」、「埃文基語」兩個語言名稱。

I've never heard of Evenks until today. Very interesting people to learn about.

Pajama pants finished

This project is made with Luxe Flannel fabric from Joann. It's 70% rayon & 30% cotton, machine wash normal cold, tumble dry low, cool iron. Cost of fabric around $13.50.
I also purchased  Butterick B5829 patten for this project. The pattern is good for beginners to learn about pattern-reading but not user-friendly. I first made a copy of size M then realized it's too big on me.  The size S pants is designed as capri pants. The lesson is I need to measure and adjust U. S. commercial patterns to fit.

Amy Mcgee Osborne

Remembering my friend Amy Mcgee Osborne (8-1-1958 to 6-11-2013). 

When I came to the US for graduate school, she was one of the volunteers who were paired with foreign students as local hostess. We met once a week in her studio apartment to have tea and chat.  She took me to opening night of Chicago Opera, high tea at an elegant hotel, Easter & Thanksgiving family feasts. I was introduced to her parents, Tom & Bette along with a lot of relatives and friends. She became the highlight of my graduate study. This is another example that the time spent outside of classroom turned out to be more valuable than formal education. 

Amy later moved to Denver for work, got married & had 2 boys. We lost touch of each other in the early 90's, but I still think of her and those wonderful outings around Chicago. When my daughter was born, we decided to name her after Amy.  

Tonight I found Amy's obituary online. I'm quite shocked. She is only a couple years older than me. I was hoping  to maybe find her on facebook and catch up with her.  

I also found an article quoting her mom who was with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for a long time. Just like her mom, Amy suffered from asthma. I remember she was also allergic to egg and very particular about her food. At least she can rest in peace and never fuss with that any more. 

印度拉茶

印度拉茶在台灣很流行，美國人稱為 Masala Chai Tea，泡一壺只要10分鐘，就可讓一桌人分享。最近去一場茶藝講座，介紹印度拉茶的魯三美，雖然不是茶藝師，他獨特的個人背景，倒是推薦印度拉茶的最佳人選:

Boy Scout’s weekend project puts him in line to soar with Eagles

Boy Scout’s weekend project puts him in line to soar with Eagles

機器人泡茶