MacDonalds

At travel stop near the road we found a MacDonalds that not only had the famous food, but provided showers for long-distance travelers. A shop within the store had travel maps and souveniers, and you could buy a cup of tea actually served in a real cup, not a paper cup. It was a pleasure to see and to taste.

How about these breads and pastries, at MacDonalds.

These apples are like paintings.

I hope you are not tired of houses. I tried to resist taking another house picture but  I like the roof and the door.

Below: a banner in a  shop.

And now for the  crème de la crème: My hostess owned  a birthday record book published around 1820, which had a Bible verse for each day that was colorfully illustrated.

Reading this tiny book published so long ago made me think how important it is to be mindful of The Lord and have a clear conscience toward Him every moment of every day. Sometimes when a human being gets caught up in any duty or activity, it may be easy to let go of all spiritual training  and "have fun" but no matter where a Christian is or what the person is doing, there is always a line of direct communication and personal accountability to God.  If we get familiar with the New Testament we can adopt The Way, The Truth and The Life into our minds. This translates into the way we speak to others and the way we live and our worship habits.

It would be enjoyable to teach this way of embellishing verses to a child so that he has a colorful notebook. While writing the verse and doing artistic things with it, he is absorbing the teaching in his mind and dwelling on it longer.

Click on the pictures of the pages  for larger views.

We went for a walk to the nearby town for shopping and my hostess got some more florals that were quite nice. See the end of the page for a picture.

After eating three times a day during what would normally be our nighttime, I was getting a queasy tummy, but today I felt a lot better. We went to a nice tea room but my friend and I were so hungry we ate all the food and drank all the tea before I realized I had not taken any pictures of us or of the charming little tea room.I was listening intently to her explain her deep-rooted Christian values on various subjects and did not want to miss a word.  If I had to do it again I would have recorded her little talk, as it was very good. She expressed a lot of spiritual insights that were quite edifying and I will include some of this in a future article for Christian ladies in my "Elect Lady Series" which I am hoping to make available to print for free.

Below: one of the pieces my friend kept from her grandmother's things. It came out of an old cutting board, and the wood had deteriorated so she removed the plaster piece.

An interesting doorstop from a scarf tied in knots.

Creating Bright Spots in the Home

A friend who has a historical home asked me to help her with a few areas to make them more attractive. She likes the old-world look,,with tapestry, reds, dark blues, gold, sparkling glass, and antiques, so we both had a good time creating an arrangement on the top of the piano with things she already had at home.

The piano top was our blank canvas. I did not think about turning on some lights to make the photographs come out better, so it all looks rather dark.

We added two red runners made from a shimmery fabric that seems to have other colors in it depending on which way you look at it. 

A pile of old books in the middle,

...then candle holders, some linen and a photograph and then we needed some fillers to put in empty spaces.

We tried different objects and finally settled on an old doll for one end of the piano.

She printed sheet music from the web (and played it) and tied the pages with jute rope.

Those pretty red glasses will look nice with led-lights in them.

We then thought about brightening up a bedroom that just needed something, so we clipped hydrangeas and put them in two interesting vases she had. The colors complimented a painting on the wall just above the bouquets.  I will try to add a photo of that later. Lavender is interspersed in one of the bouquets.

My hostess likes to use stemware for roses and I sure like the way it looks.

This apple looks positively porcelain but I picked it fresh from a tree.

Here is everything looking very antique on the piano. I will try to get brighter pictures later.

Persia's Food

This so a continuation of the previous post. Persian food is fresh. Persian yogurt is used for a dip or salad dressing. 

This is a table of pre-dinner snacks with Persian flatbread and yogurt for dipping, plus nuts and vegetables, sliced cold meats and ricotta cheese. "I want you to eat this while I cook the dinner, and at dinner, I want you all to eat like wolves."

Our hostess has visited The Persian community in Los Angeles, and said it was like being in Persia.

I hope you have peace in your lives as you guard your homes.

Lydia

An evening in Persia

                              Above: the map of Persia looks like the body of a cat.

I met a lady from Persia who lives in the neighborhood where I stayed, and she invited us to a Persian dinner. She did not begin the preparations til I arrived because she wanted me to see how she prepared the food. 

We were treated to a cup of Persian tea, which is made in pot, heated, and then removed. It was delicious.

She made a point of telling me she had a Persian cat.  She said Iran is ancient Persia and it was a mistake to change the name to Iran. As I had read a lot of ancient history with my children in homeschool, I was a little familiar with Persian history and one of my hobbies is to read about Persia and other ancient spots, especially those mentioned in the Bible.

We were served water in the glasses, which looked blue when we drank it, because of this special Persian glassware with a blue stem. This blue is common in Persian dinnerware.

This is the beginning of the dish called Fahgit, which means "from the bottom of the pot" and is laid on a bed of rice, also cooked in olive oil in the pot.

When Persians have guests, the table has a lot of food on it. The seasonings they use are salt and pepper. Nothing mysterious about that.

Her other guests were also Persian and they spoke Farsi to each other.  They told us Persia was in the shape of a cat, and by that shape they were able to point to the Mountain ranges and cite the different climates of the area.

I have a colossal amount of photos from the evening and will post more later.  Our hostess has written a book bout her family which will be published soon and I will post that too.  She said that Hospitality in Persia is famous.

I wish I had known her earlier so I could spend more time with her but now we will see each other on our blogs, email and skype.

The Persian men kept a hearty conversation going with my DH, as he has just preached a sermon that mentioned the existence of many Chriatians in the nation of Persia in the past and knew where some of these people met for worship.

More dinnerware from Persia, which she uses constantly. "I will show you how much more delicious and special a plain dessert like arisen bread looks when it is presented on this Persian crystal plate," she said.

The older man gave a blessing at the table which was in essence a blessing to us that God would bring us peace and safety and provision.

Rice steamed with a saffron.

Hot tea is served in  a tall narrow glass cup.

A gift from the Persians to us has a pictorial message. Can anyone figure it out?  I cannot find the piece of paper that I wrote on with the symbolism.

غذای خیلی خوبیه ghazaaye kheili khoobiye 
خیلی خوبه kheili khoobe 
When you want to thank from a food in Persian, you should say دستتون درد نکنه ، خیلی خوشمزه بود dastetoon dard nakone, kheili khoshmaze bood. (thank you, that's very delicious) and he/she answer نوش جان "nooshe jaan" means "bon appetite!" or "Enjoy your meal".