Cinnamon Buns

Tuula sent me this delicious-looking postcard last October.  It was autumn in Finland when she wrote this (October 3, 2011).  The temperature was slowly decreasing (6 C that time) and it was raining often.

Cinnamon buns

The postcard came with this stamp:

1 of the 5 Onnenhyppy stamps designed by  Tuomo Savolainen

Avocado-Birnen-Carpaccio

My first recipe card was from Michael from Germany.

Here's the recipe to make avocado-peach carpaccio.  Too lazy to translate to English.  No one cares anyway.  Haha.

Scanner got fuzzy again

The card came with these stamps:

Crocus, Sweet William, and the lighthouse in Warnemünde

Barbecue in Finland

Hilkka sent me this delicious-looking postcard of a typical Finnish summer food, barbecue.  Looks good, especially now that I'm missing authentic yakitori from Japan. 

Barbecue: grilled skewered meat

The card came in with a mysterious stamp so I had to do an image search on Google.  Totally amazing.  Mind was blown.  Anyway the stamp was part of 8 postage stamps issued in 2007 under the 5 themes: raspberries, butterflies, the Finnish Olympic Committee, architecture, and design.

I'm guessing this is a chair

La Trinidad, Benguet

So when I was still in high school, the seniors were required to attend a 3-day retreat at the Mount St. Paul Retreat House in La Trinidad, Benguet.  Only one photographer was allowed per class.  Being a student council officer, I vested in myself the sole authority to take pictures during the first 2 days.  Everyone else had her cameras and cellular phones back on the third day when the retreat was over.

I like Benguet.  It's high up in the mountains up north and it's really cold there during the entire day.  Average temperature was perhaps 18 C.  Makes you think whether you're still in the Philippines or not.

We went to a market on our way back to Manila.  I have no idea why brooms from Benguet are really popular.  Well, maybe because they're cheap.  I'm really not a big fan of peanut brittle, one of the well-known products of the Benguet area.  What I really like are the (Good Shepherd / Mikasan) choco flakes.  I hear strawberries from there are also great.  I really wouldn't know as I'm not that big of a fruit eater.

Anyway, I used an Olympus Camedia D-390 then, and had second-to-the-worst settings ever for maximum picture retention.

The Mt. St. Paul Retreat House 

A crucifix somewhere outside the retreat house

The view from my room

The market

Strawberry Fields Forever

I'll try to find pictures of my Baguio trips and I'll write another entry on Benguet soon. :)