Replacing Roof - Part 2: Beam Leveling & Crosswind sheet

15 February, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 6 seen

It was second day morning when we re-started works on roof replacing. If you haven't already red, read Part 1: Removing Old Roof.

The idea was simple - if we are going to replace roofing, we will follow latest trends, and one of them involves using a crosswind sheet, which protects both against wind and humidity, I bought some super expensive crosswind sheet for about EUR 200 to cover in total about 180m2. 

Since we were replacing roofing by parts today we had to drag a crosswind beam over leveled beams and add lathing.

Measuring crosswind sheet

Yup, the surrounding views are amazing

Leveled beams

As you can see, its just one fourth of total work done yet (not speaking of actually covering a new roofing)

Beams and laths covered with sheet to protect against rain

For some reason, that Summer was pretty rainy

Lathing stretching over roof edge

We will use a chain saw to saw them in right distance from the edges.

Crosswind sheet and new lathing

Old and New: Roof replacement works

So that''s how looked second day…

How Valentine's day was celebrated in Tbilisi

14 February, 2016 | | 62 seen

We were of to Tbilisi streets looking for Valentine's day photography, when I concluded - Valentine's day, thus not popular in Republic of Georgia, makes some good for local economy - first of all for local flower markets, second for cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants. 

We made a dozen of photos today, experimented with black and white, panorama and other photography techniques. Tbilisi didn't seemed too busy on celebrating Valentine's day, but we found some interesting scenes in Old Town and local flower market. 

This is how we saw Valentine's day was celebrated in Tbilisi, 2016, Piece of Life after all.

Happy Valentine's day in shop windows

Where is she?

Children playground near flower market in Tbilisi

Multi color roses

There is no age for love

For my only one

Love is like a nectar

Do Not Scold Me, My Darling 

Valentine's day cakes in Tbilisi

Colors of life

Happy Valentine's day

As on first date

Postcards from Rabati Fortress

14 February, 2016 | | 18 seen

I first visited Rabati Fortress in Akhaltsikhe, Republic of Georgia, in Summer of 2014, during a two day rafting drive on river Mtkavri, next time we booked a lovely hotel inside fortress complex at the start of 2015, during our stay here I created a lot of pictures and crafted an article about Rabati fortress Castle featuring 48 pictures. (You think its a lot? I have an article from Keukenhof's tulip garden in the Netherlands with 136 images).

At the end of 2015 we visited this site for the third time, I was armored with a DSRL camera, tripod and knowledge of taking HDR pictures.

Rabati fortress complex in Georgia

The above image gained some popularity on Flickr, and after all ended as my Photo of the month  - December, 2015

Rabati fortress complex

Rabati fortress complex

Samikitno / Machakhela Restaurant review (Meidan square, Tbilisi)

14 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 179 seen

Samiktno / Machakhela is a restaurant chain located in Tbilisi, Republic of Georga. One of it's prominent restaurants is located at Meidan Square, just in the heart of Tbilisi Old Town offering breathtaking views towards Metekehi church (in front of which is located Vahtang Gorgasali statue).

This is one of the rare places in Georgia where you can get combos

We are proud, that we were among the first to bring to Georgian market so-called ”combos”.  That is, combined portion dishes which are intended for one person and differ from the practice of delivering dishes to traditional Georgian feast, where food is shared by all members of the table. I would like to say, that the above-mentioned combos are very popular not only among local population, but among those numerous guests who come to our country.   

I have been heading here for dozens of times, in today's photo article I'll share some pictures I did here in frames of Piece of Life photo shooting: Tbilisi - Winter Fairyland

Menu at this restaurant

Written in three languages - Georgian, English and Russian. This time we opted for some…

Postcards from Venice, Italy

13 February, 2016 | | 10 seen

We went to Venice on New Year's Eve (2015/2016), for me as a beginner photographer it was a great challenge to photograph here. I prepared well (brought tripod and practiced a lot previously) but I made a huge mistake this night, I messed up with the clock (Flying from country to country is a mess with time, so I have stopped to look in watch when traveling), so we went out for a New Years fireworks one hour earlier. This extra hour resulted in a very cold and unpleasant weather and in aftermath we just got sick. 

Venice in fact didn't seemed very tourist friendly place, when we arrived here from Florence, the huge surprise we learnt was with getting actually a parking space in the city on water. After some hour or even more waiting in a queue we finally parked our rental car at one of the multi storey car parks, and went to our hotel deeper in the city. Hotel room was cold and ...  yeah, not the best travel experience here, but back to the postcards - I promised I will send a postcard from Venice to my grandmother, in fact I didn't sent, so I will most probably print best ones from our Italy trip…

Postcards from Florence, Italy

13 February, 2016 | | 6 seen

Florence is a destination to head for if you are looking for renaissance art. 

Florence is famous for its history: a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, it is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages"

In today's Piece of Life photo series - Postcards from Florence, taken at the end of 2015

View towards Florence

If you are new to Florence and might wonder where are the best points to photography the city, get to the Michelangelo Square, from this place all Florence is on your palm. I installed a tripod here and played a bit with camera here - above image is final HDR I rendered using Photomatix.

Panoramic view towards Florence

Some magic with photo stitching and in result - lovely panoramic view of Florence.

Next we headed by our rental car straight into the heart a city, parked our car near a cathedral and went in a few hour wandering tour around Florence

Mime in the streets of Florence

…

Sergos Duqani restaurant in Akhaltsikhe

12 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 23 seen

Sergos Duqani is a lovely restaurant in Akhaltsikhe, serving traditional Georgian cuisine. Located just in the footsteps of Rabati Fortress complex.

We first discovered and met lovely owners of this place, when stayed in hotel in Rabati (Hotel Rabath & Gino Wellness) and were looking for some local place to have dinner. Frankly speaking sashlik served here is among the best I have ever tried in Georgia (and price for them are ridiculously low  - about 6 lari per skewer.)

Segos Duqani restaurant in Akhaltsikhe, Georgia

Menu items at Sergo Duqani restaurant 

Inside interior 

Turkish coffee

Soup Ostri

Sashlik on grill

Sashlik on plate

How to Prepare Traditional Dolma (Grape Leaves Roll)

12 February, 2016 | Food blogger | 12 seen

Hello everyone and welcome to another post from my experiments being a food blogger. OK, for following recipe I wasn't actually preparing that tasty dolma, instead I experiment with new food photography technique.

About food photography: Today I decided to experiment with 100mm lens and used long exposures (obliviously from a tripod). Find more tutorials on Digital Photography School

About Dolma (Grape leaves roll) - Dolma is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes common in the Middle East and surrounding regions including the Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia. Common vegetables to stuff include tomato, pepper, onion, zucchini, eggplant, and garlic. The stuffing may or may not include meat. Meat dolmas are generally served warm, often with egg-lemon or garlic yogurt sauce; meatless ones are generally served cold. Stuffed vegetables are also common in Italian cuisine, where they are named ripieni ("stuffed").

Today we are going to prepare traditional dolma with meat stuffing. Most…

DrupalGap Native App - Part 2: Creating And Linking Custom Views Listing Page

11 February, 2016 | Drupal Development | 9 seen

I was working on my blog's native Drupal app, and decided to share my discoveries on how to create additional custom Views Json listing page and how to link it in  your apps menu.

For the content on this page I decided to list all articles from my blog whose location are set to Georgia, and give it name - Georgia Travel Guide. Georgia and Drupal is special for me, so this was just logically the most "urgent" task I wanted to achieve next while building my native Drupal app.

Read more: How to develop Native Drupal app using Drupalgap - Part 1: Custom Front Page Using views - Images and Date

DrupalGap app in Ripple Emulator

I have some specific fields for my content types, most probably they will differ from your setup, use with caution

• Create new view - I named it Sakartvelo (Name of Georgia in Georgian language)
• Path: sakartvelo
• Format: Json data document
• Fields: Title, Images, Nid, Post date, Total views
• Filter criteria: Location:Georgia…

How to develop Native Drupal app using Drupalgap - Part 1: Custom Front Page Using views - Images and Date

11 February, 2016 | Drupal Development | 19 seen

There was a time when I was really eager to develop native Drupal app, back then I decided to stick with Drupalgap. Now, more than a year has already passed since, and I haven't achieved my goal (s) yet.

Until recently, I decided to finish works on native Drupal app I started back in 2014. Speaking of my app -  nothing fancy here, just my latest blog posts, with ability latter to extend functionality adding more native app features (geo location, for example) . As I like to call it - minimum viable product approach.

I installed DrupalGap module and all its dependencies on my site, I must admit I had some problems actually getting it alive, but they were more server related rather problems with module itself. In short I experienced problems with server permissions to upload files, so I had to install DrupalGap library manually (instead of a one click installation), and then turned out that DrupalGap is not very friendly with php 5.2. version, so I had to patch it a little bit.

Ok, when I was setup and mobile-application folder was created on my server, I straight went to explore how…

How to take and create HDR Panoramic photos

10 February, 2016 | Digital Photography School | 21 seen

In today's digital photography school tutorial series I'll show how to create HDR panoramic photos.

Make sure you check my previous tutorials on HDR photography - How To Take and Post-Process Night HDR Images , How to Capture and Post-Process Professional HDR Photos Using HDR Efex PRO

Now, regarding panorama photos, there is not always a need to create a 180 or 360 degree panoramas, sometimes you just want to fit in your frame a little bit more than a regular shot can do, then comes in panorama technique. 

HDR panorama photography

A sturdy tripod is must have, also a DSRL camera is preferable. Check out: Top 13 Best digital SLR cameras of 2016 for beginners

Install your camera on a tripod, and shoot it portrait mode. Settings for camera - Manual mode, f11, ISO 100, bracketing 3 frames, timer 2 seconds. Rotate your tripod head after each bracketed shot for about 15-20 degrees.

I will shoot in JPEG mode

You will need to have Photomatix, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom

Let's start with importing our scene from camera to PC. I…

Hotel Edelweiss Review in Gudauri

10 February, 2016 | Hotel reviews | 12 seen

Located in Gudauri, a 10-minute walk from the nearest ski lift, Edelweiss Hotel features an on-site restaurant serving Georgian and European cuisine and free Wi-Fi throughout the property.

We booked hotel Edelweiss for 2015 Christmas (December 23-25) and enjoyed our stay at this place a lot. Thus the price we paid for this hotel is well above average (about EUR 100 per night) we are paying for hotels in Georgia, the service offered for price was just excellent.

Alternatively check out Hotel Shamo Review in Gudauri or see TOP 10 Best Gudauri hotels.

Hotel Edelweiss in Gudauri, Georgia

As it might look like a small hotel from a distance, turns our is a 4 story building from inside. One thing I really enjoyed is the facade of this building, I wouldn't mind to built such facade for our rural house. See: Home Remodeling 

Bed at Hotel Edelweiss in Gudauri

In total there are 28 hotel rooms at Edelweiss hotel. 

Lux room at Hotel Edelweiss in Gudauri

The modern rooms here are equipped with a flat-screen TV with satellite channels, a refrigerator with a minibar, and a private bathroom…

The Gabriadze Theater in Tbilisi

10 February, 2016 | Tourism objects | 47 seen

Though modest in size, The Gabriadze Theater is among the world’s preeminent cultural institutions. Presenting mature puppet performances full of depth and meaning, it has gained the respect and recognition of international audiences and critics alike.

Located in the heart of Tbilisi Old Town, just right next to the Anchiskati church, this theater building offers some interesting architecture as well. Thus, I have never visited a spectacle here (though I have bough tickets for a few times, but due to my laziness never visited) - I believe the Gabriadze theater this is one of the top tourist attractions in Tbilisi.

Gabriadze theater building in Tbilisi

The Gabriadze Theater stands in the heart of Tbilisi’s historic Old Town.  Among the shows in its current repertoire are: “The Autumn of My Spring”, “The Battle of Stalingrad”, “Ramona”, “Diamond of Marshal de Fant’e”.

Box office at Gabriadze theater

Often referred to as “a Georgian national treasure”, Rezo Gabriadze influences the culture profoundly. His work continues to make an indelible and lasting…

Replacing Roof - Part 1: Removing the old roofing

9 February, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 12 seen

In today's home remodeling series I'll share some epic experience on roof replacement works. If you have been following my blog for a while, you probably have noticed that in Spring 2015 we inherited an old and very bad managed rural house.

That Summer taught me a lot  - I learnt how to use a scythe to move a grass, and also excelled as a construction worker (Room One - Wall and Ceiling Painting with Water Based Paint, How to Patch and Plaster Walls in Your Old Rural House), but nothing compares to experience like actually changing a roof.

It was already more than 3 months since we started to manage this house, but we hadn't any plans to stay any longer that till the end of Summer here, we had actually already bought our return tickets to Tbilisi at the start of September. We hadn't much time left - just about one month to replace old roofing for this house, if we wanted the house to survive upcoming winter (the roof was already leaky). 

So we ordered a metal roof, which was meant to arrive at the start of August, but prior to that, I ordered additional wooden laths and wooden boards, so we can fix existing roof construction and add…

House Of Food / Fontaine Palace in Liepāja

9 February, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 32 seen

House Of Food is a place to eat good, quick international food from all corners of the world. Louie Fontaine, the owner and rock musician, has designed the place with a feel similar to a 50’s American diner, with an open kitchen and restaurant booths so high you’ll sit cosy and private in your own restaurant.

Located at the canal front downtown in an old factory building - this place absolutely rocks!

Hotel Fontaine Royal in Liepāja

Fontaine Royal offers a swimming pool, health centre, conference hall, restaurant, bar and various shops. The hotel design is out of this world, full of royal furniture, all gold plated standing in contrast with the old factory spirit, you will feel like a king staying at the Fontaine Royal. The hotel offers the biggest conference & banquet facilities in Kurland with 300 seats. The hotel has a music club in an old warehouse, (Fontaine Palace, capacity 600 people), offering live bands from around the globe. If visiting Liepaja’s outstanding beaches and charming town feeling Fontaine Royal is the right choice for living in luxury for a cheap rate.

Prison bar at Fontaine's Palace…