A Postcard A day - Friday 3 July 2026 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely peeps,

How are you all? Have you had lots of smiles this week?

I've had a few 'groans' initially, but lots of smiles lately! More about that later. Let me show you a postcard:

It was sent to me by my lovely friend Maggie back in November. She was visiting the Tate Modern in London where there was an exhibition of art from Australia. She saw this particular artwork by Emily Kam Kngwarray. She said it was 'huge and impactful'. 

I stole the next two photos from the Tate Modern website:

Wikipedia writes:

Emily Kam Kngwarray, (c. 1910 – 1996) was an Aboriginal Australian (Anmatyerr) artist from Alhalker, in the Sandover region of the Northern Territory. Kngwarreye's unique style and powerful creative vision came to redefine contemporary Aboriginal art and gained worldwide attention.

As an elder and ancestral custodian of the Anmatyerr people, Kngwarray had for decades painted for ceremonial purposes in the Utopia region. She became known for her precise and detailed approach she worked with batik for 11 years until 1988, when she was introduced to acrylics. She created more than 3,000 acrylic paintings over the next eight years, and became one of the most prominent and successful artists in the history of Indigenous Australian art. She is particularly notable also for being a female artist, for having only started painting in her 70s, and for her prolificacy: over her eight years as an artist, she produced more than 3,000 paintings – around one per day.

What an amazing lady!

What has been happening with me here in Spain? I had my bank card hacked or cloned (don't ask me how) last week. So I had my account blocked, which is a nuisance as I couldn't do anything. And it had cost me a lot of money (They went on a spending spree). Well, it's been all sorted now. I have a new bank card and the bank have provisionally given me the money back. Happy days.

Yesterday I had my toe nails painted. I had never done that, but my sister convinced me to do it.

Wednesday I had 'breakfast'  with all the gym/Pilates ladies as the season has come to an end. We won't start again now until October. (too hot).

As you can see by the beers, it was a brunch/late breakfast. The teacher is second from left., the rest of us are older ladies.

I had wine, I'm not a huge beer drinker. I only drink beer if I have to drive in which vase I'll have a non-alcoholic beer which is very tasty, but there is no non-alcoholic wine.

Here I am with my friend Patricia.

Ronnie the cat is sleeping beside me as I speak/write.

We've had a little drama when he brought me a 'present'. It was a lizard with his tail already chopped off. Poor thing. But it was still alive and I know that they shed their tail easily and it grows on again. I rescued it and when I could see it was still alive I put it outside in the morning sun to warm up. It's no longer there so I hope it has crawled to a safe place (away from my cat).

That is all from me today. I will post some funnies at the end like I always do. Have a chuckle!

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisca

 

 

A Postcard A Day - Thursday 2 July 2026 - Second on the 2nd

 Below you will find an old blogpost from 2015 which I am publishing again for Bluebeard and Elizabeth's Second on the 2nd:

A Postcard a Day - 12 July 2015, Zeeland National costumes

Good morning,

Today I want to show you a typical Dutch card with national costumes. I received it last month from Berlin (short for Berlinda). She lives in the south west part of the Netherlands called Zeeland. (Here in the dark blue colour).

(I’m pretty sure New Zealand was named after this province).

Zeeland has a large variety of national costumes as the province was made up out of islands. 

(The above card I got off the internet to show you what Zeeland looks like.)

Nowadays there are dykes everywhere connecting all the islands. The dyke project (called Delta plan) was started after Zeeland flooded in 1953. It is now complete and is a feat of engineering.

This is Berlin's card. I hope you can see the pictures of the costumes as the pictures are tiny. They are numbered from left to right: 1 and 2 are Arnemuiden, 3. Axel, 4. Cadzand, 5. Nieuw en St Joostland, 6 & 7 Walcheren, 8 & 9.Protestant Zuid Beveland.

The headdress is made of ‘broderie anglaise' and is starched and folded and then pinned over a little cap. The front of the hair get combed over to finish it off.

Here is a short video of a woman (from Arnemuiden I believe) folding her headdress. It is in Dutch but the pictures are self explanatory. The ‘rag’ on the table is a headdress as it comes out of the wash, unstarched. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYQwqWTQWOM

The stamp shows young king Willem Alexander. (Don't know what happened to his mouth...)

That is my contribution for today,

CU tomorrow,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 30 June 2026 - T for white nights, sweeties, and paella

 Hello lovely peeps,

Are you thirsty? Then join me for a drink at the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. But before we indulge, let me show you a postcard...

It is a map card of Michigan in the USA. It was sent to me by Erik, who is an academic librarian in Tennessee but is originally from Michigan. I have never been to Michigan but I have been on holiday on the north coast of Lake Superior (still in Minnesota) and have visited Duluth.

Michigan has many Dutch settlers and immigrants. That is another reason why Michigan rings a bell for me.

The stamp is the weathervane forever stamp:

The cancellation stamp features love birds. Probably because this card was posted a couple of days after St Valentine's Day. 

What have I been doing? Well, on Saturday our village organised its yearly 'Noches Blancos' (White Nights').

The poster announces live music, tourist train, sports activities, caricaturist, bouncy castles, master classes etc.

The two main streets were closed to traffic and there were many bouncy castled and other attractions for the children. Most shops in the centre had a stall outside their shop, offered discounts etc. 

Local groups held demonstrations:

The streets were full of music and laughter. It was fun. I popped into the boutiques as they were offering discounts. But my bank card/account has been cloned (while I was in Madrid) and I had to freeze my account and now I'm waiting for a new card. So I can't buy anything. I lost a lot of money and I hope I will eventually get it back but it has to go through the process. I spent all morning yesterday going to the police and to the bank doing all the paperwork. There is nothing more I can do. So no more new clothes for me for a while.

A more positive thing is that I have visitors again in my flat upstairs. They are Flemish from Brughes in Belgium. They have bought a dilapidated house about 40 minutes from here and are spending their holiday doing it up. They brought me some goodies from Belgium. Chocolates were out of the question with this heat, but I received this:

The box on the top had raspberry flavoured jellos covered with a coating:

They are absolutely delicious!

Then there was a box of cookies, half covered with a chocolaty salted caramel coating:

And last but not least, a bag of sour boiled sweets, which I have not opened yet, but are destined for my car.

I remember these sour balls from my childhood.

Sunday I was invited to dinner after church by some friends. Church finished early and I didn't want to turn up at their house at 12:30 when dinner is at 14:00. So had an hour and a half to kill. I stopped at a nearby bar that had recently changed hands and I ordered a Tinto de Verano, which means red summer wine. It's a lady's drink and it is red wine with lemonade (I was driving).

Of course I got a tapa with that and in this case it was paella, a traditional rice dish. This one was very tasty indeed with lots of seafood and I was sorry I couldn't stay for a meal, (which I am tempted to do next week.)

My friends are from Ecuador and there is always something Ecuadorian on the menu. In this case there were fried bananas:

These bananas were savoury and crispy. Very nice.

She had also made a beef stew and a beetroot and carrot salad.

I took some photos and because I am never in the photo myself, someone else took this one:

This time I am in it.

That is all for today. I will link in with T For Tuesday hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard as my Tinto de Verano drink will qualify me for that.

Happy Tuesday and happy T-Day all!

Lisca

A Postcard A day - Friday 26 June 2026 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely peeps, 

I hope you have had a good week. If not, please take a moment to find the silver lining behind those dark clouds. My week has not been good for various reasons, but I still have lots to be thankful about.

As you know, I like receiving mail and I had to smile when this card arrived:

Because it is so hot here, the sight of of snow made me smile. The card comes from the Czeck Republic and was sent by Darina, who has two daughters (a 2 yr old and a 2 month old). They also have a dog, a retriever.  They live in Prague.

The writing under the image translates (according to Mr Google):

"Fight your vices, keep peace with your fellow men and let each new year make you a better man" Benjamin Franklin.

What has made me smile this week? 

Ronnie 'helping' me empty my suitcase.

But before I got to unpacking my suitcase, I had to get home from Madrid. Me and my friend traveled by bus (about a 6 hour journey). We got to the Madrid bus station and had lunch there:

We got on the bus at 14:30. It was a very comfortable and modern double decker bus:

I was happily reading my book when we heard a loud noise. A few minutes later the bus pulled in at a motorway service station. One of the tires had a problem. So we all got off and we waited in the restaurant. I confess to have had several beers as it was very hot and we were thristy. My friend ordered some cheese as the area is famous for its Manchego cheese:

The roadside assistance crew arrived:

Took the broken tire away:

Then put another one on:

But with the nearly three hour delay, we missed our connection in Granada. The last bus had gone and my friend phoned her husband who was willing to collect us (a three hour round trip). Problem being that Granada now has emissions restrictions in place. That meant that he could not come into Granada with his (older) car. One of their children came to the rescue, picked us up and transported us to a pre-arranged place outside of town and we were homeward bound. I got home just before midnight!

Quite an adventure! 

Remember my cactus that was going to flower? (16th June)

Well They did indeed:

Of course after one day they look like this:

Everyone here is football (soccer) crazy. The World championships are being held in Canada. 

The Dutch national colour is orange, so there are a lot of Dutch supporters in Canada according to the press photos I found online.

I don't follow the games. I'm not interested but I do like to know that my country (Netherlands) is doing well. And Spain too of course as that is my adoptive country. 

I was going out with my girl friends on Saturday night when the Netherlands played Sweden. Before leaving the house I saw that the Dutch king and queen were watching the game in Canada:

The Dutch won comfortably! Hurray!

Here I am with my friends waiting for our food:

There was a tv in the corner of the restaurant, so I kept looking at the score. That is how I know the Netherlands won.

That is all from me today, apart from the funnies at the end.

Enjoy your weekend,

Keep smiling,

Lisca