A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 24 December 2024 - T for Christmas!

 Hello lovely girls,

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Ready or not, tonight is Christmas Eve. I have everything ready, and I'm excited. Presents and sweet things nicely wrapped, plus a bottle of wine and a card with a Christmas wish. Those friends I'm not expecting to see, I'll go round their house to deliver the goodies. It's such fun to give.

My card for today is the Christmas card from my friend Janet:

She lives in Lucar, about 40 km away from here. It's on small roads so quite a trek. But we meet most Sundays after church (She goes to a different church than I do) and we have a meal together. We take turns in cooking. Janet lost her husband a few months before I lost mine, so we are both widows. I (try to) help her with her Spanish, but really we just have a lovely time together.

Janet had a number of these cards made with the view from her village

A she hand-delivered this card, there is no stamp.

The weather in the day-time is really lovely. I love it when I can sit outside in the sun (in summer it is too hot). So I have been sitting outside doing craft things:

I'm making these little hats:

Then I stuff a chocolate ball (wrapped of course, you know the Lindt type) inside and they make cute little extras to give.

I have also been doing some altering. I bought a Christmas jumper at Lidl, not really paying attention. And it turned out to be a mini dress. Well, that doesn't suit me at all, so I shortened it by hand while sitting on the terrace in the sun:

Now it's just a jumper.

I've had my nails done in a Christmas colour:

It's called Cat's Eye Red

And my Christmas wreath is also in place:

My cat Roneo (AKA Ronnie) is doing fine, but is constantly hungry. He probably needs worming as he has been outside before he came to me.

Today we are also having the T-Party, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. So my drink reference is this one:

The cup of tea I'm drinking at the moment.

The advent jigsaw puzzle is nowhere near finished:

I'd say it's three quarters done. 

That's all from me today.

Wishing every one a very lovely Christmas.

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday Smiles - Friday 20 December 2024 - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 Hello lovey peeps,

Are you ready for Christmas? No, of course not. I'm never ready. Christmas creeps up on me and all of a sudden it's here! Only four days left! Yikes. So much to do.

But the past week has been good, if not busy. On of my smiles this week was this card which I received only a few days ago:

It was sent to me by Anneli from Finland. The artist is Tiina Forstadius.

As far as I can tell (No Wikipedia info) she is Danish and was born in 1949. Some of her artwork is this:

Or this:

The stamp is interesting:

If you look closely you'll see that the stamp is still in its 'surround'. 

It was issued in 2012, so quite a while ago.

What have I been smiling about this week? Last Saturday Dian and I went to Albox, a town about 40 miles away from where we live. She had ordered some meat which we were going to pick up.

There are some big shops and supermarkets that we don't have around where we live. I discovered a Dutch store:

We went inside Action and it was the same as in the Netherlands, same lay-out, same products. I enjoyed that.

Then we were going to have lunch at a particular stall that served Nassi and bami goreng. But we couldn't find it and it was getting late. so we ended up in a German stall. We had currywurst and chips:

I did think of Iris, I must admit. The chips were hand made and fried to order. So now I know what a Currywurst tastes like.

Tuesday I asked one of my neighbours if Im could photograph him for a photo club assignment. He weaves baskets and I had asked him to bring his weaving stuff.

His name is Serafin, seen here with Roneo (AKA Ronnie) the cat.

Ronnie sniffing at the baskets.

Serafin waiting for me to get my gear ready (He did come half an hour earlier than arranged so I wasn't ready).

I think he's doing the strap of the basket. 

Some close-ups:

That's all from me today. Of course I will get you some funnies at the end to giggle over, but for now I will wish you all a very happy Christmas.

Hugs,

Lisca

 

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 17 December 2024 - T for Pioneer Woman and lots of stsmps

 Hello lovely peeps, How are you all?  Things are okeydokey here. I'm getting ready for Christmas and have put up some decorations and a Christmas tree.

But let me show you my postcard. I really like it:

I call her Pioneer Woman. (It's not of course) It's a photo by Barbara Van Cleve from 1987. 

But I started following Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman)  in 2008 and this is how I imagined her to look like. Of course I know now that she doesn't look like that, but back then she would write about her life and include recipes and I enjoyed her blog. When she got big, I stopped following her. But it was because of her that I started my blog a few years later.

Back to the postcard: It has some writing on the back: "Double Duty: This rancher was out helping gather, move and sort cattle well before dawn. Now she prepares lunch for family and hands."

The card was sent to me by Mark back in August. Mark is a healthcare administrator and lives in Cleveland in a large (Victorian?) house with up to six residents. At the moment of writing his house mates were a Turkish doctor in residence, a Peruvian IT engineer and a proud New Yorker and a grey cat called Smokey. 

The stamps are beautiful. Thanks Mark! There are nine stamps in total! The first one is the World Cup Soccer from 1994.

Brazil was crowned the winner after defeating Italy 3–2 in a penalty shootout at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, near Los Angeles.

The top two stamps feature Daniel Webster. A stamp website writes: This stamp commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Dartmouth College Case.  In 1816, the legislature of New Hampshire changed Dartmouth College’s charter in an attempt to make the institution public.  Daniel Webster argued successfully that the change violated the contract clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The stamp crossways at the bottom features Abraham Lincoln.

The next lot of stamps feature a horse and rider on the top left. It comes from a 1993 whole sheet of horses:

Next to it the New York Stock Exchange. Here you can see it a bit clearer:

 The stamp was issued to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Buttonwood Agreement on May 17, 1792.  A group of brokers and merchants signed an agreement under a buttonwood tree that they would only trade securities with each other and would trade on commission.  This agreement was the basis for the New York Stock Exchange.

Then below that stamp another 29 cent stamp. This time about the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

The Postal Service recognized the Northern Mariana Islands and their relationship of forty-five years with the United States with the issuance of a 29-cent commemorative stamp on November 4, 1993, in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Herb Kane of Captain Cook, Hawaii, designed the stamp.

In case, like me, you don't know where those islands are... here is a. map:

The stamp mentions 'Latte stones'.

 Found an explanation on Reddit: Latte (also latde) is a CHamoru term that refers to stone pillars and cup-shaped capitals or capstones, which represent house supports and are ascribed to the ancient people of the Mariana Islands. In some accounts, they are also referred to as casas de los antiguos (houses of the ancients).

The last stamp is the Chinese Year of the Boar.

Third in the U.S. Lunar New Year stamp series. It features an intricate Chinese paper-cut design by artist, Clarence Lee.  Boar years include 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, and 2031

Phew! That were a lot of stamps! 

So what has been happening here? I have been to a concert in Granada on Saturday night with my friends David and Patricia.

We got to Granada just as it was getting dark. This is outside the Auditorium:

A lovely view over the city.

We went to Händel's Messiah.

It was amazing. The choir consisted of the main choir on the stage and then in addition to that, choirs in the side seats and also the two lateral panels of people in the downstairs (Those people who are stood up with the music in their hands). More than 100 strong!

Here are David and Patricia, and me on the right.

As today is T-Day, and Elizabeth and Bluebeard are hosting the T-Party, I need a drink. That was sorely lacking at the auditorium. There was nowhere for us to have a drink. We had come a long way and were ready for one. Oh well, you can't have everything.

So this is my drink for the T-Party:

Happy T-Day everyone!

Hugs,

Lisca