A Postcard A Day - Friday 11 June 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps, Here we are again at the end of a week and I have lots of smiles to share with you. First off is always my postcard. This one arrived yesterday:

As you can read, it's from Scranton, PA. It was sent to me by Connie, who, like me, also likes trains.

Info on the back of the card:

 

Wikipedia writes this:

Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) is a railroad museum and heritage railroad located on 62.48 acres (25.3 ha)^[2] in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). 

The museum is built around a working turntable and a roundhouse that are largely replications of the original DL&W facilities; the roundhouse, for example, was reconstructed from remnants of a 1932 structure. The site also features several original outbuildings dated between 1899 and 1902. All the buildings on the site are listed with the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Yard-Dickson Manufacturing Co. Site.

The stamp is the new round stamp which I think I have already featured:

It is a 32 point compass rose drawn by Lucia Wadsworth - the aunt of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - in her school geography notebook in 1794!

I found more info about her on the website of the Maine Historical Society:

A Glimpse of Lucia: Documenting Her World

In 1794, eleven-year-old Lucia Wadsworth (1783-1864) started writing in her Geometry and Geography School Book as part of her education. At that time, Bowdoin College had just been founded, President George Washington was suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion, and Eli Whitney had invented his cotton gin the year before. Portland had been a town for less than ten years, and Maine wouldn’t become a state for another 26 years.

Lucia's father, Peleg Wadsworth, had served under General George Washington in the War for Independence. After the war, Peleg settled on the outskirts of Portland, building a home, barn, outbuildings, and adjacent store on Back Street (now Congress Street). Lucia was the fifth of ten children born to Peleg and Elizabeth Bartlett Wadsworth and she lived in the structure now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House for almost her entire life.

The only image of Lucia that survives––or perhaps the only one that was taken––was made on her 79th birthday in 1862. On October 19, 1864, an obituary was published after a notice of her death was issued.

How interesting! I just love history!

Now, what's been happening with me here in (very hot) southern Spain?

My lovely neighbour Dian has baked a German cherry bread pudding (Kirschmichel). 

She lives on her own too so I had to help her eat it:

This was half the pudding! Bang went the diet! But it was so yummy! Thank you Dian.

This morning (Thursday) I joined the ladies of my gym/Pilates group in the village for an end-of-year breakfast:

The only young woman in the picture (third from the right) is our teacher.

We sat in the patio (courtyard) of a popular bar in the village under a vine. Breakfast in Andalucia is half a toasted baghette with tomatoes finely chopped up and olive oil and salt. Very nice. I also had orange juice and my coffee.

The lady stood behind me is Celia, my neigbour at the back of my house. 

My son and his wife and son are in Spain at the moment and staying with my sister in Marbella (she has a pool). 

Tomorrow (Friday) I will drive down to join them for 5 days. It's a 3 and a half hour drive and then family fun, so I don't know if I can do many blog visits. 

But I do have several funnies lined up for you at the end here.

That's it for now. Bye for now.

Have a lovely weekend,

Lisca

These funnies are all 'Lost in Translation':

 

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 8 July 2025 - T for Betty and Marilyn, breakfast and a ginger cat.

 Hello lovely peeps, It's Tuesday again and I'm writing my blog post  and true to form my cat Ronnie tries to jump onto the keyboard. But never mind, I'll correct the gibberish later.

I have a black and white postcard for you:

Of course it's the lovely Marilyn, putting on her make-up. The info on the back reads: "This publicity shot, taken in the make-up department of Columbia Pictures in 1947 or 1948, reveals that beauty came naturally to Marilyn. Photograph The Bettmann Archive."

It was sent to me from the USA by Jason who lives in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Of course being European, I didn't know where that is, so I looked it up. Wisconsin is here:

And Mount Horeb is here:

It has a little more than 7000 inhabitants, mostly from Norwegian ancestry. In fact Mount Horeb is called the Troll capital of the world:

Jason writes that they have just enjoyed a weekend called The Summer Frolic in Mount Horeb with rides, live music, a parade and fire works.

The stamps are magnificent:

Betty White (17 January1922 - 31 December 2021) you might recognize (if you are of a certain age). She was an American actress. I remember her from the Golden Girls, but she was also in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which I only vaguely remember.

Looking at the dates she died 17 days shy of her 100th birthday!

The middle stamp celebrates Science & Industry:

When the stamp was announced a month and a half earlier on December 1, 1982, the USPS said it would honor the teamwork of science and industry, stating “Working together, they have produced such important developments as electrical power, the automobile, radio and television, synthetic fibers, electronics, jet air travel, computers, lasers, nuclear energy, antibiotics, and space exploration.”  The stamp’s issue also coincided with the 50th anniversary of Chicago’s Science and Industry Museum, though the USPS didn’t officially say the stamp commemorated the event. (info from Mystic Stamp Company).

The rabbit stamp comes from a series of baby animals:

USPS writes: The Postal Service will release its Baby Wild Animals stamps on Friday, May 23.

The stamps feature illustrations of 10 familiar American animal species as babies.

The animals — fox, owl, deer, seal, rabbit, raccoon, bear, skunk, bobcat and chipmunk — range widely across the United States.

Tracy Walker created the digital illustrations, layering colored shapes on a solid-color background in a palette of rust orange, cornflower blue, pale ecru, black and white.

Each animal appears with details of its habitat — flowers, leaves, water and other natural elements.

The picture of Marilyn in the corner of the postcard is nit a stamp. It's printed on the card.

Now lets jump over to Spain. What have I been up to? It's very hot here and the only time I can sit outside is early in the morning, so I have breakfast on my little patio:

As it has a drink in it (water, as I had already had my coffee) this can be my 'ticket' to the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

My new lamp has finally arrived. The one I wanted wasn't in the shop and the sales lady told me it would only take a week if they ordered it for me. Three weeks later... Anyway I asked my good friend and neighbour Tam to take the old one down:

and hang the new one up:

Ronnie has just taken a selfie on my laptop (How did he manage to do that?):

Talking of Ronnie, he is always ready to pose:

And one last one (I'm officially a cat lady, you know):

That's it from me today.

Happy T-Day,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 4 July 2025 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely girls,

Happy Friday! (And happy Independence Day to my friends across the pond).

Today I'm showing you a fun postcard:

It was sent to me by Eva from Germany. I love giraffes. They fascinate me. There is some info on the back of the card. Translated this reads: "Giraffes in the African savanna spend a lot of time eating. The menu includes leaves, fruits, young tree shoots, and even grass. At first, the giraffe eats as quickly and as much as it can, then it looks for a spot in the shade and calmly regurgitates its leaf meal to chew."

I once read a delightful book called West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. I have written a blog about this book but I can't remember when. It's based on a true story of two giraffes being transported from New York docks to San Diego zoo in 1938. I recommend it.

The stamp is the run-of-the-mill German stamp featuring things made of paper with a postal theme, in this case a castle in the shape of an envelope.

Now let me think what the highlights and smiles were this week.

I stumbled upon a procession at some point while walking home from the shops. There are so many festivities these days that I don't know which saint is being honoured here.

On Sunday it was the inauguration of the photo club exhibition. Below is a photo of the whole group as we went for a meal later that day.

I am second from the right standing up.

The first course were little tentacles called chipirones. I love them.

The main course was paella, which had been ordered in advance:

Here is my portion. I didn't eat a full plate as I had already eaten nibbles, a salad,  and a first course.

That was my last guzzle meal. I have now started on a so-called Mediterranean diet, in an attempt to lose a few pounds. I'm following an on-line diet called No.diet. So far the meals are really nice and I even have breakfast every day. I'm eating things like avocado and poached egg on toasted wholemeal bread, or pearl barley with salmon, brown rice, chicken and vegetables. I'll keep you posted about how much I lose (or not as the case may be).

The rest of the week was uneventful. I went to Pilates while I had a car. I scraped a wall somewhere (I'm not aware of having done that) so that my bumper needed to be repaired and re-sprayed. I'm without a car for two days and a bit. I'll have it back when you read this.

That is all from me.

 I'm going to visit Annie at A Stitch In Time and I hope you will all join me there.

Bye for now,

Lisca

Of course there will be some funnies at the end.

Germany's highest mountain, 1780 m, is called Mount Wank. "With its beautiful summit plateau, it is a popular destination for families in particular. The Wankbahn cable car takes visitors up to the summit"