A Postcard A Day - Friday 20 May 2022 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies, how are you all? My husband and I are finally home after being away in the 'big city' for more than a month! Hubby's treatment is finished and now he has to regain his strength and a bit more weight for an operation at the end of July.

I have lots to smile about and that is the theme of this blog. Please join us at Annie's (A Stitch In Time) and share your smiles from this week.

I have two postcards for you and I hope they will make you smile. They are illustrated by the Finnish illustrator Inge Löök:

The two 'Aunties' have found some bleubells and other flowers and it makes them smile. The card was sent to me from Sarah in Germany. She has drawn a little tortoise on the back.

The stamp is the regular German stamp which features knapweed (or Centaurea). It is a genus of over 700 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.

I am envious of the cheap postage in Germany. I pay 1,65 Eur for a postcard.

The next card is also very smile-worthy. The 'Aunties' are sitting on a viewpoint, with a picnic basket, blowing bubbles. 

This card was sent by Esa, a retired seaman in Finland.

I love the stamps. The gnome is cute and the ducks are Clangula Hyemalis. The long-tailed duck, formerly known as oldsquaw, is a medium-sized sea duck that breeds in the tundra and taiga regions of the arctic and winters along the northern coastlines of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is the only member of its genus Clangula. 

 

Quite a pretty duck, don't you think?

OK, so what have we been up to this week?

Our week has been good. We came back from Granada on Thursday evening, and Friday we just chilled (while I did endless washing). The weather is really nice and sunny, so we wanted the sunscreen over our patio, but the chimney pipe is in the way, so one of the first things hubby had to do was remove the chimney pipe.

Saturday we went to our plot of land, which was totally overgrown! There had been a lot of rain and the weeds were thigh high! Lots of poppies, which was a delight, but we couldnt walk and we could hardly find our young fruit trees! But we did find them and to our surprise there were many little mini cherry beginnings.

On Tuesday our friends came to visit. We hadn't seen them since they drove us into Granada last month. I baked a lemon drizzle cake. Hubby had a piece and didn't have any adverse effects, so he can have some again. (He needs to gain weight).

I needed a new watch and I had ordered one from Amazon over the weekend. I arrived that day and hubby kindly made the bracelet to size.

On Wednesday I planted some seeds strips that I had to grow herbs. Parsley, dill and savory. I hope they germinate. 

I had been gifted a flowering fuchsia before leaving for Granada. It temporarily lived next to the chicken shack so that my friend could water it when she came to feed the chickens. Now it has a place on the wall in the patio. Hubby has put up a bracket. Nice job.

As the lemon drizzle cake went down well with hubby, so on Thursday morning (while he was strimming his plot)  I made muffins with a similar recipe. He loved them!

I have met another Dutch person in our village. She is looking after her elderly mother . We met at the doctor's waiting room and we decided to keep in touch and meet up when things calmed down a bit. So this particular afternoon I met her for a drink. So we got to know each other a bit. The meeting was a success and we will meet again next week. 

That was my week. As per usual, I will put some funnies at the end. Not many this week I'm afraid.

Have a lovely weekend,

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A day - Tuesday 17 May 2022 - T for Tuesday

 Hello lovely ladies,

Here we are again, ready for the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. Bring a beverage of your choice and lets have fun!

I will show you my beverage later but first I'd like to share a postcard with you. I'm sharing this particular one of the British royal family (Well, it's Prince William and his family) as his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, is celebrating her Jubilee.

The card was sent to me from Canada by Emma. The card was published by The Monarchist League of Canada. The names of the children are not mentioned on the card and I don't know them. But a visit to Google will satisfy that curiosity.

The stamps are gorgeous:

Of course Margaret Atwood needs no introduction. (I confess I didn't know she was Canadian).

This is what Wikipedia writes about her:

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television.

Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes including gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and "power politics". Many of her poems are inspired by myths and fairy tales which interested her from a very early age.

Then there is a tiny stamp with a lovely smiley photo of Queen Elizabeth. I really like the stamp with the moose. When I was visiting relatives in Alberta, we commented that we had never seen a moose. My relative said, oh, my neighbour has some. I'll drive you down to see them. Two hours drive on a dirt road get us to the neighbor. Only to find that the moose weren't there! Then we had to drive two hours back. His wife was not very pleased, I can tell you as we were going to have a BBQ that evening, but it had gotten late... Oops.

Now for my 'ticket' to the T-Party:

We met up on Tuesday with a friend in Granada and we went to this Italian restaurant. Hubby and our friend had salmon and I had a lovely goats cheese salad and a glass of white wine. It was delicious. This is the restaurant. We sat at the table on the corner.

On Wednesday we went for a walk in one of the lovely parks near the hotel:

Thursday hubby had his last treatment and when I went to pick him up from the hospital, I saw nurses outside the front door celebrating Nurses' Day.

We took a taxi to the bus station and got on the bus to go home. At the bus station I bought some postcards for my Postcrossing hobby. The lady put them in a home made recycled paper bag:

The bag was made out of a toy catalogue. She said her elderly mother made them at home. I thought Elizabeth might appreciate this.

Ahh! It's so nice to be home! Hubby's first thing was to say hello to our chickens.

Who gave us 5 eggs. (My friend had been looking after them).

Of course the next morning I started a washing marathon:

The last week we were in Granada, winter turned into summer! 

And when we got home, hubby decided he needed to get rid of the chimney pipe, so we could use the sun screen. The sun is very hot, so we do need that sun screen over our patio.

Also on my to-do list was going to the post office to collect my mail. There was a parcel from England:

It came from Elle, (Empire of the Cat). She had made this beautiful coaster of tartan material. The blue and green is hubby's tartan, so that was a lovely surprise (He descends from the MacKay family).

A most gorgeous tag! And a Fudge chocolate bar. That bar brought back memories. Hubby used to work in a chocolate factory before retiring. And it was the Cadbury chocolate factory that made the Fudge bar! It was the factory in Keynsham. In 2010 the factory was closed and the production went to Poland.

Thank you Elle! You put a huge smile on my face!

That is all from me today.

Happy T-Day all!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 13 May 2022 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies,

I am a bit late today as we only came home last night and I haven-t had the time to put something together. So far I have done 5 washing machine loads. Luckily the weather is so nice that one load is dry by the time the next one is ready to be hung out.

The postcard for today have a royal flavour. This one is of the Dutch king Willem Alexander and his wife Queen Maxima. 

With them is Princess Amalia, who now is 18:

The stamps are absolutely gorgeous!

They are from smaller towns in the Netherlands. Top left is Papendrecht.

It's east of Rotterdam, (where I was born).

Some typical houses in Papendrecht.

The stamp at the top right features Woudrichem, which is a little south-east of Papendrecht.

In the above photo you can see the church featured on the stamp.

Bottom left is Schoonhoven. 

Here seen from the air. 

Also in the same general area. It is known as Silver City because of the tradition of silversmiths. It still has an International Silver School and a silver museum.

Some typical houses and the water tower, which I think is featured on the stamp.

I have no idea why the image on the stamp is tulip shaped (or egg even).

Then bottom right is an island in the north called Vlieland:

I have never been to any of these islands. Like all of them, this one is very beautiful.

There was a tv show about photography, where people were taught about photography and had to do certain quests every day and every week one of them was voted out. One year it was on this island, and it was indeed beautiful.

Now for some collages of our week:

When hubby is resting, I often go out on my own. On Friday I visited the beautiful Cartuja (Charterhouse) monastery. Stunning!

My sister and her hubby came to see us over the weekend. We had a lovely time. They treated us to nights out and generally pampered us.

We moved from the airbnb to a proper hotel. What a luxury!

On Monday we met up with a dear friend, and again we went out. Hubby can't eat a lot, but he had a bit of salmon, which he tolerated very well.

Wednesday was our last day in Granada and we packed our cases and went for a little stroll. There is a lovely park near the hotel.

That is it from me. 

I have found some funnies which will be tagged on at the end as per usual. 

Take care,

Hugs,

Lisca