A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 4 November 2025 - T for palanquin, pasta sauce and cemeteries

 Hello lovely peeps

Tuesday has come round again and I have an interesting postcard to show you and because it's T for Tuesday, I have some photos of a lunch I had with friends from church.

Let me show you my postcard. It comes from China and it is a Maxi card. That means it's a special edition that the post office does, when the image on the stamp matches the postcard. They are being sold in the same way that First Day of Issue stamps with envelopes are sold.

It comes from India as you can see.It features a Meeana Palanquin. Decorativecollective.com writes: Palanquins were the most popular means of transport in British India before the introduction of horse-drawn vehicles and the the railway. This model is of a meehana or meena, a type of box palanquin developed and introduced from around 1800. 

 They resembled a large open chest, and were carried by four men, two back and two front, carrying the box with its passenger supported by long cane poles on their shoulders.

The sender tells me that this particular palanquin was use to transport married women.

This Maxi card dates from 2017 and as the stamp was probably not valid anymore, the sender (from New Delhi) had to use a current stamp on the back:

This Esmeralda Clarkei is a rare orchid.

The card was posted in August but took more than a month to get to me.

Enough of that. Let me tell you what I have been up to. 

It's autumn but here the leaves are not falling yet. This is one of the trees in the little park near my house.

This is a close up I took to look up what kind of tree it is, but I forgot I had deleted the app. So does anyone know what this is?

I had some lamb's meat left over from when my friends came on Tuesday and later in the week I made a lovely pasta sauce with it. So of course I ate pasta:

And there's my drink for the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

Although here in rural Spain, Halloween is not much of a thing, the 1st of November is. It's a national holiday and everybody goes to the cemetery to honour the friends and relatives that have died. In the run-up to this day there has been frantic cleaning of graves and flower arranging.

I was there yesterday morning and the cemetery is a sea of flowers:

Even the graves in the wall had plenty of flowers:

People have to get the stepladder (provided) to get to the top ones.

Ronnie is doing fine. Here are some photos:

That is all from me today.

Happy T-Day all!

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - 2 November 2025 - Second on the 2nd, an old post from 2014

 Hello lovely peeps. Today is November the 2nd, so I am joining Elizabeth and Bluebeard in Second On The 2nd, where we post a blogpost from the past. 

Today I am posting one from 2014. I use to join What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday in the past as I did a lot of crafting then. I don't know if the web address is still correct. Angela/Felix The Crafty Cat might know...

In this blog I was making Christmas cards. I don't send Christmas cards anymore (Too expensive). Whereas in England people also give each other cards in person, we don't do that here (In Spain they don't send greeting cards at all, not even for birthdays).

My grandson, who was the recipient of the little card I made, will be celebrating his 11th birthday this coming week as this is a blog from 11 years ago. 

The house we were then building is finished and we/I am living there now. 

The pumpkin pie is reminding me to make one again soon. I'll be hosting a fellowship lunch next week, so that is the perfect occasion to bake one.

Hi Peeps! It’s Wednesday again! It comes round so quickly.

On Wednesdays around 80 crafters photograph their desk/work space and post it on their blogs. Then we all have fun hopping from one desk to another to see what people are doing. It’s a great source of inspiration and encouragement. Read more about it at Julia’s blog:http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

Here is my desk. I continue with my motto: ‘use up the stash that you have’ and I’m making Christmas cards with papers and elements from a cardmaking magazine from 2009! I love the colours.

The Christmas cards were pushed aside temporarily to make a very special card! My son in Italy and his wife have just had a baby boy! So I’ve made a little bassinet card from an Anna Griffin book. Anna Griffin was very popular a few years ago but I still like the style and from time to time I dip into my Anna Griffin box to do a project. 

Isn’t it cute? The colour is a soft olive green although it’s not very clear in the photo. My daughter-in-law doesn’t like the boy-blue/girl-pink thing and she has decorated and painted the nursery in green, so she’s getting a green card too!

I’m still crafting in the pantry and I’m finding it very cosy. As many of you have commented, I can just stretch my arm to get my hands on a large slab of dark chocolate..... (Oh temptation...)

The build of the house is going to plan although no work was done today as it rained. I had to smile at that. I’ve lived in the UK for several years. If builders went home every time it rained in England they would never ever get anything built!

Here is a photo of the building so far. It’s built over 4 floors. The men are working on the roof. We’re having a wooden roof with wooden beams, visible on the inside. (It will be tiled on the outside). The white building on the left with the green gate is also ours. The green gate is the entrance to a small vine covered court yard. From that court yard you can come into the (cave) house where inside I am typing this at the moment.

Do come in! It’s nice and warm inside. I've just made a pumpkin pie. (I made pumpkin soup the yesterday. These pumpkins are so big I have to continuously think of things to cook with it.) But the pie is definitely my favourite. I had some allspice sent to me from a friend in Mexico, and although I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, an American lady  in our church said my pies are delicious.

Thanks for visiting. I will try and visit as many of you as I can over the course of the week. Have a good week.

God bless

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 31 October 2025 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies,

Although Annie no longer posts her Friday Smiles, I like to continue the theme because I think it's important we remember good times, concentrate on the smiles and think positive. 

Here is another postcard that made me smile:

It's the naughty Aunties, causing havoc again with their antics. They always made me smile. They are the creation of Finnish illustrator Inge Löök.

The card was sent to me from Germany from a lady called Elisabeth (like me). She writes that Elisabeth means 'wellbeing'. She also writes that she loves doing Patchwork.

The stamps are beautiful:

The two stamps on the right are the post/mail inspired stamps. If you look carefully you can see the water lily is made of envelopes and the fish and his environment is made of stamps. Clever.

Charlie Chaplin of course is in a league of his own. On this occasion, it's a stamp with an extra charge which goes to charity (Welfare Services).

There is another stamp:

On the left is a stamp featuring Grethe Weiser, who turns out to have been an actress.

I had never heard of her so I Googled her:

Wikipedia says: Born in Hanover, in 1903, she spent her childhood in Dresden. She escaped from her dominant and sometimes violent father by marrying a Jewish confectionery manufacturer in 1920. Her only child, a son, was born in 1922. Quite quickly she established herself in the cabaret scene in Berlin, especially after her husband became a leaseholder of a nightclub on the Kurfürstendamm. Her film debut came soon after in 1927.

Weiser had a lifelong relationship with Hermann Schwerin, a UFA film producer, which began in 1934, but the couple were not married until 1958. Her previous marriage had been dissolved in 1934. Weiser avoided becoming a member of the Nazi Party. She managed to finance and arrange for her previous husband and her son to survive the Nazi years in Switzerland, as well as at the same time continue her career in Germany.

She died in 1970, after a road traffic accident, aged 67.

This is her in Berlin in 1932. Isn't that reminding you of Liza Minelli in the film Cabaret? Who knows if the writers of the film were inspired by Grethe...

Now, what have I been doing? Well, my car has been repaired. I wrote in my previous post that I had found the wheel rim that I had lost, at a junk yard:

There's a body repair shop a few minutes walk from my house. The guy there, José, promised to put it on for me and glue the rear one as well as it was kept in place by sticky tape.

He told me later it wasn't an easy job, but it's done!

Done!! Finally! Now I only need to take my car to the car-wash and I will be very happy.

My friends Kim and Andy came for lunch on Tuesday (as they do every Tuesday) and we cooked leg of lamb. 

I cooked bulgur and vegetables as side dished. 

I will look for some funnies to add at the end, but here is a photo of Ronnie, stretched out on the couch (he makes me smile:

In the meantime, keep smiling!

Have a great weekend,

Lisca

Mamma bird protecting her brood from the storm.

Yep, I still got one of those!

 

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 28 October 2025 - T for chestnuts and wine, a pizza and the breakers yard.

 Hello lovely girls! How are you all? The sun is shining and I am healthy, so I am fine.

I have a lovely postcard to show you today. I thought I was receiving my first postcard from Algeria. But no, it is advertising Algeria, but sent to me by Bettina in Switzerland:

It's a travel poster created by Léon Georges Carré (1878-1942) in 1921. It advises people interested in traveling to Algeria, to get in touch with the Algerian government office in Paris. 

The poster is entitled Hivernage Tourisme.

Hivernage was the practice in the French Army of withdrawing sub-Saharan African colonial troops from colder theatres to overwinter in warmer climates. With respect to modern-day tourism it probably means that tourists from colder Northern countries come to spend the winter (or part of the winter) in warmer climes.

The stamp is also quite pretty:

It is created by Micha Rindisbacher and features a gletcher. 

It is part of a set of four

Post CH writes: This stamp set launched in 2024 focuses on the most beautiful and best known Swiss attractions. In 2025, the themed journey will once again stop at four tourist hotspots. The first of them is the federal city of Bern with its mediaeval old town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.(top left) Another UNESCO World Heritage Site is the Aletsch Arena, a skiing and hiking area offering breathtaking views of the largest glacier in the Alps. (Bottom left) Just as spectacular are the views from the Aescher-Wildkirchli mountain inn, set into the rock face in Alpstein in the Appenzell region. (Top right) The fourth design shows Valle Verzasca in Ticino, with its turquoise water, picturesque villages and impressive stone bridges.(Bottom right)

What's been happening here in Spain? I saw some chestnuts for sale locally. And I fancied chestnuts, so I bought a bag. When I got them home, I realized I couldn't eat them all on my own, so I messaged my friends J & B to come and help me eat them. They arrived with a bottle of red wine:

I don't drink red wine very often but this one was delicious.

I soaked and scored the chestnuts before my friends arrived as that is the worst job. Then I popped them in the air fryer when they arrived. I think they only took 20 minutes:

Very nice they were.

 

Then on Saturday I went to eat pizza locally with David and Patricia:

We had two different ones which we shared between us. I like a Pizza Hawaii and I hope my Italian son will forgive me (The Italians don't like that as it's not Italian. Pineapple on pizza! What has the world come to!)

My glass of white wine was nearly empty when I remembered to take a picture. It is after all T for Tuesday hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard and I need a beverage....

When I was in Jerez the other day enjoying a little holiday, the wheel rim came off my car. It had been loose and I had it stuck back on. Obviously it didn't hold as it fell off somewhere. 

This morning I went to the breakers yard (junk yard) to get another one. That was an experience. There is one nearby, but I'd never been there.

It's a huge place.

This is the department I had to go to.

Unbelievable! Anyway, of course they had what I was looking for and tomorrow a local mechanic is going to sort out both wheels.

I've been preparing the top flat this morning as I'm having Homeexchange visitors later today, and I took this picture out of the window. The sun is shining, but we really could do with some rain.

That is it from me this morning.

Happy T-Day all,

Lisca