A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 28 April 2020 - T for bakers, kings and art.

Hello lovely ladies! 

It's T-Day today and we are all invited to the T-Party by hosts Elizabeth and Bleubeard. Just join us with a blogpost with a beverage (or even a reference to a beverage). 

My qualifier is the image above. It is an image that I have coloured in an app called Happy Colour. I find it so relaxing as I can choose the image, there is no time limit or points to achieve. 

Let me show you a postcard that arrived last week. In most countries the postal system is disrupted and certain routes are suspended, but a few card come through. So far, during the lockdown,  I have received cards from the Netherlands and Germany . This one is from the Netherlands.

It shows a warehouse. The doors in the middle on each floor are used to load materials by ways of a winch right at the top of the building.

I immediately recognized the Alkmaar cheese carriers. Alkmaar is a town in the Netherlands, north of Amsterdam, where there is still a traditional cheese market. (The link tells you all about the cheese market and has a short video as well).

The postcard image is from 1954 and the words written above the shop tell me that it was an ironmonger in those days.

The house still exists, but windows have been put in the loading bays:

It is called Het huis met de schopjes´´(the house with the paddles) because it shows 3 'schopjes'. These are the paddles that bakers use to get their wares in and out of the oven. The building used to be a baker.

The shop was on the ground floor and the bakery was on the first floor and above that, the place where they kept the ingredients such as flour. Everything got hoisted into the building through the middle 'windows'. The family lived at the back of the building.

Here is another contemporary photo. The shop front has a sort of shelter so that people could buy bread and cakes and not get wet.

Below is an old painting of the same house by Johannes Franciscus Spohler (1853 1923). There is an identical house next door, but that doesn't exist anymore. In the distance you can see the tower of the weigh house, where they weigh the cheeses.

I am writing this post on Monday 27th of April and in the Netherlands it is King's Day, the birthday of King Willem Alexander.  It usually is an enormous party celebrated all over the country. People dressed in orange etc. But now with the confinements there will be no street parties. 

But the king did appear for a photo opportunity this morning with his wife Maxima and his 3 daughters:

And here he is on the stamp (minus the beard)

Do I dare mention the virus? We are doing ok here. For me it's no hardship to stay at home. But for families with children it must be a nightmare. From yesterday (Monday) in Spain, the children under the age of 13 are allowed outside for max an hour and only accompanied by an adult. But at least they can play and get some fresh air and run about. 

My grandson in Italy, who is 5, is a very active kiddy. His parents have bought him a trampoline and I watched some little clips of him bouncing away! (I don't think in Italy they are allowed out yet though).

Governments have been trying to get recommendations across to the public in all sorts of ways. Here in the village there is a police car with a loudspeaker going through the streets shouting out instructions and new rules. But I found on the internet what the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Informational Security have done to inform the public. Have a look, I think it's beautiful:

Ukrainian creative agency Looma recently came up with a creative way of informing people on how to stay safe during the corona-virus pandemic. They gave 9 famous art pieces quarantine makeovers and paired them with important PSA’s as part of the global #FlattenTheCurve campaign and you don’t need to be an art lover to appreciate them.

“We can say that the ability to preserve the quarantine – is a kind of art. This is how we came up with idea of “Art of Quarantine” campaign, launched in association with Ministry of Culture and Informational Security of Ukraine,” writes Looma. “Classic art pieces get a new look and teach how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and stay safe.”

That's all from me the T-Day. 

Wishing you all a happy T-Day,

Stay safe and stay healthy,

Hugs,

Lisca