A Postcard A Day - Friday 15 October 2021 - Friday Smiles

Warning: Contains one horrible picture of torture 

Hello lovely ladies, the week is coming to an end and it's time to review and pick out the good moments, the smiles and the silver linings.

I also have a postcard to show you and I would like to do that first (as per usual).

My postcard comes from Belgium and was sent by someone called Katelijne:

It is an illustration from the well known story of Tijl Uylenspiegel. The original legend comes from Germany, in fact it is believed it comes from Braunsweig! (Iris!)

The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak  is an 1867 novel by Belgian author Charles De Coster. Based on the 14th-century Low German figure Till Eulenspiegel, Coster's novel recounts the allegorical adventures as those of a Flemish prankster, Thyl Ulenspiegel, directly before and during the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule in the Netherlands.

De Coster was one of many 19th-century nationalist writers who made use of – and considerably adapted and changed – pre-existing folk tales. (Prominent others of this kind include the German Grimm Brothers and the Finnish Elias Lönnrot). In this case, Thyl Ulenspiegel - originally a German folk character dating to Medieval times - is moved westwards in space and forward in time, and made into a Protestant hero of the time of the Dutch War of Independence.

De Coster incorporated in his book many of the original amusing Ulenspiegel tales, side by side with far from funny material - for example, graphic depictions of tortures by the inquisition and auto de fe. 

As depicted by De Coster, Ulenspiegel carries in a locket around his neck the ashes of his father, burned at the stake outside of the walls of the city on charges of heresy – a feature never hinted at in any of the original folk tales. This experience begins Ulenspiegel's transformation from idle prankster to hero of the Dutch Revolt.

The story can be found here.

The illustration on the card pictures Tijl's baptism. In fact he was baptized five times: 

1- the Christian baptism

2- He got a pot of beer thrown over him

3- a shower of rain

4- he wanted to join the midwife in the river

5- he had to be washed with warm water.

My week has been a bit non descript. I have tried to do collages, but there isn't anything really exciting going on.

Last week I missed Thursday, so here it is:

We went shopping in Baza as we needed some more chicken feed.

The banner refers to the Dama (lady) de Baza. It reads 'Three millennia, two cultures, one lady'.

On July 20, 1971, an archeologist named Francisco Presedo made a discovery that brought him world fame. During digs at a necropolis on a hill named Cerro del Santuario, in the city of Baza in Spain’s southern Granada province, he opened up a cavity that was 2.60 meters wide and 1.80 meters deep. Inside, he found a painted sculpture of a seated woman together with a rich array of burial goods including weapons, all of which had lain there for around 2,400 years.

Presedo had just found what would become known as the Lady of Baza (la Dama de Baza), a spectacular sculpture made by an artist belonging to the Bastetani, a pre-Roman people who lived in the Iberian peninsula’s southeastern region between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC.

We are celebrating 50 years since the discovery.

On Friday hubby had a TAC scan and he had to be nil-by-mouth, so afterwards we went out and had breakfast at a nearby restaurant.

I did some baking on Saturday. I made biscuits for the first time. In the evening we went to our Intercambio Spanish/English conversation group, which is now meeting in a small classroom. I had brought some bubbly to celebrate this fact (that we were no longer out in the open)

Sunday was fun as the mountain bike race was being held again. It passes by our front door below, then passes by our front door at the top of the house (we have two entrances as the house is built on a mountain side).

On Monday (Housework and food shopping, boring!) we had a bit of excitement as my mum didn't answer the phone. She is 96 and lives on her own in the Netherlands. I phone her every evening to make sure she is OK, and she has one of those alarm buttons around her neck, which I know she never takes off. I phoned my cousin, who lives 20 min away, and she hopped in the car to make sure everything was ok. Sure enough, she is fine and she must have replaced the set wrongly or something. Phew!

We are getting an egg every day from our lovely ladies. Hubby decided to cook us an English breakfast for lunch. Yum, lovely eggs (but very small). As a thank you we fed the chickens their favorite treat: water melon! they fight over it! They also like grapes. So hubby hangs some grapes on a string and they have fun getting them down and pecking them and again running around. It's so funny to watch them.

Hubby also cleaned the patio area (good man!)

Then on Wednesday, our friends come to practice a bit of Spanish and he helps us with our computer. As we have just bought a Macbook, this friend is helping us get the best use out of it and downloading the programs we need. I then cook a meal and we eat together. What's not to like.

Yesterday I made shortbread, then made a layer of caramel to go on top. On Wednesday, I melted some chocolate to give it the last layer. And hey presto, we have Millionaire's Shortbread! And very tasty it is too!

I am messing around with my desktop, transferring programs etc. I have just noticed that the file I keep all the funnies in, has disappeared! So I'm giving you some funnies at the end that I found, but I might have already shown you those. In which case i apologize. This is all I could find.

Anyway, this is it from me today. I'm going to link to Annie's A Stitch In Time, and at the end there will be some funnies for you to chuckle at.

Have a great weekend,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca