A Postcard A Day - Friday 7 July 2023 - Friday Smiles (and lots of stamps)

Hello lovely ladies,

It's Friday again and time to count our blessings and smiles and share them via Annie's A Stitch in Time. 

But first my postcard:

I have a postcard from China to show you. It features the Huai'an government office. Of course I can't read the Chinese characters, so I consulted Google Translate.

The translation reads (according to Google):

It's a bit dark. It reads:

"In the north of the hall there is a department.

There is a booth in the office.

Pavillion with pool.

There is a bridge over the pond.

On the left and right of the pavillion are junipers.

Organic."

Huai'an is a modern city of more than 2 million inhabitants in Eastern China, in this (red) province:

I'm not sure if the building in the drawing still exists. But this is a photo I found on the Internet of what the city looks like now:

There are so many stamps on this card!

The orange stamp features a ruyi:

Ruyi (literal meaning: 'as desired; as [you] wish') is an object that serves as a ceremonial scepter in Chinese Buddhism or a talisman symbolizing power and good fortune in Chinese folklore. These scepters were traditionally presented as birthday gifts. Ruyi scepters are long, shaped in the stylized stalk of a lotus.

I have not been able to find any info on the man in the robes pointing to the skies.

Three special stamps featuring children's games issued by China Post on May 31, 2017.

The stamps portray a series of common games played by children from North China in the 1980s. The designer intended to remind people of their childhood and games they once fancied such as rolling an iron ring, throwing bean bags and kicking the shuttlecock.

The last two stamps I have not found anything about

Phew, that was a long postcard bit! I'm sure you would like to see some photos of my trip. I am now home. I got home on Sunday morning after traveling all night on the bus from Barcelona to Baza. Then I slept for two days as I was so tired. I'm fine now.

I'm sorry I couldn't blog last week. We hadn't had electricity  for several days and Hadn't driven much so we couldn't charge our iPads. (My phone charge was dangerously low). And then of course on the ferry there is no internet.

After visiting my son in Abruzzo, we crossed the Appenines in the direction of Rome, where we visited some Danish friends who have a house in Serrone (south east of Rome in the mountains)

The dog in the picture is Roxy, my friend's dog.

Here we are having a meal in Serrone:

From there we took a ferry to Sardinia. I don't know if you can see it, but the boat is painted with cartoons. Very strange:

Here is a clearer picture (from the Internet):

Sardinia is very beautiful. We stayed on a camper stop by the sea and enjoyed some days in one spot. We discovered that my friend Antonia's daughter was on Sardinia too. We got in touch and she was only ten minutes from where we were! I hadn't expected her to be away as she has just given birth to a lovely little boy. Here I am holding the baby:

While we were there we noticed that Roxy, the dog had a wound in her groin, so we had to go to the vet:

An old scar had opened while playing with the other dogs and it had to be re-stitched. She is fine now.

I'll leave it at that for today. Sorry if this has become a bit long. 

Of course I'll be putting some funnies at the end, but for now, have a lovely weekend.

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

Angela will like this idea: