A Postcard A Day - Friday 29 September 2023 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely girls, How are you all? I am traveling again. I'm writing this on Thursday, sat at the airport Costa coffee place with a large mocha in front of me and also a two hour wait until my flight to from Malaga to Gatwick.

I have a postcard to show you which arrived the other day. It comes to me from Austria:

It is full of red and white stamps! Quite fun. And very clever if you know that the Austrian flag is red-white-red. I can't magnify it any more than this but the stamps are quite interesting.

The stamps on the card itself are also very nice.

The one on the left is promoting philately (stamp collecting). The text reads:" The right place for your stamps". The stamp on the right is a wild cat.

What have I been up to? I have had visitors who left on Tuesday, after that I had time to rest and get myself organised. My friend Isa gave me her delicious homemade rye bread.

I had some for lunch on Wednesday and put the rest in the freezer. (and I made a sandwich to eat at the airport).

My dinner on Wednesday were a bag of Padrón peppers that I had and the eggs that I fried with them. Very nice indeed. Here a photo before the eggs went in:

Then I watched a program on BBC called Celebrity Race Across The World. I had seen the first episode and I wanted to see the second. I won't be able to see any others until I get back but I can watch them on 'Catch-up' later.

Also on Wednesday I went to Baza bus station to buy my ticket to the airport as I didn't know what time the ticket office opens. There is a bus from Granada straight to the airport and from Baza to Granada is not far.  I just like to have my ticket in my pocket:

There is a Picasso-ish artwork in the bus station. I don't know if it is real....

That is all from me today. I don't mind the wait at the airport. I like to people watch and I have a good book. Graham Masterton Broken Angels. A female chief detective in Ireland investigates the gruesome murders of priests.

Of course I will put some funnies at the end and I will try to link this tomorrow to Annie's A Stitch In Time if i can. (I do hope your shingles is feeling better, Annie).

Have a lovely weekend all,

Hugs,

Lisca

(Look at the price)

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 26 September 2023 - T for

Hello lovely girls,

How are you all? I'm still feeling a bit fragile and sad after the death of my mum, but I have friends staying with me and they pamper me with nice meals out and I'm looking forward to going to the UK on my retreat this Thursday and also seeing the children and grandchildren. Lots of nice things to look forward to.

I have a very special postcard to show you:

It's a typical traditional Russian window with the setting sun reflecting in it. But the special thing about this card is that it comes from Kazakhstan. I think it must be the first postcard I have ever received from that country. 

Looking at the map it is a huge country. Look at  Wikipedia or this BBC site if you want to know more.

The stamps are interesting. Of course I had never seen them and it is difficult to get information. 

But with the help of Google Translate I was able to understand that the subject of this stamp is a great Kazakh writer, society figure and learned scientist, who lived from 1897 to 1961.

His name is Mukhtar Auezov (But that was not on the stamp, I had to Google it.) I found some info about him.

The insect on one of the other stamps is Damalacantha Vacca, (according to Wikipedia): A large wingless grasshopper with a massive, stocky body. The color is yellowish with a dirty brown and dark pattern on the pronotum and abdomen. The body length of males is 28-30 mm, females 35-40 mm. The elytra are underdeveloped and there are no wings. The antennae are attached below eye level. On the fore tibia there are slit-like openings of the tympanic auditory organ. Distributed in the desert zone of Kazakhstan . Inhabits rocky-saline areas of deserts with rare saltworts.

 It feeds on saltworts . Moves slowly, runs on the ground. During the breeding season, representatives of the species, especially males, chirp loudly. The eggs are laid by the female in the soil. In case of danger, it takes a threatening pose, tilts its head to the ground and raises its abdomen.

The stamp with the gazelle on it is the goitered gazelle or black-tailed gazelle is a gazelle native to Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, parts of Iraq and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and in northwestern China and Mongolia. Wikipedia 

So what has been happening with me here in Spain? I had my friend staying with me until Friday (The friend with the campervan who drove me from the Netherlands to Spain). She very much wanted to swim as the weather was still really good. We went to the reservoir lake nearby. The water was really low but she could swim:

We went out for a meal a few times, and I have photos of drinks so I can join the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

Here I'm having a beer (for a change).

Then on Saturday my friends from Brazil came to stay with me. They own the property with the swimming pool that we sometimes use and they had some legal and admin business to do here. They are great company:

We organized a BBQ party at the pool with my friends and neighbors.

T helped me prepare some dishes:

And this was the result:

Everybody had brought things and the table was full of yummy food:

Needless to say, we had a really lovely time.

That's all from me today, apart from this beautiful sunset from my window the other day:

Happy T-Day everyone!

Hugs,

Lisca

PS: I apologise that I have not been commenting (and sometimes not visiting) lately. Please forgive me. I hope I have more time next week when I'm on holiday.

 

A Postcard A Day - Friday 22 September 2023 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

Stressful times for me, but I'm holding it together (I think). I'm sorry I missed last Friday. We were traveling. My Dutch friend with the campervan was going to drive to Portugal on her own and she offered to take me to Spain. 

But let me show you my postcard:

It's the famous 'Aunties' illustrated by Inge Löök (From Finland). I love those characters! I always said, when I'm old, I want to be like them. But I'm 72 years old, when am I going to get old? Life is what it is and I try to enjoy it as much I can. There's highs and lows. I'm going through a low at the moment now my mum has died. She was my last link to my native country (Netherlands) and I always traveled to Holland twice a year to visit my mum. Now there is no good reason to make the effort. To me, this is another loss on top of losing my mum. 

Lets not digress. Here is the stamp:

It's a stamp from a series of stamps with images that simbolise the Netherlands, like a bicycle, a cow etc

They are quite fun I think.

So, where was I? So last Friday I was in France and for some reason didn't have internet on my phone. 

I phoned my provider who explained what I had to do, but that didn't work and i thought it didn't really matter as we would be in Spain the next morning. 

There we encountered torrential rains!

Especially around Valencia. We were lucky not to find any roads flooded.

We traveled 2250 km in 4 days.

Yesterday we went to the reservoir. My friend wanted to go for a swim and I wanted to see how low the water was. 

As you can see, it was very low. Record low in fact. I think it is only 21% full.

My friend loves cats and whenever we are at a restaurant, she attracts cats for some reason:

And at a different place a similar cat:

Cute hey?

That's it from me today. I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time to share my smiles, as in spite of everything I have had lots to smile about.

As per usual, I'll put some funnies at the end.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

I photographed this in a Rotterdam metro station. It reads: "Just turn them inside out, then you'll have 10". "Wishing you all the best in your time as a student." Advertising an internet store similar to Amazon.