A Postcard A Day - Friday 27 October 2023 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely ladies,

Happy Friday! 

I'm still in the Netherlands clearing my mum's apartment. My sister who has done all of the paperwork and  organising, has gone back to the UK. I'm left to do the last things and sort through the photo albums and organise the cleaning until the handover on November the 1st.

But let me show you my postcard for today.

My late father was a windmill enthusiast. He was a member of the society that wants to  'keep windmills turning'.  

I have found several postcards among his photo collection. Here is a vintage postcard of a windmill combination near The Hague:

These windmills are dated back to the 17th century, originally there were four of them but the fourth one got demolished around 200 years ago.
One of the three remaining windmills burned down at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of a lightning strike, luckily, it has been restored.

My dad took photos of the three windmills from pretty much the same place:

The three mills, owned by the province of South Holland, have been restored in recent years and are ready for milling. The pump in the lower mill was replaced in 2006 by a pump with a larger capacity, making the three-way more balanced. 

Here is a recent aerial photo from the Internet:

In this type of mill – known as a smock mill – the cap could be turned with the aid of a tail pole and a capstan wheel.

There is a sign (in Dutch) outside one of the mills:

The translation is:

The three mills were built in 1672 for the drainage of the Driemanspolder. The province of South Holland has owned these mills since 1958.

The mills,  octagonal smock mills, form a stepped drainage system of three heights.

Together they raise the excess water approximately 5m.

The mills are permanently inhabited and for this reason the interior cannot be visited

The Leidschendam three-way runs once a month, on Saturdays.

The postcard was posted in 1972 and has a stamp from that era with the head of queen Juliana on it.

As this  blog post is about the smiles,  I'm showing you some photos from one evening this week when we went out for a meal at the local Greek restaurant.

My sister (in the orange top) is sitting next to my cousin and his wife was taking the picture:

You must think that I do nothing but eating and drinking but it was my cousin's last day here and the restaurant is within walking distance.

I'm sitting next to my brother in law.

The place-mats were really pretty with a scene from a Greek island:

The waiter took this picture of the five of us.

I forgot to photograph the food but this was my dessert:

It was too dark to take a picture of the outside of the restaurant, which is in the shopping mall opposite my mum's apartment block. But I did take this picture of an olive tree in a pot outside the restaurant:

Did you notice the pot was made of bottle tops?!

That is all from me today. I'm going to link with Annie's A Stitch In Time.

Of course there will be some funnies at the end to make you smile.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca