A Postcard a Day - Friday 26 April 2024 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls,

Again it's Friday and I want to look back on all the things that made me smile this week. 

I'm having problems with the format of this post. There is a black line going through everything, and I can't seem to get rid of it. I have already written this twice, and I hope you can't see it, but if you do, one black line is acceptable, I suppose.

But first let me show you a postcard that arrived on Tuesday:

I love turtles and tortoises. For me they are a symbol

of longevity and wisdom. If only they could talk! The card comes from the USA, a lady called Sharon who lives in Herndon, Virginia sent it.

On the card are some 'factoids' about the animals. One of them reads: "The Chinese leather turtle pees through its mouth."(!)  And: "Turtle shells are made of different bones, all connected together and they can feel through their shells!". Well, I didn't know that! 

Discover Magazine writes: The Chinese soft-shelled turtle looks like someone glued the snout of a pig onto the face of a fish, with the texture of a scrotum for good measure. But its bizarre appearance pales in comparison to an even more bizarre, and newly discovered, habit: it expels waste through its mouth. When the turtle breaks down proteins in its liver, it ends up with an abundance of nitrogen, which it expels from its body in the form of urea. Humans are the same—we get rid of urea in the form of urine, via our kidneys. But the soft-shelled turtle has an altogether different route. It’s well-adapted to life in the water, and lives in salty swamps and marshes. But Yuen Ip from the National University of Singapore noticed that when the turtle emerges from water, or is stranded on land during dry spells, it will plunge its head into puddles. While submerged, it rhythmically expands and contracts its mouth. Ip found that the turtle gets rid of most of its urea through its mouth rather than its kidneys, via gill-like studs in its mouth. It can breathe and get rid of waste through the same structures.

The stamp is the American Forever stamp with the flowers:

In this case it's an orange gerbera daisy. I love the orange ones as orange is the Dutch national colour. (And I'm Dutch)

This past weekend I spent in Úbeda and Baeza, two historical towns an hour and a half drive north from here. I went with a group of people from the local photo club.

I love old doors and there were doors galore!

Beautiful churches and palaces too. The photo below is in a church where one of the floats from Easter is still on display:

Look at all the splendour and opulence:

In one sense it's beautiful, and on the other hand if I was a poor man going to this church, it would put me off religion for life.

Ironwork is one of the  things these towns are famous for. 

And this is 'just' a lamp post...

One of the things I loved best was the ancient synagogue. 

It was discovered when a hairdresser wanted to modernize the salon and they discovered the synagogue in 2007. The synagogue dates from before the 14th century.

One part would have been the rabbi's living quarters,

and in another, larger room would have been the synagogue:

The women were allowed to follow the rituals from a screened gallery:

In the basement there was a bathing place for ritual cleansing (Mikveh):

It is a hole with steps dug out from the rock where the water springs naturally and continually. (The building is called Synagogue of Water)

I really enjoyed visiting this synagogue and learning about the Jewish community in times before the Christian Spanish kings conquered Andalucia. (Granada was the last to surrender in 1492).

All in all we had a great time, ate lovely meals and took many photos.

That is all from me today. Of course there will be a few funnies at the end for you to have a giggle.

Have a lovely weekend,

Keep smiling,

Lisca

De-luxe broom: Not suitable for flying!

Today's wifi password can be unlocked by texting a photo of a clean kitchen to mom. Said photograph MUST contain one box of crackers on the counter by the stove (to prevent re-using any previous photos).

Thank you for playing.

May the odds be ever in your favor,

love, Mom.

• NEWI