Hello lovely ladies,
Again, we have arrived at the end of the (working) week. It's Friday and time to relax!
Let me show you a fun postcard that arrived this week:
The image shown is made by a technique called quilling.
I know about quilling. I did a bit myself back in the day.
The Internet says about quilling:
Quilling, also known as paper filigree, is an art form where strips of paper are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. These designs can be used to embellish a variety of items, from greeting cards and pictures to boxes and jewelry. It's a versatile craft with a long history, offering a wide range of creative possibilities.
Has any of you done this?
And the subject is a tortoise! I love turtles and tortoises.
World Postcard Day is on the first of October, so that is a bit early. It was written by Aga, who tells me she had ordered these postcards for the occasion of WPD but liked this one so much that she couldn't resist sending it early.
Why the first of October? If you look up World Postcard Day, this will appear:
In Austria-Hungary, Dr. Emanuel Herrmann (a professor of Economics from Vienna) wrote an article in the Neue Freie Presse pointing out that the time and effort involved in writing a letter was out of proportion to the size of the message sent. He suggested that a more practical and cheaper method should be implemented for shorter, more efficient communications.
His recommendations impressed the Austrian Post, who put them to practice on October 1st 1869, resulting in the Correspondenz-Karte, a light-brown 8.5x12cm rectangle with space for the address on the front, and room for a short message on the back. The postcard featured an imprinted 2 Kreuzer stamp on top right corner, costing half the price of a normal letter.
The postcard was born!
The stamps are gorgeous!
You can tell by the stamps that the card comes to me from Poland. Stamps from left to right:
A stamp with stylised mountains, the Carpathian Mountains. Google writes:
The Carpathian Mountains form a 1,500km-long range in Central and Eastern Europe. They stretch west to east in an arc from the Czech Republic to Romania. The Tatra range between Slovakia and Poland is a national park and has several peaks above 2,400 meters. More than half of the Carpathian range lies in Romania, where spruce forests are home to brown bears, wolves and lynxes. ― Google
The next one is about archeological discoveries and the image is the Biskupin Archeological Museum.
Biskupin is an archaeological site and a life-size model of a late Bronze Age fortified settlement in north-central Poland that also serves as an archaeological open-air museum. Wikipedia
Underneath that stamp is a smaller one that reads (translated): European tree of the year. Common beech. Atropunicea. Wojslawice Arboretum, University of Wrocław.
The term "common beech atropunicea" refers to the Purple Beech, a cultivar of the European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) known for its distinctive purple foliage. It is also sometimes referred to as the Copper Beech. The "atropunicea" part of the name indicates the purple (atropurpurea) coloration of the leaves. 
The last stamp is the butterfly.
It shows a Ornithoptera Priamus, a widespread species of birdwing butterfly found in the central and south Moluccas, New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, and north-east Australia.
Enough about stamps. What have I been up to here in Andalusia? Our eldest son came to visit me with his wife and two boys. They had planned a visit a few years back but Covid ruined that, and although they got paid back the money for their flights, somehow it never happened. But this time it did. They had booked a nice hotel on the coast to give their boys some time to horse around in the pool. Then I drove to Mojácar (120 km) to pick them up and they stayed three days here. Yesterday I drove them back. We all had a great time.
Here they all are on my terrace.
Here I've joined them in the photo.
Here we are about to embark on a night walk for charity.
There were lots of people and we are somewhere in this photo (at the back). It was a cancer charity.
And last but not least, my daughter in law with Ronnie the cat.
That's it from me today. I'll put some funnies at the end for some giggles.
Have a lovely weekend,
Lisca
