A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 16 Feb 2016 T for little disaster, a bit of snow and some money

Hi all of you at the Tuesday gang,
I'm just a little late! I will explain: We have a weekend cavehouse about 30 miles from here where we escape to every week for a couple of days as I don't want my DH to work himself to death. We went there last night and found there was no power. DH tried everything to no avail. Then by the light of the torch we found a little note shoved under the door, written in Spanish officialdom speak, saying there had been an electrical 'incident' and I should phone the number given. It was dated 5 days before and we have two freezers in the house which I had recently topped up with all sorts of goodies. Arghh!
So we spent last night cleaning the freezers, and dumped all the contents in large containers and went home. This morning, we disposed of most of the contents. The meat that wasn't smelly I cooked this morning and it will go to my neighbours three dogs. They will have a feast. Then a trip to the rubbish bin (we live on a cliff face, in the cave house neighbourhood and the big lorry of the refuse collectors can't come down our small streets, so we have to walk to the village and dispose of it in public containers. Not a problem. I take a small bag every time I go shopping.)
I have no photos of this whole affair and I am still waiting for the electrician to call me back.  I'll keep you posted.

But i do have a photo of my daily postcard: here it is

I received it recently from Turkey. It shows Safranbolu in the snow. My Turkish fellow Postcrosser writes:"These buildings built and painted with traditional ways, and because of that, they're inUNESCO World Heritage list". Safranbolu is two and a half hours drive north of Ankara, and has an altitude similar to ours. Like us, they also get cold winters. The houses traditionally are made of wood. I have seen them myself as I traveled all over Turkey in 1971. It is a most beautiful country with the kindest people I have met in all my travels. 

Yes we have had a bit of snow too. It has melted now but the hills and mountains are still covered. This is the view from my studio where i am sitting now:

I love my craft room. It has huge windows and at the moment the sun is shining in. I still have the stove lit of course as outside temperatures are around freezing point. 

To be able to link in with Elizabeth and her T for Tuesday  I have taken a picture of my teapot on the stove. It has Magic Moments in it (a apple, cinnamon and rooibos infusion). Vely nice...

What's with the money you say? Well, when we flew to the Netherlands in December our flight was delayed. I applied for compensation through Flightright (or the Spanish site) and got compensation. They take commission, but after commission I had 560 Eur in my hands! Here it is, I've just been to the bank to get it! For those who live or travel in Europe, I can highly recommend this company. It was as easy as filling in a few details online, the whole process took a few weeks. They are very efficient.

That is it for this week. 

Wishing you all a great T-day,

Blessings,

Lisca
   

A Postcard a Day - Friday 12 Feb 2016 - Friday Smiles

Good morning friends, It's Friday again. Nearly weekend (for those who work 9-5). 

I must say I am really enjoying my retirement and this week I have started another jigsaw puzzle.

 It is called 'Kings and Queens of England', a present from our S-i-L. I have started with the outline and then I will put together all the coats of arms and take it from there. 

When finished I will hang it on the wall in the stairway, which is very long and will become a sort of gallery where I can hang my puzzles.

I'll tell you more of what i have been doing this week further on. I will be linking up with Virginia for Rocking your World Friday.

But first my postcard:

 Another Inge Look creation. Those two 'naughty' old ladies always make me smile. 

There were some interesting stamps on it:

The top one is about  Sir Constantijn Huygens, was a Dutch Golden Age (17th century) poet and composer. He was secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens.

The bottom stamp is about the Salvation Army (in Dutch: Leger des Heils)

We always go for coffee somewhere after church on Sundays. This time we went to this place that we liked the look of. I really like those stairs.

It specializes in ham, as in Serrano type ham. We only came in for a coffee, but it's nice to see all the hams hanging up.

Sorry for the bad quality of the photo. I think I had the camera on a wrong setting.

Here are the hams hanging in the dining area. Here they are all covered (new law).

Friday Smiles is all about being positive and counting your blessings. Do have a look at Annie's blog at a Stitch in Time.

My biggest  smile this week was when we got the news that we were succesful in claiming compensation after our flights were delayed for several hours in December. 568Eur is making its way to our bank account as I speak! We went through a company called Flightright I can thoroughly recommend www.flightright.com or http://www.flightright.es/. They are fast and efficient. Fill in flight details online... job done. Of course they take a hefty commission somewhere along the line, but the amount above is what I get. As far as I'm concerned they deserve their commission. 

Finally a couple of funnies. They made me smile and i hope you will too.

I do love a good glass of wine.

Here is another one:

That's it from me this Friday. Have a restful weekend and a good week,

Blessings,

Lisca

WOYWW 349 - a postcard, a jigsaw and lacemaking

Good morning deskhoppers,

I am really reluctant to show you my desk this morning. It is an almighty mess. But this is what Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday is all about. If you want to know more, Julia at Stamping Ground will explain all.

There are my head phones, a diary/journal, a water bottle, my Bible, my lacemaking cushion, some loose bobbins, and some tiny boxes I have made out of left over Christmas cards.

I have started a new lace project. I want to make some small stars to hang in my Christmas tree next Christmas. Lacemaking takes ages to do, so I am starting now.

Here is a better picture of the cushion:

Speaking of lacemaking.... Through Postcrossing I received a lovely postcard recently from Russia.

I think this Russian lace is really beautiful, don't you?

The other thing I have been doing is... starting another jigsaw puzzle! Yes, I love doing jigsaws. Dear son-in-law gave me this one. It shows all the kings and queens of England. 

This is as far as I got so far.

That's it from me today. My Wednesdays are always very busy but I will do my best and visit as many as I can. 

Have a good week,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - 9 Feb 2016 T for cave houses and drinking tea from a saucer

Hi folks! Happy Tuesday! Hello Tuesday gang! 
(Yes, I am linking up with Elizabeth at T for Tuesday. Here is the link: Do stop by and you might also get a glimpse of Bluebeard.)

My postcard for today comes from Russia. Sent to me by Marina, who lives in Nizhny Novgorod.

Marina writes:"The painting depicts a rich merchant's wife drinking tea. Only in the 20th century tea became available not only to the richest, so it seems that she enjoys her drink (and drinks from the saucer)."

The painter is Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1915). He painted this canvas, called 'Drinking Tea', in 1914. Oil on canvas. It is now in the Ulyanovsk Regional Art museum.

The flat we are building next to our cave house is nearing its completion. We will then move out of the cave, into the flat next door and start renovating our cave house. We have spoken to our builder and a few days ago he took us to his current project of cave houses so we could get some inspiration as to how we wanted our cave house renovated.

These are the two caves we visited (seen from the swimming pool). My photos are concentrated on details that i wanted to remember. One of them was the shower. I really liked that idea.

The toilet is behind the right hand wall and the shower behind the left wall.

Here is a detail of the floor. They cement the floor and then somehow make it shiny. Some little pebbles and some bricks in the cement give a really nice effect.

And these steps are lovely, simple but effective.

The pool was not in use (and very dirty) as they are still building. It is an infinity pool with a beautiful view. When switched on,  the water will run over the edge (which is not in the picture) onto a lower level and the pumped up again. 

We have no room for a pool, but it's nice to drool and dribble over all these nice things.

That's it from me today. Have a good week, and see you all next Tuesday,
Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 5 Feb 2016 Friday Smiles

Good Morning! It's Friday again. 

For those of you who have read my Wednesday blog, I want to tell you that I am feeling much better. (I knew it wouldn't last long).

Today I will show a postcard, as usual. Then I'd like to tell you how my week has been, concentrating on the positive things, and then I hope i can make you smile with a little 'funny'.

But first my postcard:

 As you might have guessed it comes from India. Kamran, who sent it to me, says it is a village girl in the Kutch District. Isn't she colorful! The Kutch district is a district of Gujarat state in western India. Covering an area of 45,652 km², it is the largest district of India.

The stamp is very interesting. It features JRD Tata, whom I'd never heard of. Apparently he founded Air India and Tata Motors. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was a French-born Indian aviator and business tycoon. He was the Chairman of Tata Sons. He became India's first licensed pilot in 1929. 

My week has been good. The weather is still warm and sunny. The almond trees are in blossom (see Wednesday's blog)

The weekend was full of socializing as usual and during the week my DH is working hard at our new living quarters, which are nearing completion. I've ordered my kitchen yesterday. I'm having it made by a local carpenter. And my cooker has arrived:

 It has 5 burners and is meant to look a bit rustic. There is not much choice in cookers for bottled gas.

I have always dreamt of a large oven as I use the oven a lot and like baking too This one even has a spit to grill a chicken. How cool is that!

Wednesday my DH drove me to the nearest town so I could meet a fellow lace maker. I had found (and I have now met) two ladies in our nearby town that do lace making. I'm really thrilled. 

We then also walked through the market as it was market day.

I bought nuts and seeds and dried fruit.

Now for something funny:

I'm linking this with Annie's Friday Smile and later on with Virginia at Celtic House to 'rock our Friday'.

That's it for today,

Have a good week and... keep smiling!

Blessings,

Lisca

WOYWW 348 Wednesday 3 Feb 2016 Lacemaking, mice, blossom and urgh!

Hi everyone! Happy WOYWW!

Don't be fooled by this enthusiastic opening, I'm feeling pretty lousy. I suffer from winter blues and even though I live in a sunny country I still get it from time to time. I feel like i want to curl up in a corner (or in bed) and sleep, I can't be motivated to do anything. It's difficult to explain. From experience I know that I will feel better tomorrow or the day after. I still have my lightbox and that usually does the trick.

Needless to say my desk is not very interesting at the moment. But I do want to show you this:

It's one of my lace making projects. It is finished but I don't know how to finish it. I've found a lady in our nearby town who does lace making and is willing to help. I'm going to see her later this morning. I will put my camera in my bag and perhaps have more photos next week.

This project has been hanging around for ages (more than a year) as i haven't been able to find anyone who does lace making here. When I found the bag with my spare cushion in it, it has been nibbled by mice (a common problem when you live in the country).

Time for a new bag don't you think? When I go into town tomorrow I will look for some material to sew a new one. Watch this space.
I'll leave you with something positive:

The almond trees are in blossom. A little bit early because of the warm weather. This photo was taken yesterday near our house.

Have a great week everyone,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 2 Feb 2016 - T for mugs, olive pips and coco cats

Good Morning! Happy Tuesday!

A bit later in the day today...I had a lie-in. 

I'm showing you a very comforting postcard today, especially comforting for those in the Northern hemisphere where it is cold and miserable. It is a card from my own collection that I have sent to someone. It is by a Russian artist who's name escapes me now. The card has been sent so I can't check. Sorry. 

Coffee, chocolates,cakes and a cat are all comforting things don't you think?

I'm linking up with Elizabeth and Bluebeard at T for Tuesday. The link is here. Please join us with anything drink related.

Last week we went to the olive processing plant to buy olive pips to burn in our stove.

When olives  get pressed after they are harvested, you get cold pressed olive oil (the best), what is left gets pressed again, and it gives normal olive oil. There is a further process that yields more oil but I think that is more  low grade stuff (I don't know what they do with that) but you end up with crumb like pips that look like this:

It's very cheap and we buy it by the trailer load.

A guy with a tractor just scoops up a load and dumps it in our little trailer.

We pay by weight so car and trailer have to be weighed on the weigh bridge before and after.

We mix the pips with the almond shells so the almond burner burns more efficiently and longer. This lot will last us through the winter and into the next. They are only for sale at this time of year (after the harvest).

I feel I almost have to apologise for the blue sky and the sunshine. I am very much aware that there is much bad weather around at the moment. Sorry folks. 

One more photo before I call it a day:

This is my kitchen in our holiday cave house (where I am at the moment). The rack and the mugs were all bought from Ikea (a few years ago). And at the moment I am enjoying a cup of chai tea with a dash of milk. Please share your drink with us. We'd love to see what you are drinking....

Happy T-day, have a good week,

Blessings,

Lisca