A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 19 May 2020 - T for Braunschweig, Harlem, Munich,Rotterdam and Cabo de Gata

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today is Tuesday: T for Tuesday, and we are invited to join Elizabeth and Bleubeard for the T-Party with a beverage.

I am inviting all of you for a cup of coffee. (The translation says: a coffee for each of you... good morning)

My first postcard comes from Germany. Guess from where....Braunschweig! It is where Iris Flavia lives! I'm not going to tell you much about the town, I'll leave that to Iris.

The card was sent to me by Sabine, who is a dental assistent. 
The stamp is very nice. I hadn't seen this one yet.

 It features the Marienplatz underground station.
Here are some photos of the station:

Above ground the Marienplatz looks very different. Wikipedia writes: Marienplatz (en: Mary's Square, i.e. St. Mary, Our Lady's Square) is a central square in the city centre of Munich, Germany. It has been the city's main square since 1158.
Marienplatz was named after the Mariensäule, a Marian column erected in its centre in 1638 to celebrate the end of Swedish occupation. Today the Marienplatz is dominated by the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus)

 on the north side, and the Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus, a reconstructed gothic council hall with a ballroom and tower)

 on the east side.

Now for my second card. It comes to me from the USA. It is entitled Harlem, the 30s. The photographer is Aaron Siskind who is an American born in 1923 and died in 1991.

Siskind was known for his abstract photography. Here is an example I found on the Internet:

But he made a photobook called Harlem Document, and my postcard is taken from that collection.

One of my blog friends, Bridget Larsen, a crafter who lives in Australia has asked me about our vegetable garden. I promised I would post some photos.

Here are broad beans on one side and peas (flowering) on the other.

 The middle bit has been sewn with chili peppers, fennel and coriander (cilantro). Nothing has come up yet as you can see.

 This is a home made composter made with pallets cut to size. The brick on top is to prevent the cats from getting in there.

 Here is some spinach.

 On the right is a row of garlic. Hubby didn't want me to show this photo as he hadn't weeded yet. It looks a lot neater now. 

Bridget writes about her gardening, her crafting and about all sorts of interesting things. Do visit her: Bridget Larsen.

I would now like to show you some urban art in my home town of Rotterdam (Netherlands):

Street art van Ian Kirk Patrick nabij de Kruiskade. 

Street art van I Am Eelco in de Bloemkwekersstraat.

Werk van Daan Botlek aan de Schiedamse Vest.

Calypso Falls van Monique Benthin en Rick Messemaker aan de Mauritsplaats.

I must say that I did not take any of the Rotterdam streetart photos. 
But here is a photo that I did take in the Cabo de Gata area of southern Spain. I am a member of the local photoclub and every month we have a theme and we are allowed to enter one photo, which gets judged (anonymously) by an out of town team of judges. This month the theme was 'Sea', but we have been in lockdown, and no one has been able to go to the sea. So we have been entering archive photos. This is mine. It was a lovely November day (18 Nov 2016) in a little hamlet called La Isleta del Moro on the Cabo de Gata coast. We were eating at a restaurant right by the 'beach' and this cat was lying by my chair, no doubt waiting for some scraps. 

This is what the restaurant (the building nearest to the water) looks like from a distance:

And on that note.... I'll leave you all to dream of summer....

Happy T-Day all,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 15 May 2020 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies! How is life? Today is the day I look back on the past week and give thanks for all the good things. Have you had much to smile about? I look forward to reading about it. I will link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time (and also with Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday) 

My biggest smiles were for all those postcards that are now coming in thick and fast. Cards that have been posted in the middle of march are now finally arriving, as if they had been in quarantine too.

The first one comes from Belarus and was sent to me by Jane, an English teacher. The card title is 'Flower, Wind, Bicycle' by Annet Loginova.

The stamp is lovely. It is from a series called Wild Baby Animals and was released in January of this year.

This is a wolf cub. It gives the following information on the stamp website: 
Wolf cubs are born blind and deaf. They weigh 300-500 grams. For the first time they leave the den after 3 weeks. During the first four months of life their weight can increase by almost 30 times. Females become fully grown by the age of two, and males by the age of three.

 The other baby animal stamps are foxes, bears and lynx.

The second card is from Finland. It features a happy looking lady riding a bike.

It was sent by Kristiina who lives and hour away from Helsinki.
The stamp is also very nice. It has an old type writer on it. I learnt to type on one of these. You really had to push down hard with your fingers.

The stamp is from a series 'Say it with flowers'. Here is the whole series:

Today is our eldest's birthday. He was born this day in 1974. Happy birthday Phil! Here he is with his dear wife Michelle last summer.

Last week I visited my best friend Antonia. I hadn't seen her (in the flesh) for two months. It's a ten minute walk to her house and I saw lots of flowers on the way. Her house has a lovely view (similar to ours) and we sat outside (keeping our distance) and chatted.

 On Saturday another son messaged us that his boy had got stuck in the window trying to climb out. We had to laugh at that, because mum & dad had to come to the rescue and all was well. But later that day, their youngest son, who is 4 slipped and broke his arm. It was a complicated fracture and he had to go into hospital to have surgery during the night.

 He was back home again on Sunday morning.

Monday we went shopping together. Stress on the 'together' as we are not allowed more than one person in the car. We thought they had lifted that by now, but they haven't. (but we didn't get caught)

 Tuesday was a foul weather day. It rained all day and we even had hail! I had been bitten the night before and the bites had gotten red and raised. I had to resort to some hydro cortison cream in the end.

 On Wednesday night I accompanied my hubby to our allotment to pick broad beans, peas and spinach.

Yesterday I went to the post office and I collected ten postcards! 

I also bought some stamps. They are new stamps for use in Europe.

They are about touristic routes. I have the ones on the left (routes for motorbikes). I hope to get the campervan routes (for outside Europe) soon.

In England people applaud the health care workers once a week at 8 pm. The whole nation comes out onto the street and claps for the carers.  

Our youngest grandson, who broke his arm the other day, has been applauding the NHS with a pan and wooden spoon to make an extra loud noise. His thank you was heart felt as he was treated so well and so efficiently.

That was my week. I will, as usual, put some funnies at the end.

I wish you all a lovely weekend. Stay safe and healthy.

Hugs,

Lisca

Titles (In case you can't read the titles): 

The English Patient

Had,

Caught, 

It,

On The Beach.

I Should Have Stayed Home,

She Said.

Now,

She Was,

In Quarantine,

In The Dark,

House Of Splendid Isolation.

Still,

Hope Springs Eternal,

With A Little Bit Of Luck,

Common Sense,

And

Personal Hygiene,

The Corona Book Of Horror Stories,

Must End Soon.

Always Remember,

Clean Hands Save Lives,

And,

When In Doubt,

Don't 

Go 

Out!

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 12 May 2020 - T for Koenigsberg, battles and peas

Hello lovely girls,

I hope you are all well. And I also hope that in your country the 'curve' is flattening and restrictions are slowly being lifted.

Mail that has been 'stuck' in transfer is slowly coming through. I have received several cards:

Last week Iris wrote in her blog that her grandma was able to flee from Konigsberg (which was German until 1945)  with 7 children, one of which was Iris' mother. 

Koenigsberg is now called Kaliningrad and I happened to receive a card from Kaliningrad this week!

The postcard is a photo from 1910, but I am sure Iris' grandma will have known the city like this and would surely recognize the location, with a tower in the background. The tower belonged to the Koenigsberg Castle. Here is a picture of the castle as it was (from the internet):

On the back of the card is some info in Russian. With the camera translate function on my iphone I have been able to read: Steindamm, view from the house nr 99. The corner of Kopernika street and Zhytomyrska street.

Here is another old photo, where the castle is seen from above:

Unfortunately, there is nothing left of the old city. If you are interested in reading about the castle, this is a quick 2 minute read, and this is an even shorter bit about the monstrosity (House of the Soviets) that has been built in its place.

In September 1941 the Russians started to bomb the city, and in 1944 the British bombed the city. In 1945 the so-called battle of Koenigsberg took place and by the end of it the Soviets were in power. In April 1946 the city becomes part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, per Potsdam Agreement.

Interesting is it not?

So what has been happening here?

 Hubby brought some more produce from our plot, which I then peeled, blanched and put in bags, ready to go in the freezer. We feel very blessed.

Then we had this situation with one some of our grandchildren in the UK. One of them got stuck while climbing through the window and mum & dad had to help him down.

Later that day, his younger brother slipped and broke his arm. The fracture was so complex that he had to be admitted to hospital and operated upon during the night. By the next morning he was home again. They are both well now. Phew.

Here is a picture i found on the Internet. A mural about the battles being fought. 

Now I'd better get a drink ready to be able to come to the T-Party. How about a coffee? I want to show you the glasses we drink coffee out of. They are double walled glass and I love them:

That is my qualifier to the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. Come and join us, any beverage will do. 

We've had some pretty awful weather here, but the other day the sun shone unexpectedly and a beautiful rainbow appeared. One of my friends from the Caniles Photoclub captured it from a very good angle:

That is it from my this Tuesday. I hope you all have a very pleasant week.

Keep smiling!,

Hugs,

Lisca