A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 16 February 2021 - T for breakfasts, coffee and hospitals.

 

Good morning lovely ladies, Here we are again on Tuesday. This week has flown by, more so as it has been an emotional week for me. More about that later. 

Let me show you my postcard for today:

It is a photograph by Stephen Shore (American, born in 1947). And the photo is entitled 'Breakfast, Trail's End restaurant, Kanab, Utah, August 10, 1973. It can be found in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

I found out that the restaurant still exists. It's now called Houston's Trail End restaurant.

And this is what it looked like in the 50s:

And here is another postcard (not my postcard, got it from the internet)

Anyway, the postcard I received Was sent to me by Kelsey in Washington DC. She has written my name beautifully:

The stamps are awesome:

And she added some fun stickers plus some washi tape. 

It made me feel very special.

Now as it is T for Tuesday, Elizabeth and Bleubeard are organizing the T-Party. Any image with a beverage will be accepted to participate.

Now Elizabeth has a nasty infection and is not really allowed to spend much time at her computer. Wishing you all the best Elizabeth! Get well soon!

 

I am a member of the local photoclub and this month the challenge was 'Coffee'. Here below you can see my entry. The background is a real coffee sack from Columbia, and the coffee maker in the centre is an old espresso coffee maker with two enamel cups. I scattered some of hubby's coffee beans and hey presto! (This photo will qualify me for Elizabeth's T-Party). I hope it gets good points from the Photo club judges.

Here I am photographing the scene with the help of our friend Andy.

I mentioned that it was an emotional week for me. In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, my husband became so ill that I bundled him into the car and drove to the hospital in the middle of the night. He had all sorts of test during the night and by morning we had a diagnosis: peritonitis caused by diverticuli. He has been admitted and has to have antibiotics IV for a week.

I am not allowed to be with him (No visits allowed at all) but as you can see he is in good spirits and we communicate through FaceTime. Today (Tuesday) he is having some more investigations, so we'll see what that throws up. 

Then of course there was the sad news of the passing of Shaz Brooks (Silverwolfcards). Many of you will know her. She has been battling cancer for a few years now, always supported by her loving husband Doug. The craft world will miss her.

So I have been on my own this week. I have to do hubby's chores around the house, like getting wood and lighting the fire:

The wood shed:

And feeding the cat twice a day. She doesn't come into the house but lives in the 'shed' and roams where she wants (she has been neutered so she can roam without repercussions):

She's a calico cat.

I usually wake up to this. (View from our bedroom window)

Then I might have something like this:

Then I might go walking with my friend and then have a cup of tea with her.

I go shopping for one at our local grocery shop. (It just happened to be empty so I quickly took a photo)

But I do still cook nice meals:

Which I usually have out on the terrace as it's been nice weather.

That's it from me. 

Stay safe,

Have a very lovely T-Day, 

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 12 February 2021 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely girls, How is everyone? Here things are OK, but there were a few hairy moments this week. I'll concentrate on the smiles though and there were plenty of those. Especially this week I received many postcards. This is one of them:

It comes from the USA (Phoenix, Arizona). It has lovely stamps:

The colourful Celebrate Forever stamp was issued in February 2020 and was designed by Antonio Alcalá.

And there is one about Earth Day:

The U.S. Postal Service honors the 50th anniversary of Earth Day by putting its own stamp on raising awareness of our environment and the communities in which we live and serve. The new Earth Day Forever stamp marks five decades of Americans coming together to celebrate the importance of protecting the environment. The stamp will be available for sale nationwide on April 18 2020. 

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22.

The pear stamp was originally issued in 2016 and is designed by Derry Noyes, with an existing illustration by John Burgoyne.

This was a cute sticker that was also on the card:

My week has been rather memorable. On Friday we had a Zoom birthday party with the grandchildren, in which we all made a cake-in-a-mug. Great fun.

The weather has been awful with gale force winds and occasional rain. On Saturday we woke up to a yellow world (No, no snow). It was fine Sahara sand that got transported by the rain somehow and covered everything with a fine film of yellow sand. Very difficult to clean off.

Hubby is still not well and has abdominal pain, so he is fasting (literally not eating), to see if that helps.

See my amaryllis? I have four buds and I'm hoping for beautiful dark red flowers.

I forgot to do a collage on Sunday but on Monday I found water on the floor. It had rained all night and because of the gale force winds on the glass doors, some water had seeped in. The good thing was that the Sahara sand has been washed away! (Saved me a job). 

Hubby is still not well so I went to the health center to make an appointment, but the doc was free, so I could have a word with him about my husband. We got some more medication and he promised to fast track the referral to the specialist.

Then I made a lovely lasagna, and I knitted socks.

My amaryllis is opening, but I was a bit disappointed by the colour. According to the label it should have been red, but instead I got a sort of cream with a blush.

Hubby went to his plot for a few hours to take his mind off his tummy and I made a quiche.

Hubby went to bed early and in the middle of the night he began to shake and shiver violently, so much so That I bundled him into the car and drove to the hospital in the middle of the night. Not very nice in the bad weather, and me not being used to driving by night. On the plus side: at that sort of time I had the road to myself.

I had to wait on my own (thanks to Covid, I was not allowed to accompany him) for hours during the many tests that were done (including scans). But in the morning I spoke to a charming (female) surgeon who explained that he has peritonitis and that he will have to be admitted for 5 days of IV antibiotics. Next week they will decide if surgery is necessary (I reckon it will be). 

He is settled, in a good mood and pain free. So all good so far. I am so pleased we live in a country with a very good health care system. And it is all free!

Of course I had to start doing hubby's jobs and I got the wood and lit the fire. A good learning curve.

Yesterday I planted the garlic. Hubby had prepared the bed, so all I needed to do is plant them. When my friend and I went walking, we purposely walked by our plot so I could plant the garlic. Today I spotted the first almond tree in blossom. A real sign that spring is on its way. Another nice thing was that I met our friends' son with his Dutch girl friend whom I hadn't met yet. They have been together for a while, I just never got the chance to meet her. Well, she's gorgeous.

That is all I have to share today. Of course there will be some funnies at the end. I do hope there aren't any that I have already shown.

Have a great weekend, and 

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 9 February 2021 - T for triptych, socks and Yesterday

 Good morning lovely peeps,

I hope you are all well and ready to join the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. All you need to do is add a beverage or something drink related to your blog post and link up with Elizabeth.

I'm leaving my beverage for the moment and I'd like to start with my postcard of the day. It arrived a few days ago from Germany. I happen to like windows and doors, so I was very pleased with these beautiful windows. The building is called the Cranachhaus. As per usual I go and find out more... (info from Wikipedia)

Here is Weimar (in the middle, to the east):

 

The Cranachhaus is the left of two almost identical Renaissance houses on the east side of the market square in Weimar , directly opposite the town hall .

The painters Lucas Cranach the Elder and his son Lucas Cranach the Younger lived in the house in the 16th century . 

The striking house, richly decorated with columns, shell niches and round arch ornaments, is an important and listed Renaissance building with a floor area of ​​approx. 1500 m². The construction time of the Cranachhaus stretched from 1547 to 1549. It was built by the Renaissance master builder Nikolaus Gromann for the ducal chancellor Christian Brück , who married Barbara Cranach, the daughter of Lucas Cranach the Elder. Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä., One of the most important German painters of the Renaissance, spent the last year of his life in the Cranachhaus. The painter, who only came to Weimar in 1552 at the age of 80, founded a workshop in the house before his death and took on two students. Despite his age, he himself was still active and began the famous three-winged altar painting in his studio (the attic under the roof), which can be seen today in the Weimar city church of St. Peter and Paul ( Herder Church ). The work was not completed until 1555 by his son Lucas Cranach the Younger .

 The Weimar altarpiece is a prime example of the Reformation’s visual propaganda. It is composed of a number of different scenes (approved by Luther himself) that explain the meaning of Christ’s death and that combine to form an elaborate allegory of salvation. Cranach the Elder (second from right) and Luther (far right) stand next to John the Baptist (third from right) in the foreground of the panel. Luther points to a passage in the open bible, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all sins.” The blood spouting from Christ’s wound falls on Cranach’s head, thus offering a literal illustration of the biblical text.

(Info and the triptych photo below from  German History in Documents and Images (GHDI))

"This is an explosive political commentary: it indicts the Catholic Church and states no priest is needed to stand between the common man (Cranach) and God." 

(Lance Longwell of the Travel Addicts) A great link if you want to know more about Lucas Cranach and Weimar.

The Cranachhaus was badly damaged in the Second World War and was later rebuilt true to the original. There are other Renaissance houses in the vicinity of the house.

This is what the square looks like today:

Today the house is home to the theater in the vault , which mainly performs smaller plays by Goethe , Schiller and other classics. Otherwise it is no longer accessible to the public.

The stamp features the U-Bahn (Underground) station Marienplatz in Munich.

Translated:Always flow towards the good, real and positive.

That is my drink reference for today and it is also my motto this week as my husband is ill and we don't know what's wrong with him. We're seeing a doctor again today, in the meantime he is in bed with constant (abdominal) pain. Not nice. And I'm worried of course.

So I need to stay positive.

So I did something I rarely do: I watched a film. With hubby in bed, evenings are my own, so I found this film on Amazon Prime (My only source of films as we don't have tv).

It was a lovely 'feel good' film about an English singer who, after a freak cosmic event, finds out that nobody remembers the Beatles. So he records Beatles songs, passing them off as his own, and he becomes a super star. Of course he can't continue to live a lie because there is also a love story woven through. Anyway, I enjoyed it, and sang along with all the songs.

This is what we woke up to this morning.

This is what happens when the rain hits the windows with gale force winds. Luckily it only rains a few times a year.

I have also been knitting my socks. I bought a nice colour yarn and this is the first sock:

The second sock has been done up past the heel, so only the cuff to do. 

And I cooked a mean lasagna:

We had some for dinner:

The rest goes in the freezer.

That is it from me today. I'll keep you updated about my hubby. 

Wishing you all a very happy T-Day,

Stay safe and stay positive,

Hugs,

Lisca