A Postcard A Day - Friday 14 October 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

Here we are on Friday again. Boy did that week fly by! I'll tell you what we've been up to but first let me show you a postcard which hopefully will make you smile. It's a sweet smiling Japanese girl called a Maiko-san:

“Maiko are the apprentice geisha who are still training to perfect their cultural and entertainment skills. Maiko’s outfits are more eye-catching to divert attention from the lack of knowledge and experience. Geisha’s fashion is usually more mature and subtle. Maiko must live in the “mother”s house and depend on the little stipend she receives from the geisha house. Geisha, on the other hand, are more independent and live in a separate house of their own in the geisha neighborhoods. You can easily distinguish between geisha and maiko based on the images below”. (Source: Geisha by Liza Dalby)

 

The main differences between maiko and geisha (geiko) are age, appearance, and skills.

Maiko is usually younger than 20, wears a more colorful kimono with a red collar, and lacks conversation skills. Maiko means “dancing child” which refers to apprentice geisha who are still training. Maiko have to live in the geisha lodging house (okiya) with their mother (okami-san) for 5 years. Maiko is not allowed to have a cell phone, carry any money, or have a boyfriend.

The stamps are lovely. The one on the left is called 

"Toward the Morning Light" by Yumeji Takehisa

I assume it is a work of art but I have not been able to find much information about it. 

The other one is a stamp from 1965 described as:

Imperial yacht "Meiji Maru" (1876) and Japanese gulls (Larus crassirostris)

The airmail sticker on the right is cute. I have never seen one like this.

So much for my postcard. Let me think upon the smiles of this week. Many smiles are for lovely friends who are ready and willing to help us. Our Danish friends came to put the chimney pipes up again in readiness for the colder weather. (We use loose pipes that we take down in summer). My friend Antonia who just phoned me out of the blue asking if I wanted to come out for a drink. Yess! That was what I needed at the time. The pastor of our church came to dinner on Sunday and had a listening ear and celebrated communion with us. Friends and neighbors popping in with fruit and produce from their land. We have a bowl full of apples, plums, and all sorts of other things.

We harvested spinach from our land as well:

The weather is still warm and sunny. Here is the village square where the post office and the library are. The building you see in the photo is the town hall.

The library is on the left and the post office is to the right not visible in the picture. There is a funny sort of fountain with water coming out of the ground.

I still phone my mum every evening and recently my cousin and his wife visited for a few days. They took her out in the wheelchair when the weather was sunny and sent me some photos.

Mum still enjoys a glass of wine when she has visitors:

Another smile for me is that the gym is starting again today. I go three times a week. We do half an hour aerobics and then upstairs on the machines, doing the circuit. A few minutes on each machine.

My hubby continues not being well. Chemo therapy has been postponed yet again because he is not well enough. Next appointment being Thursday and I hope it will go ahead then. I have spent time cleaning the wheelchair and the commode that we have in the back of the garage (Used when my mum came to stay). And I have taken these items down and I have put the wheelchair in the back of the car so that I don't have to borrow a hospital one .

That my friends, is it from me today. I will find some funnies and will put them at the end as per usual.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

Translated: "If a banker doesn't know how to work the land, why does a pensioner have to understand how to work an ATM?"

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 11 October 2022 - T for siamese grooming

 Hello lovely ladies.

I'm writing a post even though I don't know if Elizabeth is back or not. She might have to do jury service if found suitable. We shall see. I hope she will share the experience, if that is allowed.

My card for today is very special, as it is not a card from my Postcrossing club. No, it was sent to me by Elle in Scotland. She is a blog friend. As the 1st of October was World Postcard Day, she sent me a beautiful postcard of a stamp.

And then on top of that she used two beautiful stamps of her Majesty in 1978 and 1980:

Thank you so much Elle! I really appreciate it. It was such a lovely surprise.

Nothing special is happening here. Hubby is not well but we have an oncology appointment on Thursday to see if he can have his chemo therapy.

I still have a few photos from our trip to England which you haven't seen so I will show them here. This is Ringwood, where we stayed in the old pub.

We walked to the end of the street from where the pub was, and there was this beautiful house:

I think it might have been a restaurant, but it was not open.

You can see it has a thatched roof. I think these roofs are typically English. (Or do they have them in other parts too?)

This house was on the same street a bit further along:

There was a beautiful bell pull:

And this plaque gave us some information:

And this little iron gadget next to the front door is to clean your boots from mud and poo:

I had never heard of the Duke of Monmouth. (I should have had as he was born in my home town of Rotterdam).

Wikipedia came to the rescue:

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman and military officer. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland with his mistress Lucy Walter.

The Duke of Monmouth served in the Second Anglo-Dutch War and commanded English troops taking part in the Third Anglo-Dutch War before commanding the Anglo-Dutch brigade fighting in the Franco-Dutch War. He led the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, an attempt to depose his uncle King James II and VII. After one of his officers declared Monmouth the legitimate king in the town of Taunton in Somerset, Monmouth attempted to capitalise on his Protestantism and his position as the son of Charles II, in opposition to James, who had become a Roman Catholic. The rebellion failed, and Monmouth was beheaded for treason on 15 July 1685.

He was a handsome fellah:

That was a little history lesson.

Now as I'm going to try to enter this blog into the T-Party, I will need a drink. Let me see what I can find...

In England, when we were still in our caravan, we went to church in Barnstaple. We got talking afterwards with people and one couple promptly invited us to an English cream tea at their house a few days later. In the photo above you can see the scones. She had made savory and sweet scones. The sweet scones are supposed to be eaten with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Yum!

And here we are with a glass of Prosecco! (No tea in sight).

That is all from me today.

Wishing you a very happy T-Day (with or without Elizabeth).

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day / Friday 7 October 2022 / Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies, 

Here I am again. I went AWOL on Tuesday. In fact, hubby was taken to hospital urgently with bowel obstruction and then transferred to the main hospital in Granada for a possible operation. But luckily it wasn't as bad as we thought and he spent a week on a drip and his bowels are working again, so no operation and we are back home again. Phew!

I booked into a hotel 100 meters from the hospital and enjoyed the tapa scene in Granada. But really apart from going to church on Sunday, I didn't stray far from the hospital.

Today I have two cards for you. Two because they are from the same artist. The first one is this:

This card was sent to me by someone who lives in Salt Lake City. She is the same age as me and her birthday is also in March. I have been to Utah many years ago and I remember seeing the Mormon temple.

I was very pleased to see she had used four pretty stamps:

The black one is one of a series about cowboy fashion.

The second card is from the same artist/editor Lou Paper. This time it is South Carolina:

I have never visited S. Carolina, so I had to look that one up on the map.

The stamp is the orange flower. It looks like a Gerbera. Of all the round flower stamps, this one is my favorite.

I'm afraid I have no nice photos this week. Only this photo of the little park near our house, called the Paseo. Autumn hasn't really set in yet but there are a few dry leaves because of the draught.

But I do have a few funnies for you at the end.

And I have my hubby at home now, so that is my big smile for this week. Now off to Annie's A Stitch In Time! I'll see you there!

So, that is all from me. Short and sweet!

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 30 September 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

Here we are on Friday again. The week just flies by.

Let me show you a fun postcard:

It comes to me from Poland and it is called: Her Ladyship Baroness by Dobroslawa Ruranska.

Dobrosława Rurańska

Born in 1990.

Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. Diploma in book graphic in 2015.

In 2014, won the Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for students of art schools.

Designs illustrations and poster. Collects all kinds of books. Lives and works in Katowice.

Website: http://dobrusiaruranska.blogspot.com

The stamp is very nice.

 I have written about this stamp before but I can't remember where, so here is a bit of info:

Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz Warsaw, 14 December 1911 – Athens, 4 January 1943) was a Polish-Greek athlete who fought as a saboteur in the Greek Resistance during World War II and was executed by the Germans. Read more here.

The card was sent to me by Alina who lives in Gdansk. She has added round stickers with constellations on them. Cute.

So this part I had written a day before. Fast forward to today (Thursday):

I will keep this short but hubby took a turn for the worst in the night and I took him to the emergency department of the local hospital, where they did several tests. Then decided to send him to the big teaching hospital in Granada in a ambulance. He’s a bit better this evening. He is in The observation part of the emergency department. I’ve checked into a hotel opposite the hospital. So I have no funnies for you as they are all on my PC.

Our driver.

It is about an hour’s drive to Granada.

Hubby being settled on the stretcher.

I have since checked into a simple hotel, opposite the hospital:

The good news is that hubby is feeling much better, the urgency has passed. So that is my smile for today!

I will link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time to share my smile with all you other ladies.

Have a great weekend all!

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca