A Postcard A Day - Friday 18 September 2026 - Friday Smiles and Face Off

Hello lovely girls!

I have a lovely postcard for you today, with some gorgeous stamps. Further along I will show you some photos of a bring-and-share lunch we had at a friend's pool house. I will also talk about three books that I read this summer. And at the end there will be some funnies.

I will also try to find faces for the Face-Off.

But first the postcard:

It comes from China and it was sent (through Postcrossing) by Jiahiang. He writes (in Spanish) that what you see on the card is a traditional Chinese paper cutting and it represents fishing and hunting by early human beings.

The stamps are impressive:

The first stamp, "Century-Old Bank of China," features the historic former Bank of China building at 3 Hankou Road, Shanghai, built during the Republic of China era.

The left side of the design incorporates the original 1912 announcement of the Bank of China's establishment, while the right side features an early Nanjing banknote issued by the Bank of China, tracing the origins of the bank and commemorating its century-long financial legacy, representing the beginnings of modern Chinese finance.

It was issued in 2012 commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Bank of China.

The building still exists:

This stamp from 2008 celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Founding of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

 The above two stamps (from the same series) were issued in 1998 and feature Shennongjia.

Shennongjia consists of a group of mountains and hills in the western part of Hubei Province and between the Yangtze River and the Hanshui River. Shennongjia is famous for its high mountains.

I couldn't find info on the stamp on the left, but I'm pretty sure I recognise the 

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park: 

Located in Hunan Province, over 3,000 towering quartzite sandstone pillars rise through the mist. This dramatic landscape inspired the floating Hallelujah Mountains in the movie Avatar. 

Now for some faces for Nicole's Face Off:

We had a bring-and-share lunch (and Bible study) last Saturday. You can see rosé wine, orange juice and Aquarius, as well as bottled water .

The food was excellent as you can see on the above photo.

I had lots of different things on my plate. I had already started eating when I remembered to take a picture.

Now for my books. Earlier this year I read The Frozen River:

It's a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who investigates a shocking murder that unhinges her small community.

It is set in Maine in 1789 and the protagonist is a midwife. Oh I loved this plucky woman! She is intelligent and wise but the villagers don't see her like that. She is 'just a woman'. She boldly gives her opinion about the dead body that was found in the frozen river. I also loved her sweet relationship with her husband. Although the book is based on a real diary, the story around it is imagined as the real diary only mentions the births and deaths. It gives an interesting  insight about how people lived in that era.

I gave it 5 stars (couldn't put it down).

The next book is another Robert Goddard thriller. 

It is set in 1923 and the protagonist is a rather flawed character who 20 years earlier betrayed the love of his life and has regretted that ever since. When he reads in a newspaper article that she is being held on suspicion of murder, he decides he needs to help her and the story/mystery unfolds. Like other Robert Goddard books there are so many plot twists and turns. I listened to this as an audio book and I was listening to it everywhere. I went shopping with earphones in! Unputdownable!

Needless to say I loved it and gave it 5 stars.

Next up is The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson:

The blurb reads: Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red’s care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique.

That sounded quite exciting and just the sort of book I like. Add to that, that it's set in Bath (I used to live just outside Bath and know it well) so I though I would love it.

The plot was convoluted and had too many characters to keep track of and remember who was related to whom. It was confusing and I was bored with it. It was 20 hours of audio and it felt never ending. I didn't finish it but searched online just to know how the story ended.

2 stars.

If you've made it this far you will be rewarded with some funnies at the end.

Have a great weekend,

Lisca

 

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 15 September 2026 - T for Sweden, Cascamorras and bookreviews

Hello lovely girls,

Today I'm showing you a postcard from Sweden, some photos of my Saturday outing and my cat Ronnie. There will also be three book reviews. I'm doing a few every blog post as I have read so much over the summer.

First off is my postcard:

It was sent to me through Postcrossing by Ann-Catrin who lives in Germany but had just come back from a holiday in Sweden (hence the card).

Smaland is a province in southern Sweden.

The name Småland literally means "small lands", referring to many small historic provinces from which it was composed.  In terms of total area, Småland is similar in size to Belgium.

The Swedish tourist office writes about Smaland:

With a rich culture, pristine nature and a proud culinary tradition – also the birthplace of IKEA and famed children’s book author Astrid Lindgren – Småland is as Swedish as it gets.

A visit to Småland takes you to a region of dense old-growth forests, sparkling lakes, quaint red cottages and vibrant green meadows. It perfectly balances nature and culture, with over 5,000 lakes and rivers, 200 kilometres of coastline, 400 nature reserves and several cities offering world-class dining and cutting-edge art scenes.

Lingonberries were such a profitable export during the 19th century, they were known as ‘red gold’.

The famous saying ‘inte för allt smör i Småland’ (not for all the butter in Småland) is similar in meaning to the English phrase ‘not for all the tea in China’. It comes from Småland’s history as a lead butter exporter (a valuable commodity) during the Middle Ages.

Famed scientist Carl Linnaeus, known as the ‘father of modern taxonomy’, was born in Råshult, Småland.

It looks really pretty. I have never been to Sweden. Have anyone of you been?

The stamps on the card are German, as Ann-Catrin sent the card after she got home:

Of course I love the stamp with the cat and it is from the series of favorite pets. Deutsche Post (the German postal service) writes:

This stamp issue 02 February 2023 with value 100 ct (euro cent) from series "Popular Pets"

According to estimates, 34.7 million pets live in Germany. Or, to put it another way: almost half of all German households have at least one pet. And that doesn't even include ornamental fish and terrarium animals. This amazing number and the fact that many people maintain an intimate relationship with their four-legged, feathered, swimming or terrarium-kept housemates and often regard them as family members is taken up in the new special postage stamp series "Beloved Pets". In the future, the animals that are most commonly found in apartments, houses and gardens will be presented here.

The first stamp shows a cat - with around 16.7 million copies, the house tiger is the undisputed number one in the popularity list in this country. In fact, velvet paws have always fascinated man and as a result left numerous traces in mythology, in the visual arts, in film and in literature. Since 2002, August 8th has also been recognized as International Cat Day.

What have I been doing here in Spain this week? I've had a quiet relaxing week. The temperatures have dropped a bit and it is pleasantly warm. Really nice.

I have been watching the tv quite a bit. The famous proms concerts are always great to watch. I also watched the Marlow Murder club

On Saturday I went out with my friends. They took me to the Cascamorras monument:

Cascamorras is a festival that is celebrated in Baza (my local town) and Guadix (near where I used to live), so I know both stories. I found a website that explains the origins of this 'happening' with two videos. The second one is the best and has English subtitles.

The views from up there are spectacular:

We then drove back into town and had something to eat at the fair, which was still going on. One of the dishes was artichokes. They were rather yummy:

My friend has a bottle of beer in his hand, so this is my entry to the T-Party hosted by Elisabeth and Bluebeard.

This is how Ronnie spends his evenings. Well, that's what he would like:

Last but not least I have some book reviews for you:

I am a great fan of Robert Harris who writes excellent historical novels. I was rather disappointed with this one. It covers a time in English history (1660) I knew nothing about (I'm not English) but from the book I learnt that there was a bitter civil war between the royalists and the parliamentarians. Both parties believed that God was on their side. The parliamentarians came to power and executed the king. Later the Parliamentarians lose power again and the hunt begins for the men that signed the King's death warrant.

The book focuses on the lives  in exile of two of the regicides, Goffe and Edward Whalley. In 1660, they fled to America, where many of the colonists were Puritans with no love for the king. Both men were distinguished soldiers. Whalley was Oliver Cromwell's cousin, a trusted member of the Lord Protector’s inner circle, and Goffe was Whalley’s son-in-law.

Although Harris pictures 17th century life very well and I learnt a lot about that period in history and about the Puritans in America, I found the book rather tedious. Nothing much happens. What he writes about Whalley and Goffe is pure fiction as nobody really knows what happened to these men while in America.  The ending was rather fairy tale-ish. (They rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after) No, certainly not Robert Harris' best.

3 stars

The Whisper of the Moon Moth by Lindsay Jayne Ashford. 

It delves into the life of Merle Oberon at the beginning of her movie career in the 1930's as she struggled to hide her Anglo-Indian heritage. The book is largely fictional but the fact that Estelle Thompson, Merle's real name, grew up in Calcutta as a girl of mixed race is true. She is unfortunately shunned by both English and Indian society. Her dream is to be a movie actress, and she does manage to get  a screen test, which she passes and she gets offered roles in films. To get to the top, she must keep her Indian heritage concealed. And that is what the rest of the book is about. Her romantic life is mostly fictionalised. At the end of the book the author writes an epilogue about what is historical and what is fiction. 

I have never seen a film with Merle Oberon in it but I really enjoyed this book. I gave it 4 stars.

The Rock - Robert Daws

The Rock is the first book in a new (to me) series of murder mysteries and I probably got it for free or greatly discounted as a 'carrot' to buy the rest of the series.The author is an English TV and film actor.  

This book is not very long. It's more like a novella and introduces the main characters: Tamara Sullivan, on secondment to Gibraltar from the Met in London, and CI Gus Broderick of the Gibraltar police. 

 Gibraltar is a city and a rock. 

It is a British enclave in southern Spain and as such not that far from where I live. 

It interested me. I was not disappointed. 

I found a good murder story and a promising duo trying to solve the murder. I will definitely read more of this series.

4 Stars.

If you have read any of these, please let me know what you thought of these books.

That is all from me today,

Happy T-Day to all,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 11 September - Friday Smiles and Face Off

 Hello lovely peeps,

Today I have another postcard, and something about my life here in Spain, and also some more book reviews. Then at the end there will be some funnies. So, a very full blogpost today.

My postcard today comes from Finland:

It is illustrated by Inge Löök and features the famous 'Aunties'. It was sent by Tiina.

As today is about smiles, I hope this made you smile.

The stamp is cute:

It was released as part of a series of Friendship stamps in 2022 for Valentine's Day:

This postcard came to me through Postcrossing and Tiina writes this:

Another thing that made me smile is this:

It is my lovely Ronnie sleeping in a most awkward position. Upright against the back of the settee. It looks very uncomfortable, but he slept like that for a long while.

So here as promised three more book reviews:

The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.

I started reading this because I will be visiting Auschwitz later this month. I enjoyed it very much. It wasn't until later I saw that the reviews are not so good.They say it was simplistically written or that it was historically incorrect. I didn't think it was simplistically written and Heather Morris spent three years talking to the protagonist, whose story it is, so I suppose she just wrote about his memories rather than a historically correct account. He (the protagonist) is called Lale and he is a prisoner. He has been assigned the job of tattooist in the concentration camp. He has to tattoo every newcomer with a number. With his job come a few perks, which he uses to help other people. He meets the love of his life Gita there and they promise each other that they will survive this.  At the end of the book there is an author's note which tells me they did survive and get married.

I loved it, although the circumstances are sad. Lale is such a positive soul and I was rooting for him.

I gave it 5 stars.

Then I have just finished Caro Ramsey's Absolution. I really struggled with that one. It is a Scottish police procedural thriller. But the DCI wasn't very likeable. He was a barely functioning alcoholic with a psychological obsession which surfaced every now and then. Then there seemed to be two convoluted plots going on at the same time and I 'lost the plot' many times. I was glad I finished the book as I didn't enjoy it.

I gave it two stars.

The third book, simply called Frankie, is by Graham Norton. The Brits among you will know Graham Norton as a camp Irish talk show host, presenter (Euro songfestival), columnist, author and what not else. I had never read any of his books but I came across this and thought I'd give it a go. It was a very pleasant surprised. 

Frankie is an elderly, but very independent, Irish lady who broke her ankle. Her best friend Nor hires a young male carer called Damian. Frankie doesn't want his help but when she finds out they both come from the same area in Ireland she relents and she eventually tells him her life story. She has had an interesting life and moved in the 'art scene' in Ireland, New York and London.(The more intimate episodes from her life are shared with her friend Nor.)  The story was witty but also profound and it moved me.(you might need a tissue) Once I had started this book, I didn't want to stop reading. In hindsight I would have loved the audio version of this book as I saw it is narrated by Graham Norton himself (with his Irish lilt).

Again a 5 star rating.

Another thing that makes me smile is the fact that it is raining here! It hasn't rained for months! And it is pouring with rain. Heavy drops making a lot of noise on my patio. Flashes of lightning too as it is a thunder storm.

There are faces for Face Off on the postcard and on the stamps. And there are funnies for Friday Smiles at the end.

Happy days!

That is all from me today,

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisca

And this one is not a funny but I liked what the restaurant owner wrote (and it made me smile):