A Postcard A Day - Friday 17 January 2025 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely peeps,

It's Friday Smiles where we share the smiles and silver linings we have experienced this week. My week has been excellent. Lots of smiles, although I must confess I usually forget to take pictures. 

Let me start with my postcard for this Friday:

It comes of course from Bremen. In the right hand corner there is a small map of Germany where you can see where Bremen is on the map. 

Bremen is an interesting city. It is a Hanseatic city A centuries old trade agreement. Click on the link if you want to know more. In modern times it means (for me at least) that the car number plates of Bremen inhabitants have HB on them (Hansestadt Bremen). 

Bottom left you see some farm animals on top of each other. They are called the Town musicians of Bremen. It tells the story of four ageing domestic animals, who after a lifetime of hard work are neglected and mistreated by their former masters. Eventually, they decide to run away and become town musicians in the city of Bremen. Contrary to the story's title the characters never arrive in Bremen, as they succeed in tricking and scaring off a band of robbers, capturing their spoils, and moving into their house. Full story here.

The stamps on the card are very cute:

The large stamp shows baby raccoons. And the smaller stamp is clearly  labelled 'phlox'.

What have I been up to? 

I've been busy in the kitchen and this week I managed for the first time to make a traditional Spanish tortilla! I made it in the pan and successfully flipped it too. I got the thumbs up from my Spanish friends.

The local photoclub, of which I am a member, organised an exhibition in the little hermitage in the village:

Someone took my picture as I was looking at the photos:

Then the local priest came to officially 'open' the exhibition. Here he is (with blue scarf and leather jacket) with the photoclub members:

That is all from me. I have some funnies though for you at the end.

Enjoy your weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 14 January 2025 - T for books

Hello lovely girls,

Here we are again on Tuesday. And as per usual I have a postcard for you. 

A postcard with a great quote: Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. The quote is from Frederick Douglass. 

I admit I had never head of this man butI enjoy going to the Internet and looking things up, so <I found out the following (from Wikipedia):

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, c. February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He became the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century.

After escaping from slavery in Maryland in 1838, Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York and gained fame for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to claims by supporters of slavery that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been enslaved. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography.

What an amazing man!

The card was sent to me by Amanda who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where air conditioning is essential (she tells me).

The stamp is my favourite orange gerbera.

Because the card is about an author, I thought I'd tell you what I have been reading lately. 

The whole month of December I was reading Tuberculosis, The Greatest Story Never Told:

It's by Frank Ryan and I found it very interesting. A fascinating book. Not only does it explore the history of the fight against tuberculosis, it brings the personalities that were instrumental in finding medications that killed the germ. This includes stories of incredible self-sacrifice and some ambition.

Then I read a book by Jeffrey Archer:

It was the first in a new series and this book introduces detective William Warwick:

William Warwick has always wanted to be a detective, and decides, much to his father's dismay, that rather than become a lawyer like his father, Sir Julian Warwick QC, and his sister Grace, he will join London's Metropolitan Police Force.

After graduating from university, William begins a career that will define his life: from his early months on the beat under the watchful eye of his first mentor, Constable Fred Yates, to his first high-stakes case as a fledgling detective in Scotland Yard's arts and antiquities squad. Investigating the theft of a priceless Rembrandt painting from the Fitzmolean Museum, he meets Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the gallery who he falls hopelessly in love with, even as Beth guards a secret of her own that she's terrified will come to light.

I found it a bit of a 'cosy' crime novel and I probably won't read any more in the series.

Now I'm reading a really nice book: Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalusia by Penelope Chetwode:

As its title indicates, it describes the solitary journey of a lady - the wife of John Betjeman, no less - on horseback around primitive Andalusia in 1963. The horse was equally middle-aged. I'm finding it utterly delightful. I know the area she travels through and life has changed so much in the last 60 years!

I haven't finished it yet, but I'm reading every opportunity I get, so I'll finish it soon. My friends have already bought it in Spanish and are also reading it.

My edition didn't have photos but I found a photo on the Internet of the writer on her horse.

Enough about books. Today is the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard so I'll share a drink with you.

It was my friend Patricia's birthday on Saturday and we went out for dinner that evening. We're drinking white wine, and the boys (her husband and their son) had beer.

That's it from me for today. 

Wishing you all a happy T-Day!

Hugs,

Lisca

 

A Postcard A Day - Friday 10 January 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls,

I haven't got much for you today but I have a postcard, some photos and the usual funnies. So here goes:

It is entitled 'A Modern Arc'. It has no further information or the name of the artist. But it looks a fun picture, almost like an illustration for a children's book.

The card comes from Germany and the stamp is are fun baby animals:

The baby mountain goat.

Talking about animals, My lovely ginger cat has settled in well. His name is Roneo, Ronnie for short. 

My friends Kim and Andy came again on Tuesday to keep me company. Here is Kim with Ronnie.

He didn't want to look up when I got my phone  out.

A day later I caught him sunnying himself:

And this time he did look up when called:

That is all for now from me.

Of course here are also some funnies for you to chuckle about. When you've done that, join me at Annie's A Stitch In Time for more smiles.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

The UK is covered by 2 feet of snow:

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 7 January 2025 - T for Lisbon

 Hello lovely peeps,

Happy New Year to all of you!

In the days in between Christmas and New Year, I went to the post office to collect my mail. Imagine my surprise when I found three postcards from Lisbon posted on the 24th of September when I was there. My friend Keren (she and her husband were with me in Lisbon) bought me the postcards and bought stamps and posted them to me so I could have them for my collection.

They all represent things we had seen with our own eyes, so a lovely memory. I'm going to show you all three. Here is the first one:

It's a blackspotted puffer fish that we saw in the aquarium of Lisbon.

Info on the back of the card:

Me outside the aquarium. They call it the Ocenário:

The second postcard was this one:

Info on the back of the card:

A Common Seadragon, which I photographed but which is difficult to spot due to its excellent camouflage:

The actual sea dragon is on the left.

The third postcard was from the Gulbenkian Museum:

We went there specifically to see the Lalique exhibition. Lalique is famous for his glass art but he also made the most beautiful jewellery. The above comb is gorgeous.

Below a couple of photos I took at the museum:

This pendant is exquisite.

This brooch shows Lalique's glass work.

The stamps on the cards also showed things we had seen:

Top one: the famous trams

Te middle one features the tiled houses:

And the last one shows a castle tower (can't remember what it was called)

But we sailed past it and I took this picture.

Lovely memories of an amazing holiday!

What have I been up to? 

I had two chickens left. One of them wasn't doing too well and  none of them was laying eggs, so I asked my cleaner, Delsis, to kill the one that wasn't doing so well and I gave the remaining one to a friend:

Skinning the poor chicken. Not much meat on her I'm afraid.

Saturday, after our Intercambio session we went to a local bar to celebrate my friend David's birthday.I had made him a pineapple upside down cake as I knew he likes those.

I took that to the bar but forgot to take photos of our drinks.

Well, here is a cafe I went to not long ago in the nearby town of Baza:

And this is what I had:

My coffee and a piece of home made carrot cake.

It is my drink for the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

There have been Three Kings festivities in my village but this post is already too long so I will feature it on Friday.

Happy T-Day,

Hugs,

Lisca