A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 13 January 2026 - T for Andalusia, white wine and tapa

 Hello lovely peeps,

I forgot to photograph a postcard and as I can't photograph them at night under the lamp (too much glare), I am showing a card that I have sent rather than received, as it was already on my computer:

It's a fun map of my region Andalucia. If you look closely, you'll be able to distinguish 8 provinces: Huelva, Sevilla, Cádiz, Málaga, Córdoba, Jaen, Granada, Almería.

Google writes: Andalusia is a large autonomous region of hills, rivers and farmland bordering Spain’s southern coast. It was under Moorish rule from the 8th-15th centuries, a legacy that shows in its architecture, including such landmarks as the Alcázar castle in Seville, the capital city, as well as Córdoba’s Mezquita Mosque-Cathedral and Granada’s Alhambra palace. ― Google Capital: Seville Area: 87,597 km² .

I live in the Granada province which is a large stretched out province. I live under the feet of the flamenco dancer on the map, near the border with Almería. Granada is known (apart from the Alhambra) for its Sierra Nevada mountains and ski resort. The southern most ski pistes in Europe.

My week has been pretty uneventful. I have started my usual activities again, like Pilates twice a week and Gym, also twice a week. I've also had a haircut:

We've also started Intercambio (Spanish/English conversation group) again. But for one reason or another (there is some flu etc going round) only Jayne and I turned up. So I suggested to Jayne we go out for a drink:

Jayne had to drive so she had a non-alcoholic beer and I had my white wine. Of course we got a free 'tapa', a little snack, with our drink:

It was a slice of bread with a few slices of cured ham and some olives. It was really nice ham. 

As today is the T-Party, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard, this glass of wine can be my 'ticket' to the party.

That is all from me today. Short and sweet as they say.

Happy T-Day all,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 9 January 2026 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely ladies,

Happy Friday to you! I hope to make you smile today. I have some funnies lined up and my postcard might make you smile too:

It comes to me from France and is entitled: Défilé de maillots de bain (bathing costume show). It made me smile. There is no information or date about this photo but I guess it dates from just before WWII. The costumes are all knitted! They did not have the synthetic materials we have now. I like the fact that the models look like 'real women'. I mean, they are not anorexic or extremely skinny like today's models. They look like a nice bunch of girls having fun! Each bathing suit has the same logo, so it might be a show of a particular make of bathing suit. Who knows...

The stamp is interesting:

On the side it reads: Pavillon France Expo 2025 Osaka.

Maria-Christina Florian writes:

French architecture studio Coldefy and Italian architecture practice CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati have completed the 'Theatre of Life,' the project selected as France's national pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025, and welcomes visitors until 13 October. 

The pavilion welcomes both natural and artificial habitats, aiming to illustrate how design can connect human and non-human worlds while showcasing France's contribution to culture and the natural environment. In the exhibition, the visitors are invited to explore France's multiple ecosystems and rediscover a connection to nature.

What has been happening here in my Spanish village? Nothing much. We have had such terrible weather that the Three Kings parade and festivities were mostly cancelled and the 3 Kings had to 'hold court' in the sports hall.

Here is our mayoress welcoming the 'Kings'. It is the most important celebration for the children as the 'Kings' bring presents. (Spanish children don't get Christmas presents, the get Kings presents.)

Above a photo of the town hall with decorations, which are now in the process of being taken down.

The rains have finally stopped and I have been able to wash sheets (and dry them) as the sun has come out. Yesterday I did three washing machine loads back to back and it's all dry!

With all the bad weather, I have been reading a lot. At the moment I am reading:

It's about the art of story telling.

In 1627 Barbary pirates raided the coast of Iceland and abducted some 400 of its people, including 250 from a tiny island off the mainland. Among the captives sold into slavery in Algiers were the island pastor, his wife and their three children. Although the raid itself is well documented, little is known about what happened to the women and children afterwards. It was a time when women everywhere were largely silent. 

The Sealwoman's Gift is about the eternal power of storytelling to help us survive. 

Sally Magnussen is not only a writer, she is a Scottish TV presenter. Her father, Magnus Magnussen, was born in Iceland. He also was a well known Scottish TV presenter and writer. He died in 2007.

That is all from me now. I will leave you with some funnies.

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 6 January 2026 - T for blob architecture,

 Hello lovely peeps, 

Happy New Year to all of you at the T-Party! I have the first postcard for 2026 for you:

It looks like a giant sort of slug! The card comes from Austria, from the town of Graz to be precise. The building is the Kunsthaus. Wikipedia writes:

The Kunsthaus Graz, Grazer Kunsthaus, or Graz Art Museum was built as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2003 and has since become an architectural landmark in Graz, Austria. Its exhibition program specializes in contemporary art from the 1960s onwards.^[1] The museum doesn't translate its name to English but uses its German name in all its English communications.

This is what it looks like at night:

Wikipedia writes: Kunsthaus Graz was designed by Colin Fournier and Sir Peter Cook.

the Kunsthaus's design sought to be a deliberately provocative, innovate museum design by offering a less "institutional" approach to organising exhibition spaces and employs new materials and manufacturing techniques.

The other side looks like this:

Again, according to Wikipedia: The building is an example of blob architecture and has a skin made from iridescent blue acrylic panels, which also double as photovoltaic panels. Owing to its shape and its contrast to its surroundings, it is known as the "Friendly Alien".

The stamp is big and pretty:

The stamp celebrates Austria as a music country and features a cello.

What have I been doing? Nothing much. The weather has been absolutely awful so I haven't been out much.

I wrote about New Year's Eve on Friday. On Friday night I was invited to dinner by David, my former lodger and his parents. 

As today I'm joining the T-Party, it's good that i am holding my usual white wine. (And somebody else's drink is also in the picture).

One of the dishes we ordered (to share) was fried broad beans. The small inside part of the broad bean:

It was surprisingly tasty.

Then on Saturday we did Intercambio again and I photographed  one of the ladies who attends with her (visiting) son:

They posed by a Christmas lighting feature in front of the town hall.

What else have I done? I finished my jigsaw puzzle:

It is really nice one of a book shop. I enjoyed doing it.

That is all today from me. Wishing you all a happy T-Day,

Keep smiling,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 2 January 2026 - Friday Smiles and Second on the 2nd

 Hello lovely girls, Happy New Year to all!

I've had a lovely few days, full of smiles. I have HomeExchange visitors from the UK staying in my upstairs flat and they are a lovely couple.

I had made a beetroot potato salad, like I do every year:

I get on very well with the English couple and have invited them to celebrate New Year's Eve with me. That was very nice.

This post is going to double as Second on the second, and after that I will post some funnies.

The following post is from January 2015:

Happy New year everyone!

This is the potato salad I make every New Year’s Eve. (The pink colour is due to the beetroot.) We had it at midnight with a glass of champagne.

 It’s Wednesday so that means we bloghop from one desk to the next (See Julia’s blog if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

I’m sure we’ve all got hopes and expectations for the new year, even resolutions and targets. My promise to myself is that I’m going to have a go at mixed media! I’m taking the plunge and I’m going to get messy. 

I’ve joined The Original Documented Life Project™ and here on my desk is the start of my first art journal page, which is drying. The theme for January is: How to face a blank page, and the art challenge this week is: use book paper.

My whole desk looks like this:

I’m doing a scrapbook page for the CSI challenge which is due in a couple of days.

Spot the out of place item.... 

baby bottle teats. Someone (I can’t find who it was... sorry...) had written about using baby bottle teats to cap glue bottles so that they don’t dry out. I watched a video too and it looked like a brilliant idea, so I went out to buy said teats. (see photo) But I got a shock when I saw the price! 7.50 Euros! That’s more than the glue! So I won’t do that again (and I’m too shy to take them back, besides it’s half an hour’s drive into town).

Yesterday was Three Kings (Los Reyes) festival here in Spain. Important for the children as that’s when they get their presents.  Wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus. Popular legend have us believe it were three kings although this is not biblical. There are usually  parades with ‘kings’ throwing sweets to the children in the streets. In the bigger towns the parades are really spectacular, but here in our village it is all a bit more modest....

That’s it for today folks, thanks for visiting. I’ll try and visit as many as I can over the course of the week.

Lisca

And now for some funnies:

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 30 December 2025 - T for cats and Christmas

 Hello lovely peeps. Have you all had a peaceful Christmas? I will briefly tell you about mine but first I'd like to show you my postcard for today:

It is a sweet little boy and a cooked turkey. It could be Christmas, or it could be Thanksgiving. But I care to think it is Christmas as I spy some holly and berries.

The card comes to me from Siegburg in Germany.

The stamps are colourful:

The top one is froim the series: Occasions for writing. Here are two from that series:

The top one is entitled: Einladung (Invitation) and the second one Im Gedenken (In Remembrance).

The stamp with the train commemorates the 20th anniversary of German reunification. The edition references the song: "Sonderzug Pankow" or 'Special Train to Pankow'. 

The website berlin.museum-digital writes:

This song (3.01 minute long) by rock singer Udo Lindenberg, released as a single in 1983. It is based on the melody of the 1941 American classic "Chattanooga Choo Choo". The lyrics are addressed directly to the then Chairman of the State Council, Erich Honecker. Lindenberg accuses him of being a rocker at heart and secretly listening to West German radio. 

The reference to the Berlin district of Pankow in the title stems from the fact that Schönhausen Palace, located there, served as the residence of the President of the GDR from 1949 to 1960 and subsequently, until 1964, as the seat of the State Council. Until their joint relocation to the prestigious housing estate in Wandlitz, many members of the GDR government and high ranking officials from other agencies also lived in the nearby Majakowskiring. For many years, the East Berlin district of Pankow was synonymous in the West with the "Pankow Regime".

Today I'll be joining the T-Party again, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. For that I need a drink, so here is my drink:

I think that was my meal on Christmas Eve, pork shank with roast potatoes and veg. The drink is a nice rosé.

My Christmas was very quiet. No photos as I was on my own, but I had a nice meal (turkey) and watched the church service on tv (from Bradford cathedral). I opened presents that my sister had bought me. I had videocalls with several people including my son in Italy. The weather was absolutely awful, so I didn't go out either.

I had some fake candles (No real candles when there's a cat around).

And Ronnie of course had to sniff them out.

Nooo Ronnie, don't play with them!

Oh alright then, I'll just sniff.

If I'm not allowed to play with them, then

I don't really want to pose. Bye bye.

Happy New Year to all,

Lisca (and Ronnie the cat)