A Postcard A Day - Friday 19 April 2024 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely ladies, how are you all?  Because this blog is about the smiles of this week,  Annie didn't feel she wanted to post a blog last week. She had had some sad news. I hope you are alright Annie.

I have had a dear friend from England stay with me for a week and we have had a lovely time. More about that later. First off my postcard, which arrived today:

It comes from Russia and it shows soviet president Khrushchev visiting Hollywood in 1959, talking to Shirley Maclain. (I can spot a young Frank Sinatra on the far right.)

I found some info on Wikipedia:

Earlier in 1959, Vice President Richard Nixon visited the Soviet Union, attending a tour of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. He and Khrushchev took part in what later became known as the Kitchen Debate, in which both Nixon and Khrushchev defended their country's respective economic systems. 

In early August of that year, it was announced by President Dwight Eisenhower that Khrushchev was invited to visit the United States, and did so that September, spending thirteen days in the country.

Nina Khrushchev, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the White House

The Soviet premier constantly touted Soviet superiority to L.A. during his tour of the city. And on the fifth day, the cantankerous communist visited Hollywood. There, things only got weirder.

Twentieth Century Fox had invited Khrushchev to watch the filming of Can-Can, a risqué Broadway musical set among the dance hall girls of fin de siècle Paris, and he had accepted. It was an astounding feat: a Hollywood studio had persuaded the communist dictator of the world's largest nation to appear in a shameless publicity stunt for a second-rate musical.

Notable American actors such as Gary Cooper, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe met Khrushchev. Although Khrushchev was supposed to visit Disneyland on 19 September, the visit was canceled for security reasons, which added to his anger.

While visiting a new research campus for the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in San Jose, Khrushchev seemed to express little interest in the computer technology, but rather the self-service cafeteria, which he introduced in the USSR upon return to Moscow.

The stamps are large and beautiful:

I used Google Translate to figure out what the large stamp represents. As you can see, it translates as Academic song and dance ensemble of the national guards of the Russian Federation 50 years.

The Rosgvardia Academic Song and Dance Ensemble, formerly known as the MVD Ensemble, is an official academic ensemble of the National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardia) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (Russian MVD). Established in 1939, the ensemble carries on the tradition of choirs and ballets of the Soviet Red Army, with singers, musicians and dancers.

Since the 1980s, The Ensemble MVD has performed on all continents after modernizing their repertoire. Ensemble MVD has realized more than seven thousand performances in several languages, and more than 20 million viewers worldwide. In this way, Ensemble MVD met Pope John Paul II in Rome, or opening the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

The smaller stamp features a tram:

It's a stamp from 2022.

Let me show you a few photos from when my friend was here.

I went to the fish monger to buy some fish.

So much fresh fish!

I usually stick to large fish like cod or swordfish or salmon.

I don't really know how to cook those little ones. Besides, I'm always afraid of bones.

We went to a restaurant to have lunch and in the display cabinet of gifts, there were these black dolls. 

My friend has close ties with Uganda having been involved in an orphanage and school there for 27 years, so she wanted to buy some dolls. No, she didn't buy them all. In the end she took home two of them. Aren't they gorgeous.

Here we are posing in the 'campo', with my village (and my house) visible in the background. 

That is it from me today. Of course I will put some funnies at the end for you to have some extra smiles.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 16 April 2024 - T for churros, cathedral and reservoirHello lovely gir

 Hello lovely girls,

Here we are again on Tuesday. The week just flies by, especially when I'm busy and enjoying myself. And enjoying myself I am this week as my friend Rhona from the UK is visiting. We have been friends for at least 40 years.  I can't really remember when we actually met. I'm showing her around as she has never been in this area.

Let me first show you my postcard:

It's from North Carolina (obviously). Sent to me by Amy, who lives in Asheville on he eastern side of the state. She is a school librarian.

On the card you can see a cardinal (for you Elizabeth) and the state flower: dogwood. Then the structure on the bottom of the picture reads: Mount Mitchell, highest peak east of the Mississippi river. The little flower is the Venus fly trap. And the ship is battleship North Carolina. The sailing ship is called Elizabeth II. The lighthouse on the right is  Cape Hatteras and top right there is a monument which is the Wright brothers national monument.

I vaguely remember reading about the Wright Brothers so I looked it up in Wikipedia:

Wright Brothers National Memorial, located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, commemorates the first successful, sustained, powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine.

 From 1900 to 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright came here from Dayton, Ohio, based on information from the U.S. Weather Bureau about the area's steady winds. 

They also valued the privacy provided by this location, which in the early twentieth century was remote from major population centers.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse received the famous black and white stripe daymark pattern in 1873. 

The Lighthouse Board assigned each lighthouse a distinctive paint pattern (daymark) and light sequence (nightmark) to allow mariners to recognize it from all others during the day and night as they sailed along the coast.

The stamp is a Forever stamp with the sempervivum succulent on it.

Now let me tell you what I've been up to. As I said, my friend Rhona is staying with me and I have been showing her around. Today (Monday), we went to a town called Guadix, about 47 km away from here and we had 'churros' for breakfast:

Churros is extruded batter, which are then deep fried. We get them warm and crispy on our plate with a cup of thick warm chocolate sauce (left on the photo). 

The idea is to dip the churros in the warm chocolate. Yummy!

The coffee and the chocolate will be my qualifiers for the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

Then we walked through the town to the cathedral:

We didn't go in as it was quite expensive to go in.

Rhona also likes windows and doors, but this door was so enormous that she posed in front of it to show how huge it was.

This is a square at the end of which is the town hall. (Palm trees for Elizabeth).

I think I'll leave it at that for today,

Happy T-Day all!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 12 April 2024 - Friday Smiles

 Hello my lovelies,

I'm back home again after a week on the coast. My daughter and I have had a lovely relaxing time. 

Let me show you my postcard:

It shows Glastonbury Tor.

Overlooking the Isle of Avalon, Glastonbury and Somerset, this iconic hill has been a spiritual magnet for centuries.

Standing 521 feet above sea level, the famous Glastonbury Tor is capped by the massive tower- all that is left of the former St. Michael’s Church.

Built in the 14th century and restored in 1804, this is a three-storeyed parapeted tower that formed the west end of the church (the outline of the nave gable can be clearly seen on the east wall). The tower has many features of architectural interest including representations of St. Michael and St. Bridget and a carved figure of a priest. 

The tower is unroofed and empty, but recent excavations of the hill have laid bare traces of a former Norman Church, of a mediaeval priest’s house and a Saxon Church. A round headed Saxon cross was found as evidence of a hill fort of Arthurian times. Scattered finds from the Tor suggest that man may have even been making use of the hill from remote prehistoric times.

The stamps are amazing:

On the right is a stamp celebrating 75 years of the arrival of the Windrush immigrants. 

A special collection of stamps has been issued to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the hundreds of passengers from the Caribbean to the UK on the Empire Windrush.

Eight Royal Mail stamps featuring original artworks by Black British artists were commissioned to celebrate the occasion, which will be revealed at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton on Thursday.

 The ship arrived at the Port of Tilbury, in Essex, on 21 June 1948, and its passengers disembarked a day later.

It carried 492 West Indian migrants, many of whom came to the UK, alongside people from other parts of the Commonwealth, to help in Britain’s postwar economic recovery. Many of those who came to the UK had served in the British armed forces in the second world war.

The middle and left hand stamp are part of a series of eight stamps:

 Eight stamps depict scenes of celebration by service personnel and civilians when news of the conflict’s end was announced, and the subsequent return of personnel from overseas and children who were evacuated

Originally shot in black and white, all eight images have been brought to life in colour for the first time by colourist, Royston Leonard

Now a few photos of my holiday:

The hotel was basic but very comfortable. We had a litle balcony with table and chairs, where we would sit in the evenings.

On Sunday we went to a local Anglican church:

Lovely service. We both enjoyed it. 

Then in the afternoon we met up with Kate and her husband Chris, who live in the area.

We walked along the boulevard

We saw beautiful exotic plants and trees.

and she took us to a beautiful lagoon.

Of course we had to pose together for this blog page.

My daughter likes ice cream very much and often ordered a whole plate of it!

Today is Friday smiles and you can see I have had a lot to smile about. I'm going to share with Annie at A Stitch In Time. Of course I will post some funnies at the end as per usual.

Have a lovely weekend all of you.

Hugs,

Lisca