A Postcard A Day - Friday 24 January 2020 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

Here we are again with the smiles of this week. Yes, there were many.

Of course my postbox always makes me smile. Here is a card from Belgium. It is the city of Dinant in the XIXth century, painted by C.C. Stanfield.

 The stamp is beautiful. It bears the name Wouter Jan Strietman. I found out he is a marine researcher at the university of Wageningen (Netherlands) and he is known for his ecological projects like

 The Arctic Marine Litter project. There is a link if you are interested.

The second card comes from Germany, from a little island called Reichenau. I received a card from Reichenau a couple of months ago, and now I have another one. (They are not the same).

 Reichenau Island is an island in Lake Constance in southern Germany. Reichenau is connected to the mainland by a causeway, completed in 1838, which is intersected between the ruins of Schopflen Castle and the eastern end of Reichenau Island by a 10 m (33 ft)-wide and 95 m (312 ft) long waterway, the Bruckgraben. A low road bridge allows the passage of ordinary boats but not of sailing-boats.

The island was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 because of the Abbey of Reichenau. The abbey's Münster (minster church) is dedicated to the Virgin and Saint Mark. Two further churches were built on the island consecrated to Saint George and to Saints Peter and Paul. The famous artworks of Reichenau include (in the church of St George) the Ottonian murals of miracles of Christ, unique survivals from the 10th century. The abbey's bailiff was housed in a two-storey stone building to which two more storeys of timber framing were added in the 14th century, one of the oldest timber-frame buildings in south Germany.

There is a lovely Christmas stamp on the back of this card.

So, what have we been up to this week. It has been an unusual week. On Sunday morning, going to church we found a strange sight at the back of our house:

Goodness knows how that happened. Luckily the Guardia Civil (police) moved their car for us and we could get through. My smile? Nobody was hurt.

Then on Sunday night it started snowing. I posted some photos on my Tuesday blog. There was really a lot. My smile? I took a lot of photos.
All the trees were white.

 These poor palm trees are struggling under the weight of the snow.

 Our little park is completely white.

 Here is the snow plough, operated by the local fire department.

The snow on the roof was even higher than on the streets. Eventually it damaged the receptor dish so much that we lost the internet on Wednesday! (we have internet via radio signal) The engineer came to replace the dish and establish the internet only hours ago. Coincidentally my phone in broken too. It won't charge anymore. So I couldn't use that for internet either. They were a quiet couple of days. What did we no in the evening? (remember, we don't have TV). We watched a DVD:

My smile? We enjoyed it immensely. It was about the making of the film Psycho.

It's past midnight, so I shall go to bed. 
Of course there will be a few funnies at the end. Not many as I haven't much time. I need to go to bed.
Have a lovely weekend,
And... keep smiling,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 21 January 2020 - T for snow and sushi

Hello lovely ladies, 

Another week has passed ever so quickly!

So without delay I will show you my postcards.

The first one comes from Belgium. It shows a painting by Camille Corot (1796-1875). The work is called A Girl Reading (1845).

The stamp is amazing! What is Belgium famous for? Of course, it is chocolate! They couldn't have chosen a better stamp!

My mouth is watering as we are on a detox sort of diet and I really fancy chocolate....

 The second card comes from Malaysia. 

 Genting Highlands is a high-altitude hill resort in Malaysia, situated in the Titiwangsa Mountains northeast of Kuala Lumpur. Developed since the 1960s, the site comprises hotels, a shopping mall, restaurants and the Casino de Genting. Its Chin Swee Caves Temple sits on forested acreage with mountain views. Genting Skyway, a cable car, connects the resort with the plateau town Gohtong Jaya.
Here are two images from the Internet:

The stamp is beautiful. It has a lovely yellow hibiscus on it. Wilayah Persekutuan means 'Federal Territories'.
The federal territories in Malaysia comprise three territories: Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, governed directly by the federal government of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital of Malaysia, Putrajaya is the administrative capital, and Labuan is an offshore international financial centre. Wikipedia

So, what is happening here in sunny Spain? Well, it's not so sunny at the mo. It started snowing last night and this morning we woke up to this: (It is our back door)

 We went for a walk and saw much devastation. You guys in Minnesota and in Canada are used to this sort of thing but here it's more unusual. 
We went for a walk to the little park behind our house. A tree branch had broken off:

 A bit further down in the village, a whole tree had fallen and was blocking the entrance to the village: (My friend Jose Ramon Samaniego made the following two photos):

 When we got down ourselves, they had cut most of it already.

This was our terrace this morning (Monday):

 And some fun selfies during our walk. Had to get the palm trees in for our host Elizabeth.

 It was still snowing lightly, that's why we are well wrapped up. It isn't really cold.

As today is T for Tuesday, I need a qualifier. I know that any drink or drink reference is allowed. Let me take you back to our recent trip. 

When we flew back into Spain, we arrived at Alicante airport. We got a hotel just outside Alicante, near the airport in Elche. That evening we went out for dinner and we decided to go oriental. Here is hubby with a glass of red wine and his spring roll. I had sushi.

One of my sushi thingies:

The interior of the restaurant. It was very quiet being Monday night.

A few more sushi. It was more than I could eat really, but I managed it!

That is it from me today. I wish you all a very happy T-Day!
Hugs,
Lisca 

A Postcard A Day - Friday 17 January 2020 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely people,

It's Friday again and I would like to share with you some smiles from this week plus some funnies from the Internet at the end.

First off are two postcards. I haven't had the chance to send any yet so I haven't received any either. These cards I received in December before we went to Holland.

The first one comes from the Philipines. It is a turtle (I love turtles)

 On the back it has some info: PAWIKAN (This means turtle in their language). Hawksbill Turtle: This animal is found in all tropic seas. It has become quite rare in Philipine waters. To distinguish this turtle from the Green Sea turtle, one need only to compare their shells. A number of sea turtle protection programs exist.

 The stamps are lovely. The sender is Cabbie Lopez from Manilla, and he/she hopes I will like the stamps too. Well, I do!

The second card comes from Russia. It shows some of the beautiful windows in the old wooden houses of Russia.

It was sent to me by Olga from western Siberia. She works in a science library and her hobby is baking bread.

The stamp is gorgeous. I have not been able to find any info in spite of the fact that it reads Orlik. I found that there are several places in Russia called Orlik, but not berries or plants/shrubs. Oh well....

Another smile is for our new chairs. We had ordered them before we left and we thought we'd have them delivered before we traveled. But alas, I got a phone call one of the first days we were in Holland that they were planning on delivering. I told her of course it would have to wait until we got back.

 They are recliners made from a soft suede like material. To be cleaned with a baby wipe.  You can see how comfortable they are as hubby has promptly fallen asleep!

We do a detox/fast/diet twice a year. Only vegetables and beans, lentils etc. Vegan, no sugars, only water or herbal tea to drink, no white rice or white flour or processed foods, no yeast. 

I saw a recipe for vegan meatballs (Here's the link to the recipe)the other day. 

 Made from chick peas and nuts (amongst other things). Also nutritional yeast (not active) to emulate cheese. In stead of the egg to bind, I use ground flax seed with water made into a little globby liquid. It works well.

 I served them with buckwheat noodles (Soba) with a simple tomato sauce. Very nice.

I think I'll call it a day. I will link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time and with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Hugs,

Lisca