A Postcard A Day - Friday 20 September 2019 - Friday Smiles A hotel, hailstones and a tasteful nude

Hello lovely ladies! Here we are again almost at the end of another week.

Today it's about sharing smiles  and the first one is my postcard from the USA.  It is the Cavalier Hotel at Virginia Beach (Virginia).

 It reads: Established 1927 - Reimagined 2018. I don't know what 'reimagined' is but I assume they have refurbished and modernized. The sender of this card has taken her family there on holiday. They loved it because of the 'chef's garden'. (Does that mean the food is home-grown?)

The stamps were really beautiful too. There is a Tiffany lamp and a Chippendale chair. Then there are some lush cactus flowers. 

The next card comes from Germany. It is a very artistic nude by photographer Gordon Thye. He made a whole book of nudes and portraits, but I have not been able to find out anything about this man.

 The stamps are lovely. There is one of Pina Bausch. I had to look her up as I hadn't heard of her. 

Philippine "Pina" Bausch (27 July 1940 – 30 June 2009) was a German dancer and choreographer who, with a blend of movement, sound, and prominent stage sets, and with performers during the development of a piece (a style now known as Tanztheater), became an influence in the field of modern dance from the 1970s on.

We continue to have very erratic weather. After a few nice days, all of a sudden out of nowhere there was this hail storm! I was sitting in the sun outside when a few raindrops fell, so i went in and drew up the sunshade. Just as well I did as a minute late I heard these enormously loud bangs. It was hail falling on the patio table (which is glass!). This was the size:

 It only lasted 10 minutes and this photo was taken afterwards, before it all melted again.
Our car was under the carport so didn't get damaged, but cars and crops were damaged. I can't begin to think what it did to the grapes which are just about ready to be harvested here.

 The next day I walked through the little park where I saw the council workers busy clearing up. A lot of tree leaves and debris was on the floor.

 .They had already done half of it

The next day we were back having our meals outside.

This weekend our fast ends and we are planning a weekend away on the coast (locally). We are going to suss out a camp site to take the grandchildren next summer. It must have a shallow pool and it must be fenced (so they can't 'escape').

So more photos next week.
I am now going to link up with Annie (She should be back now) at A Stitch In Time and with Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday.
As usual there are a few funnies at the end. Wedding funnies again.
Have a great weekend,
and keep smiling!
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 17 September 2019 - T for storms, swimming pools and dates

Good morning lovely people! Let's join the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. Link up with a blog with a beverage in it. My beverage this morning will be shown a bit further down.

You might have seen it on the news but Spain has had some atrocious weather lately. Thunderstorms and much rain. We welcome the rain as it hasn't rained for many months, but these were torrential rains and they did a lot of damage. Many places on the east and south coast are flooded. We are higher up but still, walking down the lane from our house we saw this:

 It's not a proper house. It's more like a shed. This elderly chappie kept his chickens and tools there.

 The photos were taken by our neighbour Martin Rawlings.

Our house is fine. (apart from a few damp patches on the ceiling. Hubby is investigating.) 

My postcard today is one from the USA. It is a 1976 photo by photographer Martine Franck entitled Le Brusc, France. To mark the fortieth anniversary of paid vacations in France, Martine Franck was commissioned in 1976 to do a survey of the French 'en vacances'. The Pool,in the town of Le Brusc. Provence, is designed by Alain Capeilleres. 

Martine Franck was a British-Belgian documentary and portrait photographer. She was a member of Magnum Photos for over 32 years.

I managed to find some images of that particular pool (It still exists).

The white oasis pool was designed by Alain Capeillères for his summer home hidden in the hills of Six-Fours-les-Plages (Le Brusc). 

 The stamps are really stunning too. 

The person that sent me the card, lives in central Alabama, and he managed to add a stamp of Alabama. The American Toleware coffeepot is my qualifier for the T-Party.

We are still on our Daniel Fast, and are eating vegan without refined sugar, coffee, alcohol,  and without yeast. I have had to be a bit imaginative with my meals, but thanks to the internet I have cooked some really great meals, which will definitely stay in my repertoire even after the fast.

Here is a photo of a cauliflower steak that I made the other night, served with some leftover stew from a couple of nights before. It was very nice.

Hubby misses his sweet things and as he is doing hard physical work, he also needs more energy. Last Tuesday at the market I bought a kilo of fresh dates. They are so good! So hubby can snack on fresh dates.

I'll leave it at that. 
Happy T-Day to all,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 13 September 2019 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies, How are you today? Feeling OK? Have you had many smiles this week?

I smile every time the postman brings me some postcards. This week I received this one:

It's from Russia, from the Kola peninsula. It features a Russian dish with the recipe on the back. I don't usually show the written side of the card, but I am making an exception today as the recipe is on the back. I hope you can read it.

 This is the stamp. It belongs to the Russian Kremlins definitives series, issued on 1st October 2009. Kremlin is the Russian word for "fortress", "citadel" or "castle" and refers to any major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities.

This one is the Vologodsky Kremlin.

What have I been up to this week? It is week two of our three week vegan eating regime, and we are still enjoying the most wonderful recipes. This week I made a vegan pesto. I chose to make this mild version. I used half basil and half parsley, and also half pine nuts and half walnuts. Nutritional yeast gives the cheesy taste.

We had it with wholemeal pasta. Delicious!

The other thing I'll show you is this hot bean chili. As we are not allowed active yeast, I made this spelt chapatti to go with the chili. Later in the week I learnt to make sweet potato rotis, much nicer and softer.

We are having some atrocious weather here at the moment. It started Monday with these two clouds in the sunset. They were unusual in that they had lightning in them. I didn't manage to capture the lightning unfortunately, but that was the start of all the bad weather.

It is raining buckets! And has done all day. The streets are like rivers . The farmers will be happy as this is the first rain we have had in six months. And the temperatures have plummeted. Normally we would still be in t-shirts, but I have had to put on my track suit and socks.

That is all today. There will be some funnies at the end as usual.

Annie is on holiday, but I will link up with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday for sure.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 10 September 2019 - T for chocolate sprinkles, blueberry pancakes and stout.

 Hello lovely ladies,
It's Tuesday and time to share a beverage to join Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T-Party. I will get to my beverage later.

First a lovely postcard I received from Halle last week. Beautiful images from Yellowstone National Park. Thank you Halle! You made my day! It arrived on Tuesday, but I had already posted my blog by then.

I love those photos from the Yellowstone National Park. Isn't it beautiful? Fascinating natural (geological) phenomena. This park is on my bucket list. I suppose Iceland is closer, but Yellowstone is definitely more beautiful. (Erika will have an opinion on this)

The stamps are great too. The forever stamps show (I think) Little Red Riding Hood. I have no idea what the significance of the star is in the 3c stamp. I have an incling that Elizabeth might know this. The 2c stamp is about Navajo jewelry. Beautiful. Halle you have spoilt me.

My second postcard of today is one that comes from the Netherlands. And from the city of Zwolle. It shows an old map of the moated city

Here is an aerial photo of the same town and you can see it hasn't changed shape.

The stamp is about 'Hagelslag', the chocolate sprinkles that the Dutch have the habit of putting on bead and butter.

 

Our eating habits have changed drastically since last week. We are doing a 21 day fast. It's called the Daniel Fast (After the Daniel in the Bible). It means eating a vegan diet, and also omitting yeast, sugar, alcohol and coffee & tea, and processed food. We started on September the first.

Here is one of our breakfasts. Pancakes made from oatmeal without yeast. Served with blueberries. We should also have used Maple Syrup, but I couldn't buy it anywhere. None of the three major supermarkets in town had it. We couldn't use honey as it is an animal product, so in the end I used a smidgen of Agave syrup. It was delicious.

I am making the most delicious meals. Hubby loves it! I didn't know eating vegan could be so nice. And we are feeling so much better on it. 

Now for my beverage reference and ticket to the T-Party:

 It is a beer (stout) called Steam Brew. I was attracted to the pretty can. And the beer itself was delicious. 

 Needless to say we had this beer before we started our fast!

Another beverage reference is this tea. It is pineapple tea (Té de piña).

I don't know what this one tastes like as we can't have it until after the 21st. But it looks (and smells) nice. I will let you know.

That's it from me today.
Happy T-Day everybody,
Hugs,
Lisca