A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 3 March 2026 - T for mountains and rivers

Hello lovely peeps,

Happy Tuesday! 

It's Monday as I write this and I have just come back from a day-long hike in the mountains with a friend. But before I show you the photos, let me show you my postcard:

It comes from The Netherlands and it shows the window of a book shop where the sender, called Yvonne, buys her postcards.

The shop is called Alternote:

I would love to visit that shop!

The stamp is a special Postcrossing stamp:

Today I went for a long hike with a friend. This region is very dry and usually there is no water in the rivers, but after the latest bout of rain and storms, the rivers are flowing and the waterfalls, spectacular. There is also a lot of damage and sometimes the path was interrupted by a landslide and we had to find an alternative route, but it was a wonderful day.

We went to the source of the river Castril.

We left at 9 a.m. and it took us more than an hour to drive to the location, and by the time we had safely parked the car and started our walk it was 11:00

The river at lower level was wide and full. 

The top signpost was our route (to the source of the river).

Trees and bushes had been uprooted during the latest storm and floods.

We came across a small weir where they I think had a turbine to create electricity.

This is an image of where we walked. The red arrow is where we walked up the valley. The black arrow is where we found the river coming out of the rocks.

And here it is! I had expected a small trickle, but it is literally gushing!

On the way back we took another track which led us to a waterfall, which is part of the same river.

We got back to the car at about 3 pm and I was hungry so we decided to drive to Castril, the village named after the river, and have some lunch. 

This is a little side street in the village:

That is all for today. 

Those of you who live in wet countries, won't find the sight of a gushing river very exciting, but here in this arrid country, it is a sight for sore eyes! It was the best hike I have done in a long time. (Even though I now have sore feet and legs).

Now I have just remembered I need a drink or drink related image. I don't think the river counts (although it was very clean water).

So here is the fish dish from Saturday night when I went out with my friends:

A beer bottle is visible. That is my ticket to the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

Wishing you all a Happy T-Day!

Lisca

 

Second on the 2nd - Monday 2 March 2026 - A blogpost from 2015

 Hello lovely girls,

I'm going to show you an old blogpost from more than 10 years ago. It features the motorbike my dad had, called a Maico Mobil. (These two photos are from the Internet)

It was developed in Germany after WWII. 

I have many happy memories sitting in front of my dad.

As you can see there is a (for a child) comfortable bit to straddle between my dad's legs.

Anyway, let me show you my Second on the 2nd from 03-03-2015:

Maico Mobil 

–

Here is a blog post about the latest scrapbook page I made.

I found these awesome pictures of my parents and our beloved motorbike, the Maico Mobil, taken in 1955. 

The German factories that had been making military motorbikes during WW2, were now producing motorbikes designed for comfort. This Maico Mobil was unique in that respect and my dad loved it. He rode it for many years and I, when I was a child, would ride with him. Happy days!

This is my dad on the (then) new enclosure dam of the Zuider Zee, called the Afsluitdijk. 

This is mum posing.

I made this layout for the CSI challenge (Colors, stories and inspiration http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/  )

Their ‘Case File’ 155 had a certain color palette, a sketch and some other guidelines that I followed to make this page.

The journaling reads:

“My dad had an interesting scooter in the fifties. It was called Maico Mobil. I have happy memories as a child, sitting very comfortably on the shaft in front of my dad.  Here are some photos taken during a holiday in Germany in 1955. (Note the empty motorway!) Top right is my mum, just posing, as she was always the passenger.” 

Thank you for visiting my page,

Have a good week,

Lisca 

A Postcard A Day - Friday 27 February 2026 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps,

Short and sweet today I'm afraid. I don't have any photos and I haven't been anywhere. But I still receive postcards and that makes me smile. Look at this one:

It's a pretty doll-like girl with some wildlife on her head.  I found out it's called 'pop-manga' and is created by Camilla d'Errico.

Camilla d'Errico's Pop Manga art fuses the heart of manga with the magic of pop surrealism, creating stories on canvas and in detailed hand-drawn illustrations as well as whimsical colouring books.

As well as works of art, she has also published colouring books

stickers and postcards.

The postcard was sent to me from the USA, from San Diego to be precise. 

The stamps are Forever stamps with sail boats on them.

What have I been up to in Spain? Not much. I already wrote in my Tuesday blogpost that I had been out for the day on Saturday with my friend and we had lunch there too:

I've been to the docs because I wasn't feeling very well and had dizzy spells. Turns out I have very low blood pressure. I had my bloods done this morning and I will see the doctor again next week to hear if that has revealed anything.

My lovely cat Ronnie is very affectionate and cuddles up with me in the evenings when I relax with as book or the TV.

 I have finished my audio book Painting the Darkness by Robert Goddard:

Loved this 19th century mystery. Is the heir to the family estate really who he says he is? A twisty tale of love, lies, secrets and revenge. 

It was a long read (20 hours) but really good.

I've now started 

First in the medieval whodunnit series set in Bampton, Oxfordshire, during the plague years and featuring a newly qualified surgeon.

That is all from me today. I will find some funnies for you for extra smiles.

Have a lovely weekend,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 24 February 2026 - T for fish & chips and pizza

 Hello lovely girls,

That weekend went really fast, don't you think so?

Mine went fast because I went out on Friday as well as Saturday. But I'll tell you about that later. First my postcard which comes from the USA:

It was sent by Nicole, who lives in south Texas. The picture shows bluebonnets which is the state flower of Texas. 

I had never heard of bluebonnets so I looked in Wikipedia:

Lupinus texensis, the Texas bluebonnet or Texas lupine is a species of lupine found in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. With other related species of lupines also called bluebonnets, it is the state flower of Texas.

The stamp is very 'American':

Stars and stripes.

The weather here has improved and so has my mood, but I'm still very tired  and not quite right. I have a dental problem which I will get fixed but if I still feel that way afterwards, I will have a chat with my doctor.

My friend Antonia suggested we go for a walk on Friday afternoon, but at the appointed time she told me that her son had asked her to pick up his children and take them to the Carnival party. So instead of walking we drove to Granada (1h and 20 min) to pick up the children. I had my photo taken in the garden as the view from their house is amazing:

The mountains are the original Sierra Nevada. Still full of snow.

On Friday evening my friends David and Patricia invited me to eat a pizza at a local place that does really good Italian pizzas. I was surprised when three people entered the restaurant. They had met their new neighbour and had invited her along too. How lovely. She is a very nice lady from Barcelona.

We had a few dishes to start with and then ordered two pizzas between the four of us. I really enjoyed the evening.

On Saturday morning, my neighbour Dian and I went to a town called Albox, about and hour and a quarter towards the coast. There are a lot of Brits (and a lot of Dutch too I have discovered) so there are shops with British groceries and charity shops (which are thrift shops, which the Spanish don't have). I had packed two Ikea bags full of clothes and the last of my late husband's suits. And several jigsaw puzzles that I had finished. So I had plenty to donate. Dian wanted to go to the market where she can buy eco veggies and then we went for lunch. I love to eat fish & chips and in a community with lots of Brits, there is a fish and chips restaurant of course;

I had a large cod with chips and mushy peas. I don't like chips, so Dian had all mine, and she was happy to have a sandwich. My drink is a draught cider. (As Dian was driving I could have a drink).

We found a place in the shade and I enjoyed my fish no end!

Yesterday afternoon I went to the dentist to have my teeth professionally cleaned. I don't like going to the dentist (who does?) and I confess I was a nervous wreck. But he had promised me to give me local anaesthetic so it didn't hurt at all. He discovered a rather deep cavity in one of my teeth, so I have to go back next week to have that treated. Yuck.

That is all for now. I shall be joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth for the T-Party. Several of my photos have drinks in them so I do qualify.

Happy T-Day everybody!

Lisca

 

A Postcard A Day - Friday 20 February 2026 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps, Today is Friday, when I look back on the past week and remember the smiles and the good things.

Top of my list (for this blog at least) is the arrival of a postcard in my letterbox. Today I will show you a postcard from Japan:

It is sent to me by Kanae from Tokyo. I googled whether this name was female or male and it's mostly female, (but a famous Vtuber (male) is also called Kanae). Anyway, he/she explains that the drawing is a ukijo-e by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka. It depicts a well known geisha of the time and the famous landscape of Tokyo. 

The artist is called 'the last of the ukijoe artists'.

Wikipedia writes:

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi ( 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese printmaker.

Yoshitoshi has widely been recognized as the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock printing and painting. He is also regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. 

Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing. In a Japan that was turning away from its own past, he almost singlehandedly managed to push the traditional Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with him.

His life was summed up by John Stevenson:

Yoshitoshi's courage, vision and force of character gave ukiyo-e another generation of life, and illuminated it with one last burst of glory.

— John Stevenson, Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon,

The stamp is not spectacular, but pretty:

Sorry I didn't quite get it in focus.

What has been happening here in our village in southern Spain? Well, we had Intercambio (our English/Spanish conversation group) on Saturday. 

We always have fun, and afterwards we often go for a drink. This time we went to a different bar as most were fully booked because it was St Valentines Day. It hasn't filtered through here to a great extent (no cards etc) but couples do tend to go out that night.

I managed to also finish my jigsaw puzzle in the week:

From Monday onwards the weather was a lot better. No more gales and rain and cold.

I feel a lot better now that the sun has come out. I get quite depressed when there are long periods of greyness.

I still go to Pilates twice a week. Here is our studio, photographed before all the ladies arrive. Usually we are 5 ladies and one man.

Ronnie is doing great. The bad weather doesn't affect him. He still wants to go out onto the patio and have a sniff around, but when it rains, he sits under one of the chairs. 

Below is Ronnie sitting on the back of the settee. In the background you can see a bag of pellets ready to be put into the stove. Next to it is a special vacuum cleaner for ashes, which I use before I turn on the pellet burner.

Of course I will put some funnies at the end for you to have a smile about.

Have a lovely weekend,

Lisca