A Postcard A Day - Friday 6 February 2026 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps, It's Friday and let's count our blessings and remember the smiles of this week.

My first smile is always a postcard coming through my letterbox. And It was a genuine smile:

I think all you Brits of a certain age will recognise this. These ladies sitting outside a café in the sun having a cup of tea. (The lady on the left looks a lot like my grandma)

Actually the card was sent to me from Krefeld in Germany and is entitled: Coffee Break. Well, I'm sure it's a cuppa...

The girl/lady who sent it to me had used really nice stamps and has added fun stickers:

This must be my favorite German stamp, the rabbit in the series of pets.

And there were these stamps about letter writing (message in a bottle and a fish made out of stamps).

The sticker on the envelope sums up what our weather is like at the mo:

(I think it's meant to be a tortoise)

The stickers loose inside the envelope (so I can use them) are these:

So much for my postcard. What else can I tell you? You might have seen on the news that southern Spain has had disastrous weather. Storm and rain. 

We've had floods and storm damage. So far I have been spared any serious damage to my house. Only broken tiles on the terrace from falling masonry.

We have had severe weather warnings and Wednesday schools were closed and all sports facilities. Today schools are open again but the weather is just as bad.

Of course we had lots of power cuts and Internet outages. I now have Starlink (Internet provider), but the wind blows the equipment out of alignment, so most of the time there is no Internet. I love doing jigsaw puzzles and I have exhausted my pile of jigsaws and have bought as few more (Amazon):

There are two puzzles in this box. (I love Klimt).

This one is quite colourful. It's the floating market in Thailand (which I have visited in 1973).

And this one looked fun to do, lots of detail. 

I'm also reading a lot more. I've taken out a trial subscription on Audible, so I can listen to books while I do other things. Like knitting. I've finished the socks I was knitting and I've started another pair with left-over wool. I have so many left-overs. That should be really fun.

The book I'm listening to is this:

It is a follow-up to: This Is The Night They Come For You. (Which I thoroughly enjoyed). It is set in Algiers again, where Inspector Taleb still hasn't retired. Again it involves a lot of (recent) Algerian history, which I know nothing about so that is an added interesting aspect of this book.

I've been baking cakes too:

This is Jamie Oliver's pear and almond cake. (without the drizzle. I didn't do that as I didn't have an orange)

I finally went to the dentist (it took ages to get an appointment) and I'm on antibiotics, that I have to take on time and as I don't want to take them on an empty stomach, I have the perfect solution: I have a slice of cake with my tablets! I don't know what it will do to my weight though...

I think that's it for this week. Of course there will be some funnies at the end.

Have a great weekend,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 3 February 2026 - T for peacock angel, parcels and a rainbow

 Hello lovely girls, 

I'm back online! Yes, I have had no Internet since Sunday, but it came back on Wednesday (I'm writing this on Monday).

My postcard comes from Germany. It features a bookshop and a bicycle leaning against the window. It looks very Dutch I must admit. Could be Amsterdam...

But the stamps are very much German:

The stamp with the elephant who apparently is called Benjamin Blümchen (meaning: little flower), a somewhat clumsy elephant. It was issued in 2022.

Since 1977, 150 episodes of the children's radio drama series "Benjamin Blümchen" have been produced. Over the decades, 67 million audio recordings of the stories about the talking, somewhat clumsy elephant and his human friend, the boy Otto, have been sold.
"Benjamin Blümchen" is a creation of author Elfie Donnelly. An animated version began in 1987. The first film, a combination of live-action and computer animation, was released in 2019.

I found some interesting information about the peacock stamp.

Sematv.net writes about the Angel Peacock stamp:

In a significant milestone for the Yazidi community, the Yazidi symbol, known as the Tawusi Melek , has been officially recognized by the German postal system. As of January 1, 2025, the symbol will appear on postage stamps used for mail delivery across the country. This decision marks an important step in acknowledging the Yazidi faith and culture in Germany. Previously, the Yazidi post office in Wesel had already started using the symbol, and now this practice has been extended nationwide. According to official German data, the Yazidi population in the country reached 260,000 in 2023. However, Yazidi community leaders estimate the current number to be over 300,000, reflecting the growing presence of Yazidis in Germany.

AI gives this description of Yazidis:

The Yazidis are a distinct Kurdish ethnoreligious group indigenous to Northern Iraq, with a significant diaspora in Europe, particularly Germany. They have a unique, ancient faith. They are monotheists who believe in one God who created the world, entrusting it to seven angels, the leader of which is Tawûsî Melek (the Peacock Angel). They do not believe in a devil. Their faith is syncretic, blending elements of Zoroastrianism, Sufism, Christianity, and Judaism.

Apart from the postage stamps, the sender also put a cute sticker of three bears (a panda, a brown bear and a koala bear).

So what have I been up to? I've not been too well. I suffer from SAD syndrome, which means that a lack of (sun)light or natural light causes me to get depressed. The weather has been so awful, with rain and storms. The howling wind kept me awake at night and that didn't help. 

This is how I felt:

I've been here before and I know that going for a walk every day, and keeping up the excercises is crucial. Also socialising would take my mind off the tooth ache that I had (on to of everything else). I had to wait for a week to get an appointment with my dentist which is today (Tuesday).

Last week we went out for a drink after Intercambio (language practice):

We've had many internet outages, so much so that I have decided to get Starlink Internet:

Because of the storm and rain, it hasn't been possible to install it yet, but my friend Andy is going to have a go today (Tuesday).

On Friday we had our last session of the make-up course. Just a small group of ladies that want to learn how to apply make up. We had fun for six consecutive Fridays. And this last Friday we all went out for a drink:

There are plenty of drinks on the table to be able to join the T-Party hosted by Bluebeard and Elizabeth.

I had a parcel delivered the other day:

Inside was a pretty box:

Ronnie loved the empty box of course:

But inside the pretty box was my belated Christmas present (because my parcel went missing and had to be re-sent) from my friends in the Netherlands:

It had two bottles of French wine and three jars of paté. Thank you A & I!

The weather has been really bad with regular red and amber warnings. But we have had a bit of sunshine too and there were rainbows as there was still rain in the air:

Sorry I didn't have much interesting to say today.

But I'm wishing everyone a happoy T-Day,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 30 January 2026 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls,

I'm back online! Yes, I have had no Internet since Sunday, but today (I'm writing this on Wednesday just in case the Internet goes off again due to the storm) we're back online.

I'll start as per usual with my postcard:

A lovely postcard to remind me of my home country. It was sent to me by Chantal who is also a nurse.

The stamp is a fun one with a lighthouse on it.

It comes from a series of stamps called 'Echt Hollands' (Truly Dutch). From a stamp website: The Echt Hollands 5 x Internationaal stamps: the herring, the vase with tulips, the lighthouse, the carrier pigeon and the coffee pot with mug.

What's been happening here in southern Spain? The weather is atrocious! Storm and rain for days on end. Not at all what we're used too. I’m having a hard time. The storm is blowing everything away on the  terrace. The furniture on my little patio is wet through as the tarpaulin constantly blows away even though I’ve put heavy things on it ( two stepladders). 

I don’t sleep because of all the whistling and howling.  We do cold and we do snow sometimes, but this is very uncharacteristic. I have Internet now but as from Sunday until this morning there was no Internet (and as such: no TV).  I’ve bought a Starlink but no one is going onto the roof in this weather to install it. 

We also had powercuts which make me nervous. My pellet stove uses electricity to function and I have a gas heater, but that is upstairs in the guest flat. It is too heavy to carry down the stairs. Luckily the poiwer has come back on and I have been able to light my stove.

No TV so I've been knitting socks. This one is nearly finished.

I also have a sourdough starter in the fridge and yesterday I made these rolls:

And I've been reading a book with Ronnie, my cat, on my lap:

I'm reading this:

A historic fantasy set in Spain's Golden Age. I am enjoying it immensely.  I read it in the day as it is a bit spooky. It was recommended by Mae (Blog: Mae's Foodblog) a little while back.

I'm still reading Sally Magnussen's The Sealwoman's Gift, about Icelanders taken from Iceland to Algiers by marauding Saracens. It's about the tradition of story telling and I read that at night. 

That is all from me. I will leave you with some funnies at the end.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Keep smiling!

Lisca

Update on Friday morning: The Internet has come and gone again, but I got my phone hotspot to work finally so I can send this. Bye!