A Postcard A Day - 17 February 2026 - T for St Barbara, a walk and a snake

 Hello lovely peeps, here I am again with a postcard. This time from Austria. It comes from my friend Maggie, who travels a lot and she sent me not one but two postcards of this amazing church (in an envelope).

It's the St Barbara church in Bärbach, Austria. It was designed by Hunderwasser.

There was nothing on Wikipedia, but from all the different sites I visited, I cobbled this information together:

Despite its post-war origin, St Barbara Kirche was in need of renovating in the late 1980s. Local citizens voted to commission the maverick Viennese artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser to undertake the redesign. 

Below the other postcard of the church by night:

Work began in 1987 and was completed in 1988.The façade, the roof and the tower with the golden sphere are rich in colour and form. The twelve gates symbolise the twelve world religions,

(Below two images from the Internet)

 and with their symbols Hundertwasser made a gesture of ecumenism, dialogue between all denominations and tolerance. The interior of the church invites to silence and prayer and shows works by local artists., with Hundertwasser's own works in the altar niche and at the baptismal font being particularly impressive.

This church is not a museum-like place, but a lived expression of diversity, spirituality, and artistic freedom. An inspiring destination in the Graz Region that uniquely combines art, religion, and imagination.

Here are more images if you like to see them

I like this unusual art by Hundertwasser, like I like Gaudi.

The stamp on the envelope was this:

It celebrates the cello.

This past week has still been awful weather, but one of my boys Richard came to see me. He lives in the UK but was in Barcelona for business. He caught a flight to Granada and we enjoyed a couple of days together. That lifted my spirits no end. He took me out to lunch:

And we went for a long walk in between showers:

We met a snake along the path who had the same idea:

I don't know what sort it was, and it didn't stop, just crossed the road.

The weather was really stormy and at times it was difficult to stay on my feet.

We also went out for dinner and it is here that I can show you my drink that is a requirement to join the T-Party hosted by Bluebeard and Elizabeth.

My bottle of alcohol free beer. (I'm still on antibiotics for my peridental problem).

Then a friend and I drove him to Malaga airport to fly home. 

The below picture was taken out of the car:

It's the Sierra Nevada mountains. Still very snowy.

I'll end with a photo of Ronnie, my cat, sleeping beside me as I type.

That is all for today,

Happy T-Day all,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 13 February 2026 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

It's Friday Smiles, so what made. me smile this week? Lots of things and first a funny postcard:

The two naughty aunties having a (naughty?) chocolate snack under the table. The illustrator is Inge Löök from Finland. She is very famous and I love her humour.

The stamp:

The cancellation stamp is  more interesting that the actual postage stamp. It was posted on the first of October, World Postcard Day. The stamp is from the 'paper' series. 

As you can see it comes from Germany, from a place called Gütersloh. Sent by a lady called Kirsten. 

On the personal front, I'm feeling a bit better, my mood has certainly lifted. Mainly because one of my boys came to visit me. He was in Barcelona for business and he got a flight to Granada to visit me, which made me very happy.

The weather was very blustery with near hurricane strength winds, but we still went for a walk. In the photo you can see a spectacular rainbow in the background.

In the above photo I am trying to walk against the wind.

We walked to the Iron Bridge (designed by Eiffel):

And walked over it. I was holding on to the railing for fear of being blown onto the sleepers with all those gaps. (It's quite high).

My son took a photo of the bridge and then made it black and white. I like it:

We went for a drink after this walk and what you see below is the tapa we got with our drink.

That is all from me today. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I hope you are too.

Of course there will be some funnies at the end.

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 10 February - T for bad weather and bad mood

Hello lovely ladies,

Let me show you another postcard:

This one came all the way from India and was sent by someone called Sumi. It looks like an old fashioned map but there is no information on the card.

The stamps are these:

The man on the stamp is Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) and according to Wikipedia was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India based on the debates of the Constituent Assembly of India and the first draft of Sir Benegal Narsing Rau. Ambedkar served as Law and Justice minister in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru. He later renounced Hinduism and converted to Buddhism, inspiring the Dalit Buddhist movement.

It was quite amazing in that he was an 'Untouchable' and that he was still able to get an education. One of the first I would guess.

This is why I like stamps, because I like learning new things and this man seems to have been very important in the history of 20th century India. Read about Dr Ambedkar here.

What have I been doing? Not much. I'm still quite low in mood and the weather is still awful. You might have seen it on the news. Lots of storm damage, landslides, flooding and entire villages evacuated. My house is still standing and I only have smashed tiles on the top terrace caused by falling masonry.

On Saturday it was dry in the morning and some of my friends asked if I would care for a walk. (I did) So off we went. Six adults, an eight year old and three dogs. 

I did a lot of translating as there were different nationalities among us.

This is my friend Antonio with his granddaughter.

We walked 12 km and then we all went out for lunch:

We had a sort of paella, but wetter. Almost 'soupy.' And it was lobster. I forgot to take a picture but my empty plate looked like this:

And that also includes my glass of 0% alcohol beer which will be my qualifier for the T-Party hosted by Bluebeard and Elizabeth.

No wine for me this time as I'm on antibiotics for peridontal disease. 

Tomorrow (Tuesday evening) one of my sons  (the other half of the twins) is coming for a flying visit. He has to be in Barcelona for business so is hopping on an internal flight so we can see each other. I'll be driving him back to Malaga airport on Thursday for his flight back to the UK.

That's all from me this Tuesday.

Happy T-Day all,

Lisca

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