Photography Scavenger Hunt

Good Morning!
I've decided to join a fun Photography Scavenger Hunt. Maria Ontivero has been doing it for several years now. She gives a lits of 21 subjects that you need to find and photograph before the end of September (well, the equinox). You can link up with a blog or follow on Facebook, or even load photos on a Flickr account.


So, without any further ado, here's this year's lists:
1. A "wild heart" - a naturally occurring heart (like the rock above, but it doesn't have to be a rock)
2. A footprint or pawprint
3. A skeleton, bone or x-ray
4. A book or magazine read during 2016
5. A porch or deck
6. A camper (caravan)
7. A family gathering
8. A drawing, art project, artistic photograph, scrapbook page, greeting card, or art journal page created by you.
9. Someone playing with, in, or around water.
10. A bicycle
11. Fresh produce
12. A window
13. The moon
14. A buffet of food
15. A team logo
16. A map showing a trip taken during the time period
17. Twins
18. A supermarket cart, basket or trolley full of groceries 
19. A seasonal cocktail or beverage
20. Someone laughing
21. A photograph of you with a newspaper or calendar page from the time period covered in the Hunt. Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.
Alternatives - if you're having trouble finding any of the above, you may substitute from this list (but you may not substitute for item #21):
alternative 1: a lighthouse
alternative 2: a baby (human or animal)

#2 - A paw print. 
These are the paw prints of our cat Precious in the cement by the front door. We still haven't tiled that part.... (will we ever?)

#18 - a supermarket trolley with shopping.
 This is our trolley at Lidls in Baza. 

#7 - A family gathering.
This was of course my mum's 92nd birthday. Here she is with the birthday cake on our terrace. From left to right: me, my sister, my hubby and my brother in law.

#9 - Someone playing in or by water
. That someone is me in a jacuzzi! Friends of ours in the village have one in their garden. Great fun!

#14 - a buffet of food
Here in rural Spain they don't do many buffets. When there is a party or a fiesta, or any get-to-gether they make a paella. Paella is a traditional rice dish which can contain meat or seafood or both. The yellow color comes from the saffron (strands of a particular crocus flower). Here is my dear hubby (with hat) getting our portion at the village fiesta (the first weekend in June).

This is as far as I got with the photos. I don't want to do them all in one month, so I am spreading them out a bit and hope I will get the heart eventually. 

I am enjoying seeing other people's photos.

Greetings from Spain,
Lisca

WOYWW 369 - watercolors

Good morning deskers,

Here we are again snooping at each others desks. Please join us at What On Your Workdesk Wednesday with a photo of what you have been up to. Lunch Lady Jan has temporarily taken over from our head desker Julia. This is the link.

What have I been up to? This is what my desk looks like:

I've only got a small desk in our living room (my craft room is being tiled.) so not much space. But this week I have been looking at water color tutorials as I really want to have a go at using watercolors. I bought a box of cheap watercolors and brushes (probably not a good idea to buy cheap ones...) and I am in the process of making a tonal swatch.

 It's a Youtube video by esperoart (in English). I've also read a website called 'watercolor painting and projects' .They do several pages about basics for beginners

Last week I showed you the Flow magazine Special Edition about learning to draw. I'm going to use some watercolors there.

Tentatively...

Now that I have read the watercolor basics, I have learnt that it is better to buy good quality watercolor paint because I only need a few colors, as all other colors can be made with those (and they teach how to do that). So please, any of you who know about these things... any advice will be gladly received. Websites, brands, even an online course. Any advice is welcome. I have also noticed that Winsor & Newton have a cheap range called Cotman colors. Any good?

Before I go, here is the postcard that arrived yesterday from Bavaria in Germany. It's an antique dolls house (non specified):

I thought it was real cute. (For anyone interested in receiving and sending postcards, here is the link to Postcrossing.)

Happy WOYWW and have a great week all of you,
Greetings from sunny Spain,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday June 28th 2016 -T for cheesecake

Good Morning Tuesday gang!

I've been at it again! Yes, cake making I mean. This time a cheese cake. We were invited to a BBQ/gettogether and I offered to do the dessert.

The bottom part is short crust pastry (you can't see it because of the baking paper lining), then a cooked cheese layer (I use a sort of custard powder as well as fresh cheese from a tub), then the yogurt layer which I have let set with sheets of gelatin. 

Here is my DH cutting the cake. It was very yummy and many people asked for a little piece to take home.

I'm going to link up with Elizabeth and Bluebeard at 
T for Tuesday (that is the link). On Tuesdays we share something with a drink in it. In this photo there are still a few drinks on the table, so it qualifies...

And here is my postcard: 

It is one that I sent out a while ago. Before retiring my DH used to work at Cadbury's. Originally he was a catering chef in the factory restaurant, then when the restaurant was privatized, he worked 10 years in the factory, making chocolate bars. Our house was always full of chocolate! (We had a stash under the stairs). I can't remember how I got this card, but of course it reminded me of DH's years in the factory.

My craft room is still being tiled so I am not doing much crafting. I am itching to start doing the ATCs for July's exchange. I'm also working my way through several online watercolor tutorials. I want to start using watercolors in cardmaking and ATCs. (So watch this space!)

I'll leave it at that.
Have a great week all of you,
Happy T-day,
Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 24 June 2016 Friday Smiles

Good Morning Friday Gang!

How are you all? Keep smiling, as your glass is always half full (if not completely full!)

My week has not been very exciting. After driving mum and my cousin to the airport in Malaga we went shopping at Ikea (yes, that was exciting!) to counteract my acute sadness of saying goodbye to my mum. She is 92 and every goodbye could be the last one... 
We spent too much money, as you do...
I got this little sink & cabinet for the guest bathroom.

The rest of the week was spent tidying up and washing bedding and towels and all the things you do when guests have left.

Here is Spain the schools have broken up and so have all the clubs and associations. So this morning is my last gym for the summer. We will all receive a T-shirt with the name of our group on it and after gym we will go and have breakfast (coffee and a baghette) in a local bar. I have collected money for a present for the teacher and have made a card for us all to sign (and it will be something to put the money in).

Then next week we will all go out for dinner (usually we are about 15 or 16 ladies) Something to look forward to and to smile about.

The other thing I smiled about is my new towel rack! My mum was commenting that she could hardly see my new cooker as I had hung tea towels and oven cloth etc on the rail of my cooker. So when we were at Ikea the other day, we bought one of those racks that pull out. Graham fixed it to the side of a unit this morning and now I have my towel rack and I'm over the moon! (He says I'm easy to please).

Now for my daily postcard:

I happen to like turtles and I put that in my profile of Postcrossing, so I get lots of cards with turtles. Fab! This turtle has company. It was sent by Petra in Germany. She used some lovely stamps:

Flowers and baby squirrels. Cute factor 10.

Now to finish a smile factor:

For the non-Brits, H&S stands for Health and Safety. These health and safety regulations have become more and more ridiculous. I'm sure you have them in other countries in the world. They are almost impossible to comply with and there is so much paperwork involved too. This man has clearly had enough!

That's it from me this morning. I'm going to find a news channel on my computer (we don't have tv) to see what the result is of the Brexit Referendum. It will affect us even though we don't live in the UK. 

Wishing you a good week with lots of smiles,
and blessings.

Lisca

WOYWW 368

Good Morning fellow deskers! It's Wednesday again and it's the day we all share what's on our desk. LunchLadyJane is kindly hosting while our host Julia is recuperation from her op. But LLJ has herself had a difficult week, so big hugs coming your way LLJ together with a huge Thank You.

Here is what I've been doing:

I might have shown you my Flow magazine Special Edition about learning to draw. I have started tentatively with a pencil and I plan to start getting some paints out soon. Exciting!

Even more exciting are the 'far-away' ATCs that have finally arrived this week from the other side of the world:

They were definitely worth waiting for! From top left: Lynne Mizera, Sharon K with lovely envelope, and Kelly. the bottom two are LisaDa (left) and Bridget Larssen(R). Thank you girls! Each one of them is a work of art! 
Lynne had also made a beautiful home made card with "believe" on it but it wasn't on my desk just now when I made the photo (Where the b... is it?) The quote on Lisa's card reads:"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain." That is so true.

Bridget also enclosed a postcard I love Queensland:

Which reminds me to show you a Postcrossing postcard. This one arrived from Portugal earlier this week:

I love doors and windows, and this card shows a selection of windows in Lisbon.
The stamps are beautiful too:

The one on the right is about traditional ceramics and the one on the left shows snowboarding, which I am not sure they do in Portugal. Have they got high mountains in Portugal? Perhaps they do, after all we have a ski resort here in Granada.

That's it from me today. I apologise that I have not been able to get around many desks last week, as my mum was visiting and time with her is precious. Today I will do my best to visit many if not all of you.

Happy WOYWW,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 21 June 2016

Good Morning T-Gang!,

It's Tuesday so we share a drink. I will link up with Elizabeth and Bluebeard at Altered Booklover where we all share something drink related. So first...

I'm not usually much of a coffee lover but my mother and my cousin have been staying with me and my cousin brought me several packs of my favorite coffee pads, which I cannot get in this country. They are special flavours and capuccino and mocha/choc and the like. So these days I am enjoying my coffee too.

My mum's visit flew by and Saturday we drove her back to Malaga airport. That is a three hour drive, so we stopped on the way to have lunch:

 Here are my mum and my cousin having a laugh. I had been reading a book to them during the week about two English twenty something girls who bought a tuk-tuk (a motorised rickshaw taxi) in Thailand and drove overland 12,500 miles back to the UK. (Tuk to the Road by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent and Jo Huxster) Their adventures were very entertaining and here we were remembering a particularly hilarious bit. Mum is nearly blind and she had brought her 'Daisy player' for her spoken books, but didn't like the book she had brought, so I decided I would read to her. We all enjoyed it, even my husband when he would listen in.

And this is our cat Precious. He is apparently sleeping but in such an awkward position, I cannot believe he is comfortable!

Last night our neighbour Vicente came with a huge bag of cherries which he has picked in his orchard. It is cherry time here and I love cherries, so I will eat them until I am nearly sick!

Now for my postcard before I forget:

Have I ever shown you this one? It is a cat full of chocolaty coffee loveliness. Mmmm... I would love a piece of chocolate after seeing this.... Do you get cravings like that too? I will be hunting down any hidden piece of chocolate in the house I can tell ya!

Happy T-day everyone,
Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 17 June 2016 - Friday Smiles

Good Morning folks, 

It's Friday again. Time to reflect about all the good and positive things that have happened this week. 
This week has been a family week for me. My mother came to Spain to celebrate her 92nd birtday and is still here with me. Hence the late post from me today. (I help her get washed and dressed, which she normally does herself but it is nice and intimate to do this with her).

Here is mum eating a bowl of cherries from my neighbour's tree.

My postcard today is one that arrived this morning (another advantage of blogging later in the morning: the postman has been):

Of course you will recognize it as John Lennon painted on a wall in Prague. That really made me smile as I was a Beatles girl right from the very start.

These are the stunningly beautiful stamps. I have not had time yet to Google what they are about but will do later.

A lot of smiles from my Friday Smiles friends feature grand children. I thought I'd show you a photo of my little grandson in Italy. My D-I-L sends me photos almost every day.

He is 18 months and apparently quite a handful. I love his cheeky smile. 
Here he is watching the football:

I'm going to Italy at the end of August to see him (and to celebrate my son's 40th birthday). I'm looking forward to it of course.

Th0se are my smiles today. I'll be linking up with Annie at A Stitch in Time and Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday. I'll try to do as many comments as I can, but I also want to spend as much time with mum as I can as she is leaving tomorrow.

Have a good week with many smiles,
Blessings,
Lisca

WOYWW 367 - drawing lessons and jigsaws

Good morning deskers!,

How are you all? Are you all ready to show your desks? We're linking up with Lunch Lady Jane at LLJ's Fabric Frenzy for a snooping fest, while chief desker Julia recuperates from her op.

Want to see what's on my desk? No craft but something my mum brought from Holland for me:

  Flow is a Dutch magazine and this is a special edition to learn to draw. 

I can't wait to start drawing! But my mum is staying with us for a week plus my cousin so I am spending some quality time with my mummy. She celebrated her 92nd last week! (photos on yesterday's blog).

If the first photo was an early lesson, this is one of the last lessons.

She (my mum) also brought me a jigsaw of a Dutch illustrator called Anton Pieck. 

Apologies for the bad photo. I love doing jigsaws and usually have one on the go all through the winter.

That's it from me, short and sweet (I hope).
It's cherry time here and I am munching through a mountain of cherries. I must stop or I'll be ill later on!

Happy WOYWW,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - T for Tuesday

Hello T-gang! Lovely to see you! How are you? I am fine, in fact: super fine! I have my family around me and it's great!

Saturday my DH and a friend erected a frame on the terrace to make a sun shade (it's very hot here):

This frame was then covered with green stuff:

My mother and cousin came over from Holland to Spain, and stayed with my sister near Malaga.  Then after a week my sister brought them 300km east to our house, Here on the photo you can see the new sun shade, my mum on the left, and my sister on the right in the foreground. My DH on the right standing up, my sister's man sitting next to him and my cousin sitting on the far side of the table.

My mother had a birthday a few days ago. Now she is here we celebrated her birthday again. She is 92!

Here is the birthday girl! From L to R: Me, My sister, My DH, my B-i-L.

I made a three layered birthday cake with sponge, cherries and whipped cream.

I am going to link up with Elizabeth at Altered booklover for T for Tuesday. Anything with a drink in it will qualify, so please join us. In my photos you can see coffee cups, a wine bottle in a cooler and glasses with drinks in it. But if that wasn't enough, here is a photo of today's lunch (with a glass of wine next to it):

I made a quiche. It is cherry tomato, rosemary and goats cheese. My favorite. 

Now for my postcard. This is a postcard I sent last week. 

It's called 'Tiramisu'. Isn't it yummy? My mouth waters just looking at it!

I'm going to stop right here as we have a busy day ahead. I'm going to take mum, to the hair dresser for a wash and blowdry, then we are going to have a lovely meal at our favorite restaurant at 2 pm. By the time we come home at 4:30, mum will lie down for a bit and I might be able to get to comment on some of your pages.

Have a great week all of you and happy T-Day!

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 10 June 2016 Friday Smiles

Good Morning!

It's Friday and I have lots to smile about. Have you? Then please join us at Friday Smiles hosted by Annie.

My main smile this week is this:

This is my mum having a giggle on her 92nd birthday (a few days ago)! She flew over to Spain last week and is spending some time with my sister who lives several hours drive away from me. Tomorrow she will be coming here and we'll have another little party. My job for today (apart from getting the guest room ready) is baking a birthday cake for her!
I am so blessed that I still have my lovely mum. She is going blind and her mobility is not what it used to be (spot the zimmer frame next to her)but mentally she is very alert and interested in what goes on in the world as well as sporting events. She is an avid 'reader' of spoken books and she has a specially adapted computer program that enlarges everything, so she can read emails and Facebook. Isn't that great! I love her to bits!

Now for my postcard for today. 

I love doodling and zentangling etc. I had never seen it used like this. I love this card. It comes from the Czech Republic, from a girl called Bohun who lives with her family (her parents, her boyfriend, dogs and cats, her brother and his child.) She used some really nice stamps:

Now if you came for Friday smiles or to see a postcard, you can safely stop here. The rest is very photo heavy with photos from Córdoba.

Last week my friend from Holland came to visit and we went to Córdoba for a few days. I have already shown some photos Wednesday and Tuesday. Here are some more:

We had a hotel in the old city and loved walking around and every now and then sit down somewhere to have a drink.

The Cordobans like flowers and they are everywhere:

I have this thing about doors. I like to photograph beautiful and interesting doors:

This is where the bishop lives. 

Here is another door:

Horses and carriages are still used  but mainly for tourists and on high holidays, where women dress up in traditional costume and drive through the town. 

Houses are traditionally built around a courtyard 
(called a patio). Quite often the main doors are open and I can get a glimpse of the courtyard with flowers and often fountains.

Here is one I actually went in:

The palm tree in the center was huge, and didn't fit in the photo. Here I have panned upwards:

In Andalucia (the region we live in) floors are often made of pebbles in a decorative way. I posted two photos Wednesday, but I have found another one:

We visited a stately home (Palacio Viana) that boasts 12 patios. The largest one looks like this:

This is the kitchen patio and is one of the smaller ones:

More flowers (with my friend caught unawares):

This little street is named after one of the foods of Córdoba: salmorejo cordobés. It is a cold soup a bit like gazpacho.

Here is a photo of it:

It's made of tomatoes, breadcrumbs, olive oil and garlic, plus little bits of hard boiled egg and serrano ham to decorate.

Another lovely door:

And another one:

The best know tourist attraction in Córdoba is the Mezquita, the mosque (which is now a cathedral). The queues are long and the entry price high, but I learned that at 8:30 in the morning entry is free for an hour. So there we went and here it is:

There was hardly anyone there.
There are more photos on Tuesday's blog (T for Tuesday 7 June).

I liked this homage to Mother Teresa.

It is really weird then to see an organ round the next corner...

Very strange. But it is a beautiful building and I´m glad I saw it.

I hope you like a little tour of Córdoba.

I will link up with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

Have a great week y'all,

Blessings,
Lisca