A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 30 May 2017 - T for...

Hi folks,

A happy Tuesday to you all. Are you all joining the T-party? Elizabeth and Bleubeard welcome you at Altered Book Lover.

Here is the card I am sending to a Postcrossing member in Germany who is crazy about old tractors. It is an image from 1960, a photograph by John Gay. The info on the card tells me: A tractor being driven through the doorway of St Etheldreda's church in Hatfield.

I haven´t really been up to much this week. I have no photos of outings or restaurant visits. And I am writing this away from my desktop computer where all my photos are stores, so my contribution to the T-party is this:

Isn´t that a lovely tea set? My mum used to have a posh tea set, but now we all drink from a mug. A shame really.

I did finish another book this week. I liked it very much. It was set in Italy during WW2.

I enjoyed it immensely and I will write the ´blurb´ at the bottom for those who are interested.

Thursday I will be flying out to the Netherlands to visit my mum for her birthday. I will be staying a week. Needless to say I am greatly looking forward to it. Next week I will have much more to report for sure.

Happy T-day all!

Lisca

Italy, 1943-Germany occupies much of the country, placing the Jewish population in grave danger during World War II.

As children, Eva Rosselli and Angelo Bianco were raised like family but divided by circumstance and religion. As the years go by, the two find themselves falling in love. But the church calls to Angelo and, despite his deep feelings for Eva, he chooses the priesthood.

Now, more than a decade later, Angelo is a Catholic priest and Eva is a woman with nowhere to turn. With the Gestapo closing in, Angelo hides Eva within the walls of a convent, where Eva discovers she is just one of many Jews being sheltered by the Catholic Church.

But Eva can't quietly hide, waiting for deliverance, while Angelo risks everything to keep her safe. With the world at war and so many in need, Angelo and Eva face trial after trial, choice after agonizing choice, until fate and fortune finally collide, leaving them with the most difficult decision of all.

A Postcard A Day - Friday 26 May 2017 - Friday Smiles

Gosh it's Friday already. Where did the week go!!
We've not done anything in particular, but still I'm busy every day and the week just flies!


I haven't received many cards this week, mainly because I am behind sending cards. (If I don't send them, I don't receive any).

This one arrived last week from Russia. It is quite sweet.

My week has been a week behind the sewing machine. I am by no means a good sewer. Wrong word: a good seamstress, but I can just about sew in a straight line. I shortened two pairs of trousers and two tops that were too long (I'm petite so everything I buy is always too long). I repaired two pillow cases that had ripped. And I sewed two fly screens together to cover the double doors to the terrace. I buy them at Lidls. The two parts have little magnets that will close the curtain as soon as you have walked through. Very handy. I had them last year too. I bought a new set as they have improved the adhesive and are now supplied with 5.60 meters of Velcro. Happy days!

I buy two for the double doors and sew them together. Simples.

My lovely hubby has constructed a carport this week. He bought the iron bars and started painting them black, when he accidently knocked over a 5 litre pot of black paint!

And he got himself quite messy too, trying to mop it up (imposible of course).



No I didn't shout at him. These things happen. We both laughed about it after hubby had got rid of his frustration. The roof terrace is not a terrace that we often use.

Last week I finished a good book: Brainrush by Richard Bard:

It's a thriller with a paranormal twist. The protagonist is the very likeable Jake, a young 'surfer dude' who is  diagnosed with a brain tumor. When an earthquake hits while he is having an MRI scan, he comes out brain enhanced. Then an Italian 'baddie'  wants to use those super powers for his own agenda. Set in USA, Venice and Afghanistan. There is lots of excitement, fast paced action and of course a love interest. I loved it.

Now for some funnies as I am going to link with Annie at A Stitch In Time. They are all wine related:

Don't worry, I haven't taken to the bottle. We have had many laughs this week. And these photos made me smile.

Next Friday I will be in Holland visiting my mum. (I'm flying out on Thursday night, so I will try to cobble a blog post together for Friday morning).

Linking up with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday too.

Have a good week and keep smiling!,

Hugs,

Lisca



A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 23 May 2017 - T for coffee and a beetle

Hi folks,

It's Tuesday again and we are joining the T-party at Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

I have been AWOL last week. Reason being that I have had no end of computer problems. My main desk top is infected with a virus or malware and had stopped working all together. My computer chappie couldn't look at it until Thursday evening. (It's still not 100%).
I have a laptop too. That had been to the computer doctor to be reformatted etc. as I'm doing this course learning how to use Adobe Lightroom (to do with photography). The course tutor offered to take my laptop home with him so he could download the Lightroom programme for me. He would do it that same evening... yeah, right.... I had to wait 5 days! And that included Tuesday's T-party! 
But hey, here I am. 

Let's start with my postcard. I found this one which I received from Taiwan some time ago. Two owls. But look closely......

The owls are made of coffee beans, their eyes are coffee cups and they have sugar cubes on their body. Isn't that fun! I thought it would be perfect for the T-party.

We had some visitors this week from South Africa (Jeffreys Bay).  They work for the charity Global Challenge Expeditions, They normally work in the coffee shop and there they roast their own coffee and have different types of coffee from different countries. I would call them connaiseurs. Although they were back packing they had their favorite coffee beans with them and carried a portable coffee grinder:

Nifty isn't it? Then they made the coffee in a 'push-me-down' type of coffee maker:

The top half is filled with coffee and hot water. Then after a minute or so he turned the thing upside down and pushed the whole top half down with force. 

I had never seen anyting like it! And it tasted very good (of course).

Our friends also spent time singing and playing the guitar and mandolin.

Saturday I baked a cake (like I do every Saturday). This time I made a blackberry cream cheese crumb cake (from Sally's baking addiction on the internet)

It turned out very well considering it was the first time I did this one. Someone took a picture of me trying to photograph the cake as it was being cut.

It's nice to see the different layers. I had a large jar of black berries from last summer. I only used a quarter of a jar and I suppose I will have to quickly make some other things with it. Meanwhile, have a piece before it all disappears!

We went for a walk with our visitors and saw these flowers along the wall. Quite pretty.

And we saw this creature. I have no idea what it is. It was the size of my thumb:

We thought it might be a queen beetle of some sort looking for a nesting location. It has legs, but I can't remember how many. Does anyone have any ideas?

That's it from me for today. 
Happy T-Day,
Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - 19 May 2017 - Friday Smiles

Hi folks, how are things?  Have you had a good week?Have you had plenty to smile about?


My week has been full of good moments, some of which I will share here.


My postcard for today arrived from Germany a few days ago:

I love turtles and I also like black and white cards, so this one was a hit!


So, what have I been up to. I have had no end of computer problems, which I am not going to bore you with and my desk top is still not 100%, but at least it works!


Saturday I attended the second session of my course learning about Adobe Lightroom. Here is the class:

The teacher speaks very fast and I struggle to understand him. My laptop had to be reformatted and Windows 7 put on. This is now done so this coming Saturday I will be able to follow the course and see what I'm doing.


Sunday was a great day. We go to church and in the evening we have our house group. A friend invited us to lunch. She had cooked lentils:

Here is my hubby on the 'boys' table:

The lentils were lovely. She had also made a fruit salad:

Our elderly neighbour often brings us some of his produce. This week he brought a basket of broad beans (fava beans):

A lot is happening on the building front. The windows have been put in. Here is the glazier with his lorry unloading the frames:

Here is the patio door:

By now all windows and doors have been put in with the glass and the fly screens and the shutters. Hurray!


I have also bought the tiles for the whole appartment:

It has a wood grain in it and is light coloured. I think it will look neutral and very nice.


Of course I have been baking this week. The choc cake I made was a total disaster! It was so bad, we all laughed our heads off!

I had cut it in half and had placed one half on top of the other with some choc sauce in between. It just completely broke up and fell apart. The boys called it an earth quake cake. The geologist in me saw a volcano with lava flowing out. Anyway, it tasted lovely and we all had a good laugh!


Now I will finish with some funnies about mannequins:

Ok, I'm off to Annies at A Stitch in Time and I will also link up with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday. See you there!


Have a good week,
with lots of smiles,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 12 May 2017 Friday Smiles

Hello everyone! It's Friday again and I'll tell you what I have been up to this week, I will show you a postcard I have received this week and I will share some smiles.

First off is my postcard. It comes from Lithuania:

It is the beautiful Trakai Island Castle in eastern Lithuania. 
The girl who sent it to me wrote a quote on the back of the card: "Don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try" - Jack Canfield.

The stamp is lovely too:

It is the 2014 'Holy Christmas and New Year' stamp.

So, what I have I been up to this week? On Saturday I started a 'four Saturdays' course learning how to use Lightroom. It is organized by our local photo club. We had to bring a laptop. Now I mostly use my desk top computer which is  new and up to date, and sometimes my tablet, which I don't get on with really. But my laptop is old and has Windows Vista! So no surprise really that I couldn't load the software. So I have taken my laptop to my local 'computer doctor' and he is re-formatting it, putting a modern operating system in and then re-loading all my 'stuff'. It is ready now and I will pick it up later today so I can attend the second Saturday of the course. Big smile! (And three cheers for my computer guy!)

I finished another book: Ice by Kevin Tinto. It is described as a mind-blowing thriller. Well, it was a good yarn if a little far-fetched. It kept me entertained and interested, and I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

This week has been a sort of run-of-the-mill week. We've not been anywhere and have not done anything out of the routine.
Yesterday we got up earlier than usual as we wanted to go to Lidl (supermarket). They were selling linen garments and we wanted to be there early or our sizes would be sold out. In this store: when its gone, its gone. Hubby bought three shirts and a pair of bermudas. I bought two pairs of trousers and two tops. Big smiles for both of us. It gets very hot here in summer, so we love wearing linen. And living in the back of beyond with no department stores to buy clothes within a 100 mile radius, I buy my clothes either in the market or at the supermarket.

Here is a photo of our village from the air:

We live (just out of view)next to the yellow house in the top right corner. The green bit is the Paseo, the little park in the centre of the village where everybody meets everybody. 

Another smile for me is the fact that I have finished the small scrapbook I have been working on. Remember the gypsy wedding we went to last month? I've done a 6x6" scrapbook with wedding photos. I can't show you yet as I haven't given it to them yet. So watch this space.

Here is another smile:

My hubby found these Spanish digestive biscuits. They are oat biscuits with dark chocolate. I can truly say, the best chocolate biscuits I have ever tasted! I dare say better than McVities!

I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time for Friday Smiles. Do join us with something that made you smile.

I'm also going to go to Virginia at Rocking your World Friday, so I might see you there too...

I'm going to leave you wishing you a lovely day and  my advice on how to have a lovely day. These are the things I try to always do, especially the smiling at strangers. I have a habit of doing that....

So have a lovely day,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 9 May 2017 - owl mug and dancing and skipping women

Today (as every Tuesday) I'm going to join Elizabeth and Bluebeard at Altered Book Lover for the weekly T-party. Post anything with a drink in it and you can join us!

I post my postcards that I receive or send through Postcrossing and today I have a postcard with a drink in it! How cool is that!

It was sent to me by Leslie who lives on an island on the Gulf Coast (USA). The card shows a self portrait of the artist Karolina Pietón, who is Polish as far as I can make out.
I love that little owl mug on top of a pile of books. What is in the mug?Green tea, chocolate? Or .coffee or just some lemon water? What is she clutching? A hot water bottle? or a painter's palette? A just a cushion? who knows. Anyway. I like this card very much.

On Thursday I went on an outing/ walk with the women's association of the village. 

Outside the village is an old sugar factory (see photo) that was built after Spain 'lost' Cuba and had no access to sugar. It has been abandoned since the 70s, but it is very beautiful in its own sort of way. Industrial heritage I think it is called.

We walked to an old iron bridge outside the village:

More industrial heritage I suppose as it is no longer used. The railway has been abandoned too. Here is another photo:

One of the ladies had come with her Landrover and brought a table and stuff to eat and drink. Here we are having our breakfast:

She is cutting up some sweetbread from the local baker:

And there were lots of broad beans/fava beans:

Fresh from the fields, picked that morning. They are so fresh that one can eat them raw! Just peel them and enjoy:

One of the ladies teaches pilates and she did a session with us.

We did smaller walks from the bridge. One walk was to the old station (which has been restored recently). Some ladies started to sing and spontaneously people began to dance:

 Old folk dances are still alive and kicking in the place.

I took a photo of this irrigation canal. They are called acequias and have been used since pre christian times. The moors introduced this web of canals, that work on gravity. Very clever system. It is widely used to this day. I should have put my bag next to it to show you the scale... the canal is about less than a foot wide.

Lunch was bread (baguette/stick bread) with salami and cheese and fish. This is cured mackrel. Very yummy.

In the afternoon we played games like 'tug-of-war':

And we had great fun skipping, using the rope from the tug of war:

And of course we played cards in small groups. I was invited (and taught) to play a card game called 'chinchon':

The cards they use are Napolitan cards like they use in Italy. 

I really enjoyed myself. It was such a fun day!  I hope you enjoyed looking at the photos.

Happy T-Day all!,
Hugs,
Lisca