A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 29 May 2018 - T for...

Good morning lovely peeps. It's Tuesday again and I'm heading for the T-Party held at Elizabeth and Bluebeard's. Please join us with anything drink related. Any beverage will do. 

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This was me on Saturday. We are on a month-long road trip and are expected to do more than 5000km. We left on Sunday morning, so I was a bit frazzled on Saturday, trying to get everything ready.

Lets start with my postcards. The theme here is 1970s. Both cards are from that era. The first one is Tokyo in 1971. It is called Sentimental Journey by photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. (Collection of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)

Here are the stamps. It's a shame that I can't read what it says on the stamp. I like to know what they 

are all about.

This second card is from 1971 too, but it is from Portugal. It is an elderly spinster. No, not an unmarried woman but a woman who spins. In this case she is a spinner of Perre linen from Minho (in the north of Portugal)

And this is the stamp. It has delicious looking sweet rolls on it. They are called pastel de Tentúgal. (Tentúgal is a city near Coimbra) They are made of thin filo pastry and filled with a custard made with egg yolks. Very yummy!

As I am writing this, we are in France. We left Spain early on Monday morning and spent the

 night in northern Spain near the Pyrenees mountains, in a place called Huesca. We found a hotel and went out for a drink and a tapa. (Enough for me by ways of supper. )

The tapas rolled by like they do in some sushi bars and you just take what you fancy.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156410684991060&set=pcb.10156410688806060&type=3&theater

Here I wanted to put the photo,but I don’t know how to do that. I am doing this on my iPad and the photos are taken with this device, so I have published them on Facebook and here is the link. Is anyone iPad savvy? Sorry about that. 

I’ll post this before I do anymore damage and lose the lot.

Happy t-day all,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 25 May 2018 - Friday Smiles:habas, geraniums, cherry blossom and vintage chocolate

Hello lovely people,

It's Friday again and I have had a very full week, getting ready for our holiday. Yes, I'm still smiling. It has been busy but I don't get flustered easily. I just keep on going until it is all done, and try to be sensible about it and make lists so i don't forget and I try to work ahead so I don't have to do everything at the last minute. (I hate that).

We had a little house-warming do on Sunday. Most people brought a dish of something. I didn't remember to take pictures until most of it had gone. One person brought a whole crate of fava beans (habas in Spanish). When they are fresh from the field, you can eat them raw. That is what people do: with a glass of wine and some slices of jamon (Serano ham) and a piece of freshly baked bread. Mmmm, I couldn't thing of anything better on a sunny spring day!

Of course we didn't eat the whole crate. What was left you can see here. I just peeled them and later today I will cook them and we will eat them today with (again) ham or bacon bits and diced red pepper to give it a bit of colour.

So that is one of my smiles (amongst many).

Below you see one of the the geraniums that I bought recently. Its companion is doing fine but this one sort of half died. It has picked up a bit, but still half of the plant is completely gone.

Its companion is looking fine and has many buds. It is supposed to be a plant that repells mosquitos. I hope it does its job.

The reason for my smiles today is the fact that it is now flowering! Beauty!

Lets not forget my postcards this week. Again, I received many. This is one of them. It was sent to me from Japan and it depicts a scene from the film Titanic. I have seen the film but I don't understand why people go so wild about it. It was OK, but I wouldn't want to see it again. Some scenes were so long drawn that I wished the cinema had a fast-forward button! It doesn't help that I don't particularly like Leonardo di Caprio. I find him a creep (sorry girls).

This was the stamp. Cherry blossoms. Much nicer than Di Caprio's moosh.

This is my favorite card. Not just because it is about chocolate! I just like the whole vintage thing. It's beautiful. It was sent to me by Penny who lives with her family in Virginia (USA). They moved there 5 years ago from S.Korea. She recently retired from the military and has taken up the hobby of Postcrossing so that she could travel the world through postcards in stead of in real life.

The stamps are beautiful. The one on the right is from a series about painter Andrew Wyeth. I have a couple of stamps in that series. They are stunning.

That was it from me this week. Next week I will be writing from the Netherlands (God willing). I will have to do it from my iPad, which is going to be interesting to say the least....

For Friday smiles I always link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time and with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday. So I'm going to do that now, but not before I share some funnies I found on the internet. (Two cat funnies and two dog funnies)

Have a fab weekend and a good week ahead.

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 22 May 2018 - T for North Carolina and patios

Good morning all! Here we are again sharing some things which include a beverage. Elizabeth and Bluebeard welcome us every Tuesday for the T-Party.

My blog is about postcards so here is my first postcard. I have stated in my Postcrossing profile that I love maps, so I regularly receive map cards. I love maps from the States. 

My geography is not that brilliant and I wouldn't be able to point out N Carolina on the map, but now I know the shape and I have also looked at a bigger map to see where it is in relation to other states. Lovely card with lots of information about the state.

It was sent to me by someone who works for a university. He/she wrote that this is a very busy time of year because of the preparations for the graduation. Once the academic year is finished, the work is less hectic as there are less people about.

My second card is an ad-card. The sort of card you get in cinemas and restaurants to advertise themselves or other services. I found this card in Córdoba when I was there recently.

The place looks really inviting and i decided I would go for a drink there if i had the chance. The chance came when my travel companions went to visit a museum I had already been to, which gave me an hour or so to be on my own.

This is the entrance to 'El Patio de Maria'. (You will find a  close-up of this sign at the end of this blog post.) 

It reads: 'Sit long, talk much, 

laugh often, drink wine, 

eat a flamenquín. 

The Patio is open and beautiful. 

Welcome to the Maria's Patio'. 

At the bottom it says in Spanish: 'If you want to see it, you have to come.' So I did....

I went to sit at the end table on the right (the only free table) and looked around me.

To my left was a wall with climbing plants and a water feature.

Looking up I saw lemons hanging above me.

My order, lager with lemon juice, came with a dish of olives. Very nice. I could have stayed there all day, it was so beautiful. But I had to watch the time as it would be at least a 20 minute walk back to the coach. 

That was my beverage for today's T-Party. What have you been doing/making/drinking this week? Join me at Altered Book Lover.

Bye for now,

Lisca

I didn't have a 'flamenquín', but this is what it looks like. It is made with cooked ham, Serano ham and eggs.

A Postcard A Day - Friday 18 May 2018 - Friday Smiles

Good morning lovely people!, How are you all? Have you had much to smile about? I am here to show you a few postcards I have received and to show you a few things that have been happening here in Caniles. Life is full of smiles.

First of all here is a wonderful vintage postcard from Finland. It is a 1939 travel poster. Quite frankly it baffles me as I found that Helsinki hosted the summer Olympics in 1952. So why they would issue a poster or a card with the Olympic rings in 1939? Perhaps they bid and didn't win....I don't know.

The card was sent to me by Sari in very good English. She wrote that she was recovering from breast cancer and all the treatment.She also mentions that Finland does not have a royal family, but that "Our president and his lovely wife and newborn baby are almost the same!" There is an image of the president on the stamp but I forgot to scan it.

Then  this black and white (also vintage) image comes from Germany. 

 The sender, Martin, lives near the Dutch border in a town that is known as bicycle heaven. He writes: "Nordhorn is one of the finest bike towns in Germany".

For Friday smiles I always link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time and with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday. Last week Virginia had made fluffy scones and added the link to the recipe. So I made some too this week. Thank you Virginia!

Here they are just being egg washed.

And this is what they looked like when they came out of the oven. A bit irregular, but they tasted lovely. Really Fluffy. We don't have self raising flour here so I used normal flour and added a sachet of baking powder. That is probably why they have risen so much.

My hubby has been really busy getting the last details of the ground floor flat ready. The gates and railing were ready and the man came to place them. Here is the door from the carport to the patio.

This is the door from the carport into the kitchen/lounge.

Here is hubby painting the railing for the main windows.

That certainly made me smile. This weekend we will be having a house warming party/bring and share. So we are busy getting everything ready.

I will be taking pictures, which I shall share at some stage.

Now for some funnies:

This last image is a postcard I received from Holland. It has a greeting on it: "Fijne Dag", which means 'fine day'. It is what the Dutch say in stead of 'Have a nice day'.

So I wish everybody 'Fijne Dag'!

Keep smiling,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 15 May 2018 - T for Córdoba, paella and a water tower

Good morning lovely people!

Here we are on Tuesday again. I'm visiting Elizabeth and Bluebeard bearing beverages and photos.

First off some photos from my visit to Córdoba a couple of weeks back.  We visited several typical patios as it was the flower and patio festival. 

It was lovley! I really enjoyed seeing all the different patios and I got quite a lot of inspiration for our own patio.

This patio has lot of beautiful flowers. And below you see a detail of the wall in another patio.

The flowers in pots were amazing, Here are a few photos.

There was even a lemon tree, which is unusual because the climate is not hot enough.

This is a lemon tree. Quite unusual as it really not warm enough in Cordoba.

This sculpture made me smile.

This street was named after hasdey Ibn Shaorut, who born about 915 at Jaén, Spain; died about 970 at Córdoba, was a Jewish scholar, physician, diplomat, and patron of science. An interesting man. Read more about him at the end of this blog.

I walked past the old walls.

I love these steps where they have used pebbles in a certain pattern. Very effective.

There was water running all along the wall and it made for a pleasant walk.

Just a scene from that street.

When I met up with the group again, I found them browsing in a souvenir shop. Of course I had to go in and buy some postcards. Below on display are not postcards, but metal plaques.

Our lunch was good. The first course was pella of course, and the main course was chicken. All very nice. Lets not forget the beverage. I was having wine as usual. (But that was not very nice quality. It was all included in the price so I am not moaning)

Now for my postcards. I received this beauty from Germany last week. It is the water tower in Monchengladbach. It is built in Art Nouveau style and I like it very much. The more I look at it, the more detail I see. There is not much info to be found about it. I don't even know if it is open to the public.

The stamp is great. Snoopy and the Peanuts. What a fun stamp!

The second postcard came to me from Taiwan. Yes, I know it doesn't look Chinese. The pub is the Sherlock Holmes in London. It was sent to me because I like windows and doors, so I got one from this pub. I cringe at the sentiment under the photo. (It doesn't make sense to me)

But the stamps are cute: a puppy chasing a butterfly and some berries.

That is all from me today. I am writing this at midnight, so I'm going to bed now and will comment after I've had some sleep.

Wishing you all a very happy T-Day and  a good week,

Hugs,

Lisca

Info about Hasdey Ibn Shaprut taken from Wikipedia: His father, Isaac ben Ezra, was a wealthy and learned Jew of Jaén. Hasdai acquired in his youth a thorough knowledge of Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin, the last-named language being at that time known only to the higher clergy of Spain. He also studied medicine, and is said to have discovered a panacea, called Al-Faruk. Appointed physician to Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III (912-961), he, by his engaging manners, knowledge, character, and extraordinary ability, gained his master's confidence to such a degree that he became the caliph's confidant and faithful counselor. Without bearing the title of vizier he was in reality minister of foreign affairs; he had also control of the customs and ship-dues in the port of Córdoba. Hasdai arranged the alliances formed by the caliph with foreign powers, and he received the envoys sent by the latter to Córdoba. In 949 an embassy was sent by Constantine VII. to form a diplomatic league between the hard-pressed Byzantine empire and the powerful ruler of Spain. Among the presents brought by the embassy was a magnificent codex of Pedanius Dioscorides' work on botany, which the Arabic physicians and naturalists valued highly. Hasdai, with the aid of a learned Greek monk named Nicholas, translated it into Arabic, making it thereby the common property of the Arabs and of medieval Europe.