A Postcard A Day - Friday 31 August 2018 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies,
Here I am again to share a few smiles. It's been a good week and like always, full of smiles.

Let me show you a few cards that I received this week:

 This one comes from the Czech Republic and reads: "Planting potatoes at school of Agriculture in Tábor. 1913-1919".  It made me smile as the students are working the land in a suit and hat. Not a boot or an overall in sight!

The stamp is gorgeous. It features the the Palais Stoclet, the house Josef Hoffmann designed in 1905 for the Belgian Banker Adolphe Stoclet in Brussels.

 I found some photos of it on an architect's website:

It is made of white marble, outside and in. Here is the dining room:

 The walls are decorated by Gustav Klimt

One of my favorite artists. The whole set-up reminds me a bit of Charles Rennie Mackintosh who was a Scottish architect and designer. Take a look at that living room:

A feast for the eye! Unfortunately it is still a family home and as such not open to the public.

My second card is a playful pin-up type card from Russia.

 Again with an interesting stamp.

Those of you in the know will recognise the logo of the world championships soccer in Russia held not long ago.

One of the smiles this week is about the carpenter that came to our house so that I could order a cupboard/wall units for the flat upstairs. We will be going to the UK soon and the cabinet will be ready when we come back in October.

 I need a space to put my glasses in and on the right is a tallboy space to put mops etc in. They (the mops) were always 'parked' at the top of the stairs but that is not a very nice welcome as you come into the flat. In future they will be hidden.

And I've done some card making. The recipient of this card has had his birthday, so I can show the card now.

I've had lots to smile about and I would like you to smile too, so I will include a few funnies. This time they have a baby/kids boozy theme:

That's it ladies! I'm off to Anne at A Stitch In Time and then I'll stop at Virginia's Rocking Your World Friday.

Does anyone like puns? Here are a few to keep you out of mischief...

Have a lovely weekend,
Keep smiling,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 28 August 2018 - T for cakes and cards

Good morning lovely peeps,

Are you ready for the T-Party? Head over to Elizabeth and Bluebeard's Altered Book Lover with a blogpost that has a beverage in it. 

I will come to my beverage later, but first a few postcards:

This one is on its way to Canada. She wanted a card that reflected the culture of my country, so this is an image of the tiled facade of a restaurant in madrid that we visited. It features a (rather miserable looking) bull fighter.
I looked on Google to see if I could find a photo of the restaurant:

 Two very bad ones (sorry).

The second card is also about culture, Andalusian culture. Flamenco is still very much in the heart of the people. I hear nothing else from morning till evening. (It's awful when badly done).

The dancers are beautiful in their pretty dresses and magnificent posture. Every fiesta time the girls walk dressed like this, even little ones and I love seeing it. 

This next card was handed to me by friends of ours who had just been on holiday with their two boys to the beach. They had remembered that I love postcards and had bought me one of the place they were staying. Bless them. 

San Juan de los Terreros is on the coast, an hour and a half drive from here. It looks lovely, doesn't it.

Now for my culinary shinanigans: August is a busy month. Lots of parties and dinners out. Our Danish neighbours are back (they are here only part-time). They invited us to dinner. As it's still very hot here, I made a cheese cake. I even found some cherries in syrup in the pantry for decoration.

 This is the result. It was very yummy. And here is my drink (red wine this time).

The other day our elderly neighbour Serafín, brought me a pile of plums. 

I didn't want to make jam, as we still had loads. So I made cakes. I must have made 4 large ones. This is the last one. I have taken one to a party and the rest is in the freezer as this particular cake freezes well.

 Then the other day I remembered I had spare ribs in the fridge, so this weekend we cooked this on our little travel BBQ. I was really looking forward to it and had marinaded it since the night before in my favorite smoky sauce.

But it was such a disappointment when it came to eating it! It was the wrong cut! There was a bone along the side attached to the ribs and there was hardly any meat on it! Look at my plate. I have finished but all that is left is bones and I am still hungry.  I had not made many side dishes, just a bit of salad. But I had opened a nice bottle of rosé....

We consoled ourselves with a large piece of plum cake!

OK, enough now. I will stop.

Have a good week, 
Happy T-Day,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 24 August 2018 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies (and the odd man),

I'm here again to tell you about my smiles this week. It's summer, the sun is shining, the population of the village has doubled and there is a real buzz about the place. This week has been a continuation of meetings, diners and drinks with friends. Phew, living the high life can be very tiring! (I'm sounding like an old fogey).

Happy mail still seems to be one of the highlights of my week. I love receiving postcards. Here are two more that I received this week.

The first one is an old map card of Latvia. I have a fascination with maps (don't ask) so I particularly love this one

It was sent to me by Taiga who lives in Riga, the capital of Latvia. The map was published in 1919, made by Latvian artist Ansis Cirulis. And is now  in the National History Museum.

 The stamp features a beautiful freesia. I love freesias, especially the fragrant kind. 

My second card comes from Holland and it is made by the Dutch lepra charity. It features an Indian (Calcutta) woman and her son. I just love how she looks at her boy with love and pride.

 The stamp is very summery and I am so glad that they have had such a good, warm suymmer in Holland.

I seem to have been making desserts and cakes a lot this week. I made this tarta a tres chocolates (three chocolate cake). It is something I learned to make here in Spain. It is a sort of cheese cake (not baked) It has the biscuit base, then each layer is made with a different chocolate (Dark, milk and white) . Each slab of chocolate get melted directly in a pan of milk and (unwhipped) whipping cream and sugar. Then a sachet of congealing stuff (cuajado) is added and the mixture poured onto the biscuit layer. The other layers are made in the same way. When the next layer is cooked the previous layer has already congealed enough to receive the next lot. It is not difficult but a lot of work and I was so glad it turned out beautifully. 

It is not the first time I made this, so I know it will be good. Needless to say everyone was impressed.

Others smiles this week include my lovely neighbour Vicente. His wife Encarna used to come to the gym with me. He is an old fashioned gentleman and everytime I meet him in the village, he greets me by lifting his hat as a salute.  

Every time this happens it makes my day. A few days ago I met him again, and I had my phone on me. I told him how much I loved that old fashioned gesture and could I take a picture of him. So here he is posing.

This week we got given a lot of produce again. A (small) bucket of plums made its way to our front door.

We decided to eat them rather than make jam, but they were too many. It would have given me a tummy ache. So when in doubt, bake a cake:

All the plums, which I had arranged skin side up, have sunken into the cake mixture, but I shall sprinkle icing sugar and cinnamon over the top and it will taste delightful (I've made that recipe many times)

Lastly we received a bag of organic peppers from another neighbout. I love those. They have a thinner skin than the bell peppers you buy in the UK, and I love them fried with an egg in the middle (and fresh ciabatta bread of course).

Life is good!

Now to finish, here are a few random funnies. The first one is gorgeous and the last one a ...scream.

 That's it for today. Please share your smiles with Annie at A Stitch In Time and visit Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday.

Have a fab weekend,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 21 August 2018 - T for cakes and cards

Good morning lovely peeps,

Here I am again with some postcards to show you and hopefully some drinks. I will be joining the T-Party organised by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. All I need is an image of a beverage. That is proving more difficult than I thought. All my photos are on my mobile or tablet and I don't seem to be able to  send them to my computer. (I usually email them to myself. I can do that as I have more than one email account). Not to worry, lets have some postcards:

This one came to me from Russia. It's a sort of pin-up. A pretty girl in the snow, probably freezing her t...toes off!  I quite like it. It is a fun picture.

The stamps are fabulous:

 There is a round stamp with apples, a football world cup stamp, and two kremlin stamps.

 Here is one from the series of head dresses. 

Russian Federation, September 23, 2009

Culture of Russian People - National Head dress - Middle of XIX Century, Nizhniy Novgorod Province
Quite spectacular!

Russian Federation, December 18, 2008

Decorative Art of Dagestan - Sewn on pendant from the wedding head-dress "Margjal".

So many stamps on one card!! There was hardly any room to write the address.

What can I offer you in the way of a beverage?

Here is a photo I took in a bar along the motorway, when we stopped for a coffee and a bun.

Now for the last series of photos from Plasencia. This is the old cathedral:

 This is just one of the little narrow streets:

 A street lamp:

 The (i think West) city gate:

 The same gate a bit closer:

 In the main square there were plaques in the pavement to indicate who had lived in that particular building. Most were wealthy jewish families. 

 Apparently the Jews and the Moors lived peacefully together in those days. The Catholic kings didn't conquer this part of Spain until 1492. 

Interesting isn't it. This one reads: David Abeasra and his father-in-law Jacob Cerfaty (1455).

I think this is it for today, 

Happy T-Day,

Hugs,

Lisca