A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 30 July 2019 - T for Anniversary ATC!

Good morning lovely ladies! Today is Tuesday and time for the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. My drink is a coffee. The words say:'For you. Good Morning'.

Now for my postcards: This one comes from Germany and I like it a lot. It is a detail of an old door. It actually doesn't say which door it is, or where. But the detail of the door knocker (it looks gold doesn't it) is exquisite. And the ironwork is so finely done. They don't make'em like that any more.

My second card comes from the USA. It is a map card of the state New York. I am embarressed to say that I had to look this up. I hadn't realised that Albany was the capital and that NY city was right at the southern edge of the state.

The state bird is the Eastern Bluebird and the state flower is the rose. New York state has a population of 19,745,289!

It received statehood on July 26th 1788.

Now for something completely different. The anniversary ATC exchange. I received some happy mail last week 

 from Almeria (about an hour and a half down the road), It was my ATC from my swap partner Caty. I found lots of goodies inside:

I was very pleased with those goodies. There was (amongst other things) a lovely card with a personal message from Caty, there was a page in Japanese, and also three serviettes. A postcard from Almería (she knows I like postcards), a beautiful fridge magnet also from Amería and a little airmail envelope:

 And inside was...

 A colourful ATC specially for me!

 A fantastic shiny background with some really cute little bits and bobs. I love the rose and the crochet bit. Most of all I love the turtle. Turtles are my favorite animals! (Of course Caty didn't know that.) So thank you very much Caty! 

I sent an ATC to Sharon in Wichita. She has posted it on her blog but wasn't happy with the quality of the colours. She asked if I had a photo. Well, I confess I forgot to take any pictures of it. 
So I took her photos and  adjusted the colours a bit. This is what it looks like:

 And this is the 'holder' in the same style. The 'coffee o'clock is a sticker on a button.

So it was coffee and cake for Sharon.

I can't wait to see all the other ATCs. I'm going to have a look at them all now. 

Happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 26 July 2019 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies,

It's Friday again and this is the day I share all the smiles of this week. 

One smile was deifinitely the happy mail I received this week. Some colourful postcards.One of them is from Germany:

I have stated that i like to receive cards depicting something that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Well I got two in one: Goslar and Rammelsberg.

I got some photos and info from Wikipedia.

Goslar is a town in Germany’s Harz Mountains. It’s known for its medieval old town and half-timbered houses. Market Church St. Cosmas and Damian features 13th-century stained-glass windows. The 11th-century Imperial Palace has historic murals.

 South of Goslar is Rammelsberg Mountain. It is home to silver and copper mines more than 1,000 years old. The Rammelsberg Mining Museum preserves underground waterwheels and a mine railway.

Fascinating! I would love to visit those sites.

And the stamp was one that I hadn't seen before, from the flower series. This is a Flockenblume in German, which is knapweed in English. 

Another smile this week were the photos from way-back that my friend sent me from Italy. I have posted one in my previous blog (Tuesday) and here is another one. This is the staff of the maternity ward/labour room where i worked. I am the one laughing at the bottom of the photo. I had balanced my camera on a gurney and was taking pictures with the self timer. We had to have several 'goes' and i was dashing there and back. Quickly stooping on my knees. The nun (head of the department) is steadying me as I nearly fell over. 

 This was in the seventies. Some of them I am still in touch with. And others I only see when I go back to visit my son. Three ladies have since died (the two ladies in black, and the lady in white on the left.) Lovely memories...

Also this week a friend and i have each tried to start a sourdough starter. But for some reason mine didn't turn out well. My friend then offered to give me half of his and when he and his wife were in town last week, he gave me some and it seems to do now:

I can't wait to try and bake bread with it.

Also this week one of my neighbours said she had soaked too many borlotti beans, would I like some. I never say 'no' to something like that, so the other day I got my pressure cooker out. I put in the beans, some stock, a carrot and an onion and some celery, tomato paste and 13 minutes later I had a hearty soup. Ideal for the blistering hot weather (not!) And yes, I cooked the pasta separately. Anyway, it was delicious in spite of the hot weather.

We always go to our weekend home on Monday night. But as our friends were coming to bring me the sourdough, we changed the day to Tuesday. So on Tuesday evening we watched a DVD. We chose Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn.

 It is a 2011 3D motion capture computer-animated action-adventure film based on the comic book series of the same name by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. 

We grew up with the comic books of Hervé. In Dutch Tintin was called 'Kuifje' (meaning: Quif).

I have also found a funny about Tintin which you will find at the end.

Well, that was all I can think of about this week. Oh yes, my last visit to the dentist went well. All the stitches are out and I won't see him again until September.

Now I'm off to Annie at A Stitch In Time and then to Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

As per usual I will post some funnies at the end. 
Have a fab weekend,
Dont forget to drink plenty of water in the hot weather, and...
Keep smiling!

Hugs,
Lisca

A postcard A Day - Tuesday 23 July 2019 - T for...

Good morning lovely ladies! It's T-Time! I mean time for the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. You can join the party by posting an image of a beverage (or a reference to a beverage). This is mine, as I didn't take any pictures this week.

It was the 6th anniversary of the T-Party and we are sending each other ATCs. I have been having fun making a lovely ATC for Sharon.  I posted it yesterday and is winging its way to 

Wichita as we speak.  I forgot to take a picture of it so I hope Sharon will do that when she receives it, so that we can all see it.

My first postcard is a weird one. But someone had asked for maps of undergrounds from different cities. And here is one from Kopenhagen:

 I got this card when we were there last time. It is one of those advert cards. This one advertised the new to open lines in Kopenhagen. A new North-South line.

My second card is also a request. The recipient likes vintage travel posters. This one is from Biarritz which is in France, on the border of Spain and France, on the Mediterranean. 

 I bought this card in a little souvenir shop when we were in that area. (I never went to the golf course as we are not golfers).
The golf course still exists. I found some images on the internet:

My week has been focused on dental health. I have had the first of some dental work done, and one of my painkillers gave me a bad reaction. I'm fine now. Have to go back on Thursday to have my stitches removed and  to move on the the next bit of work to be done. (Sigh)

 Every day we get woken up early by heavy machinery passing through our (very small) lane. The council are repairing the drain system. Brilliant. In the year of the elections, lots of work gets done. It's a shame we only have local elections once every 4 years!
Then to add insult to injury, one of my neighbours up the road is doing some major restructuring. It involves a lot of cement. As the big cement mixers can't come through our lane, they go to a different road on a lower level and pump the cement through long pipes to where it needs to go. We had a machine like that when we were building. It's fascinating to watch.

 One of my friends in Italy, Marcella (a friend from way back) has sent me some old photos. And I have been reminiscing. Here is a photo of me (on the right standing up) with the rest of the staff of the Maternity/labour ward. This must have been in the seventies. 

I don't know if the consultant is still alive. The girl kneeling in the middle was the cleaner and bedpan lady. the other two kneeling are girls that looked after the babies in the baby room. (no babies by the bed in those days. It actually gave the mother time to recuperate after the birth). The girl next to me is also a nurse, an enrolled nurse, which was a lower qualified nurse. I'm not sure if that type of qualification still exists. Anyway, when I was in Italy recently, I met up with her again. That was great.
Then there was the nun. She was not officially qualified, but she ran the show. Of course she had 40 years experience and she was fair, so she was respected.

That is it from me today. 
Happy T-Day to all!
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 19 July 2019 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies, How are you today? Today is Friday and this blog post is about postcards and also about the smiles and the silver linings in our lives. 

The first postcard is one I myself sent. It went to a young lady in Italy who likes vintage postcards. This one was a fake vintage. The image was vintage but the card was new.

And this card is on its way to Minsk in Belarus. The recipient had stated that she likes images of the ocean and she also likes quotes. Well I found her a card that combines both. I'm sure she will love it and it will make her smile.

 I had to have some dental surgery done on Wednesday. Not nice. Nobody likes going to the dentist. But I am fortunate that I have a very nice dentist who is very capable and the whole procedure went well. 

 I was given antibiotics, anti inflammatory pills and some extra painkillers. On Wednesday evening I started to feel very ill, and during the night I was nauseous and vomited. I started to have pain, so I took more pain killers. Yesterday I was still ill and couldn't keep anything down and I was in bed all day. I had taken Ibuprofen before as well as the antibiotics, but the painkillers were new to me. I read the box and they were Paracetamol combined with codeine. They obviously didn't agree with me, and as soon as I stopped taking them, I felt better. In fact this morning I'm feeling human again. Phew. 
So thank God for modern dentistry and anesthetics, and for the fact that we can (just about) afford good dental care.

Now, look what I found in the post the other day! A parcel from my cousin in Holland with lots of little vintage images!  

 I can use them for card making, ATCs and pocket letters. Thank you Margit!

That is it from me, and of course there are some funnies for you to giggle about at the end. Lets head off to Annie at A Stitch In Time and then to Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

Have a fun weekend,
Stay safe and...
Keep smiling!
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 16 July 2019 - T for Anniversary, a pumping station, an owl and breakfast.

Hello lovely girls!

Here we are again waiting to go to the T-Party hosted by Bluebeard and Elizabeth. Today is the 6th anniversary of the T-Party!! So Happy Anniversary!!

Do please join us with a photo or a reference to a beverage. And as this is the anniversary party, Elizabeth is also hosting an anniversary ATC exchange. (Please read the instructions on her blog if you want to participate.)

My qualifier to the party is going to be a postcard I have sent yesterday. It's on its way to Russia as I speak/write.

Another card that i sent this week is this one of the Streatham Hill Pumping station in 1895 after they finished building it. I always wonder how they manage to make industrial and functional buildings so beautiful.

I found some more photos on the internet:

Above is a photo from the same era but from a different angle.

And here is a photo  with the surrounding area nicely landscaped. (But it doesn't have a date)

An image of the interior:

And this is what it looks like now, in full colour. Isn't it beautiful!

Anyone visiting London can walk past and have a look.

I went to the post office this week to buy some stamps. (this is always a grand palaver as I need to phone them in advance so that they can open the safe which is on a timer). Anyway this time was even more complicated as there was a locum who didn't know me. I did manage to buy some stamps in the end and very nice they are indeed. 

In fact I have never seen anything like it! They are made of very fine wood. The subject is the explorers of Oceania.

I don't think I've showed you the photos of our gym girls. The last day of June was also the last day of the gym until we start again in October. We were given our new shirts (red this time) and posed for a groups photo. (I am the one top right in the photo)

After half an hour of aerobics, and taking pictures, we all trooped to the nearest bar to have breakfast. There were 26 of us!

Here am I with Celia, the girl who also happens to live next door to me. I am having toast with olive oil and mashed tomatoes (+ salt), my favorite Andalucian breakfast. I'm also drinking a café cortado. 

Celia's drink is a freshly squeezed orange juice. Here in Spain it means literally freshly squeezed! They squeeze it in your presence with the help of a mechanized juicer. 

I'll leave it at that my friends. I wish everyone a 

Happy T-Day!

Hugs,

Lisca