A Postcard A Day - Friday 30 August 2019 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies, it is Friday again. The week just flies by! I'm here to show you some postcards and tell you what made me smile this week. 

My first postcard comes from Taiwan and is a bit of a mishmash as it has two works by Picasso on it and some quotes. On the back it says: Coastal Museum of Art. 

I haven't decided whether I like it or not. It seems a bit confusing to me, as if an artist has taken two copies of Picasso and made it into a collage of sorts.

All I can say is that the stamp is stunning! No doubt it shows a Taiwanese beauty spot.

The next card did make me smile. It is a black and white bunch of carrots, sent to me by Davida, a retired social worker in Sacramento, California. I particularly like it as we are starting a 21 day Daniel Fast on the 1st of September, where we can only eat vegetables and fruit so we can focus on spiritual things. And she sends me a bunch of carrots! Of course she didn't know, but I still think it's funny.

The carrots are an artwork called Carrot Bunch, 2012 by Patricia Curtan. The stamps are beautiful too. I can see a bunch of grapes, a black and white rose and a strange looking frog.

On Sunday we had a couple of missionaries in our church. It was interesting to hear them talk about their work among the Muslim women in southern Spain and across the water in Morocco. They are the lady with the yellow blouse and the lady 3rd from the right, standing next to me 

Here is a photo when we went out for a drink one evening. It is still warm enough to sit outside.

 Another thing that made me smile is the picture of our youngest grandchild in the kitchen in Portugal. He is found climbing the bench so he can get to the Nutella that daddy had put away on a high shelf!

 The following photos are from Portugal too. We visited the castle at Silves and inside the castle grounds there were some sculptures being shown.

 The photo below shows pomegranates on the tree.

And this did not make us smile at the time: 

 It was hot in Portugal!
The photo below has been taken inside the museum of Portimao (mercifully air conditioned). The exhibition was about the architecture of the Algarve. And you might know that I love doors and windows, so I had to have my picture taken by one of those pretty doors (well, it was not a real door...)

 That is it from me this week. I am going to scoot over to Annie at A Stitch In Time and to Virginia at Rocking you world Friday.
Of course there will be some funnies at the end.
Have a great weekend!
Keep smiling!
Hugs,
Lisca

Edit: I have been told this first one is about Kansas City in Missouri, not Kansas City, Kansas!

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 27 August 2019 - T for teeth and together

Hello lovely peeps, How are you? A week has past and I'm going to join the T-Party hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth. Please join us with a beverage (or reference) in your blogpost.

Nudity warning: A woman's breasts are clearly visible in one of my photos. Don't read any further if you do not want to see this.

Let me show you some postcards. This one is from Indonesia. It shows the traditional dress of the Bugis tribe in the south of Sulawesi island (Formerly known as Celebes).

 The traditional costume of the women, Baju Bodo, has an oblong short sleeved top made of sheer fabric worn with a silk sarong. In this picture, suitable for western sensibilities, the lady is wearing something underneath her sheer top. But in the old days they wore nothing underneath:

The stamp is really colourful, but I have no idea what it represents.

The second card comes from Lithuania. Again it is depicting national dress. 

It was sent to me by a couple on their 'honeyweek'. I assume she means honeymoon. Isn't that nice! They were staying in the 'Wellness Springs Resort' Druskininkai in southeast Lithuania. A lovely spa by the looks of it. (I googled it) I also found another photo of their traditional dress (Boobs covered this time):

The stamp is beautiful. A stork and her babies. (Storklings? No, I made that up)

I find storks fascinating. Did you see the photo I took in Portugal recently on my previous blog post? Here it is again:

There were a lot of storks flying about there.

My week (like last week) has seen me go to the dentist a few times. I now am minus two molars (on the same side).

Here is a photo of the children's corner of the waiting room. I had to smile at the stool in the shape of a molar.

Because I am also lacking a molar on the other side, eating has become increasingly difficult and slow. My dentist says I have to wait two months until he wants to discuss possible future action. In the meantime, dinner out with friends also requires a certain tactic. I ordered 'revuelto', which is vegetables and egg, in my case with shrimps. Nice and soft.

Our drinks were beers. But the bottle of red was on its way and I took this picture while we waited for that.

Our friends are the Danish couple that own the house across the ravine (we wave to each other from time to time). The had a friend staying with them. The waiter offered to take a picture of us all.

One of our church friends is a metal worker and all our metal grids on the windows have been made by him. We asked him to make a gate for the car port:

The panels arrive. 

There are 5 fold-able sections and to make the frame we needed a 6 meter long bar. Our friend could not buy that as he only has a small car. So hubby got his trailer out and off the went. I'm not sure if it was all together legal, but they got home safely:

This is the end result and we are both very pleased.

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

A Postcard A Day - Friday 23 August 2019 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely peeps, It's Friday again. Time to recall the smiles in our week and share them with a link to Annie at A Stitch In Time.

We've been on holiday to Portugal to spend some time with one of our boys and his family. Our daughter-in-law's father is Portuguese and they have a lovely villa in the Algarve. The family were staying there and kindly invited us to spend a couple of days with them at the villa.

Coincidentally I received a postcard from Portugal the week before leaving. It is from Maria José and it shows the map of the country.

We were staying almost at the furthest south-west point of Portugal. (Between the letters A and L on the card).

The stamp is beautiful and depicts one of the most popular pastries of Portugal. Pastel de Tentúgal. It is one of the things I like about Portugal, all those luscious pastries! (Look at my Tuesday blog post to see our visit to a lovely oldie worldie tearoom).

My second card comes from New York City  in the US. It hasn't got much written on it other than that there is a thunderstorm, so the sender has decided he/she will write some postcards.

The image on the card is a dress from the 1989 spring/summer collection of fashion designer Patrick Kelly.

The '80s was a blast for everyone, but this designer in particular was not only having the time of his life, but making history as well. Patrick Kelly was an American designer from Mississippi, a facet he kept central to his brand throughout his career. He started in Atlanta, then moved to New York, starting his education at Parsons School of Design before moving to Paris. Kelly entered the Paris fashion scene in 1985 after being advised by his friend, the model and Black fashion icon, Pat Cleveland, to relocate and launch his career in the fashion capital. He is remembered not only for his whimsical, one-of-a-kind designs, but for his larger than life personality to match.

Let me show you some photos from Portugal. Here is a plaque, or large cork card I saw on the wall somewhere.

I always love to see the storks. We can usually spot the nests on high poles, but not often do we see them the storks around. There were quite a few circling on this occasion and I managed to get a good shot of one of them:

Of course the symbol of Portugal is the colourful cockerel. You see it everywhere. This is the fridge magnet I bought.

This is one of the tiles for sale. It has the cockerel on it and sardines which are the fish that this part of the world is famous for.

I thought this sign would make you smile. Apparently the portughese word for toilets is 'latrina'. Of course the English speakers among us will think of a hole in the ground. It had me chuckling. 

Outside the castle that we visited in Silves, there was this large statue. (Don't ask me who it is. I forgot to make a note of it). Our youngest grandchild is looking up in awe.

The oldest grandchild was not that i mpressed and was more interested to have a private moment at the back of the statue.

As usual, I will put some funnies at the end. They are all taken at weddings this time, and they all made me smile. 

Have a good week, and

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 20 August 2019 - T for Isabel's tea room and a random letter

Hello lovely peeps,

We are back from the Algarve (Portugal). And I'm joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T-party with images from there. More about that later.

Lets have a look at my postcards:

It reads:

Get a dictionary.

- The first word of your letter must be chosen from page 48.

- The fifth word of your letter must be chosen from page 10.

- The twelfth word of your letter must be chosen from page 100.

- The eighteenth word of your letter must be chosen from page 25.

The above card came to me from Canada. Written by a Chinese (girl, I assume) who is studying in Halifax. She hopes I will enjoy playing the game of words on the card. Well, I might just do that. But who am I going to send the letter to?

The stamps are gorgeous. The stamp with HM the queen is lovely. She is smiling. The stamp on the right has an unusual subject: covered bridges. I have never seen a covered bridge, but Canada must have several otherwise they wouldn't have a stamp series about them.

I found some info:

Red Bridge

Description
The bridge is known as Similkameen River Bridge No. 6 at mile 163.8 on the Great Northern Railway’s Cascade Division.  It is 942 feet long.  The bridge is called a “through timber trusspan” with three spans involved in this particular bridge. It was built by Victoria, Vancouver and Eastern Railroad (V.V. and E) in 1907, during the gold mining era. Train service began in December 1909. The railway put an end to horse drawn freight service and led to renewed prosperity at Hedley. The Kettle Valley line was completed between Penticton and Princeton in 1915 and through the Coquihalla to Hope in 1916.

The Red Bridge spans the Similkameen River and is an integral reminder of the bygone time when the V.V. and E. Railway ran up the valley.  This line has been abandoned for many years.  The Red Bridge is used as a highway bridge to the south side of the river and to the Ashnola.  It serves as a passage to the world-renowned Cathedral Lakes Park.

Heritage Value
The Red Bridge is the last of three such structures which could be seen in the lower valley only a decade ago. The Red Bridge is one of the only bridges of this type in Western Canada. In greater Canada, the Red Bridge is one of the only covered bridges that remains standing and is still in use by public and industry. The Red Bridge is one of the last historic standing structures in the Similkameen.

Character-Defining Elements                                                                   The Red Bridge is unique in that its timber structure is enclosed with red painted board sheathing to protect the wood from the elements, and as a result protection from dryness and/or wetness and rotting.  

From the Heritage Nomination Form

The next card comes from Germany. It is artwork by Valeria Docampo and is called ' Im Garten des Putschblumen'.

Valeria is an Argentinian illustrator who now lives in France and specializes in children's books. Here is a link to some of her work.

I don't think Putchblumen exist. At least I am not familiar with that word. Perhaps some of our German speaking friends might  want to comment on this. (I know that a military coup is sometimes called a 'putsch'.)

Now I will take you to Portugal. It was very hot and we couldn't go to the beach as the sand was too hot for the children to walk on and the ocean too cold (and too dangerous for small children) to swim in. So we did some sightseeing and played around the pool the rest of the time.

Here we are in the town of Portimao. There is a gorgeous little tea room that was famous for its cakes. So we had to visit. 

 It is called 'A Casa Da Isabel' (loosely translated: at Isabel's).

 It has a lovely tiled facade. Here is one of our grandchildren in the doorway.

Inside was very small. There are four tables to sit at. R and F are ordering coffee and cakes. What a choice

 Here is a picture of the choice we had.

Here is the corridor as we came in and there is another display cabinet on the left.

Here is a better picture of it.

One of our grandies chose the choc cake with the orange thingies. We asked and were told the orange bits are made of eggyolk and sugar.

Looking up above the counter, there is a gorgeous oldie-worldie cabinet on the wall.

Hubby has finally chosen (a carob cake, very popular in Portugal), 

 and we both had coffee of course.

The kids at the next table had an assortment and I managed to delay them for a few seconds so I could take the picture!

 Daniel decided he didn't like the orange bits so we painstakingly removed every little bit of orange, so he could eat it.

When I walked through the corridor to the toilets I took these pictures:

Isn't it delightful? 
I think this will qualify me for the T-Party. 
So I wish everyone a happy T-Day,
Hus,
Lisca