Monday 17 February 2020

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 18 February 2020 - T for turtles, wine and stamps

Good morning lovely ladies,
It's a lovely day today and I'm typing this with the sun streaming through the terrace doors and windows. 

I received a beautiful card this week. It is called a Maxi card and the unusual thing is the stamp is stuck on the front of the card. I have a few of these maxi cards but this is the first one with a subject close to my heart. 
It's about 100 years women in medical practice. 

 The lady on the stamp is Constance Stone. She was born on 4 December 1856 in Hobart, Tasmania to William and Betsy Stone. The family moved to Melbourne in 1872. In 1882, Stone met Reverend David Egryn Jones, who had emigrated from England. Moved by the poverty his parish, Jones decided to study medicine, and Constance followed suit. She was forced to leave Australia to study medicine since the University of Melbourne would not admit women into the medicine course. She graduated from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, and was awarded her MD from the University of Trinity College, Toronto in 1888. Jones followed her to Canada to earn his MD.
Stone went on to London where she worked in the New Hospital for Women and qualified as a licentiate of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1889. It was her time at the New Hospital which was her inspiration to one day found a hospital that was run 'by women, for women'.
In 1890, after she returned to Australia, she became the first woman to be registered with the Medical Board of Victoria. Her sister, Grace 'Clara' Stone followed her into medicine. Clara had been allowed to study in Australia and was one of two women who graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1891. The sisters went into private practice together and both worked at the out-patients' dispensary in La Trobe Street. (Wikipedia)
 The second card comes to me from the USA and depicts turtles (my favorite animals). It is called 'Perilous Passage' from Animal Kingdom by Charley Harper.
Charley Harper (1922 – 2007) was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist. He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters and book illustrations. Born in Frenchton, West Virginia in 1922, Harper's upbringing on his family farm influenced his work to his last days. He left his farm home to study art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and won the academy's first Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Scholarship. Also during his time at the Academy, and supposedly on the first day, Charley met fellow artist Edie Mckee, whom he would marry shortly after graduation in 1947.
In a style he called "minimal realism", Charley Harper captured the essence of his subjects with the fewest possible visual elements. When asked to describe his unique visual style, Charley responded:
When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don't see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe. (Wikipedia)
Here is another example of his art:
 So what else has been happening? We have been to visit the local (Caniles, southern Spain) bodega (vinyard/winery). We want to plant some vines for ourselves and need to learn a bit more and do our research of course. 

The bodega Vilaplana is only a few kilometers from our house, but we had never been there. It is the white  house in the distance:
The almond trees are in blossom. Here we are getting closer:
Here is a photo of the house (business downstairs) from the internet as it was getting dark.

 We went there at 6:30 pm so not much time to see things by daylight, but we got a quick tour of the vineyard:
 And they showed us the process. Here is the wine they produce from the red Tempranillo grapes and red Grenach. (suitable for hot dry weather) The white grapes used are Macabeo and Jaen. 
The white wine is called 'Diez días de marzo', which means ten days in March. It is named in honour of an old irrigation right. Since hundreds of years, the poorest farms would plant vines and they would have the privilege to irrigate with pure mountain melt water (Sierra Nevada) during the first ten days of March.
 When the sun set it was time to go home.

That is it from me today. As my blog post contains some bottles of wine, I have the perfect ticket for the T-Party, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. Are you joining us?

Happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca

15 comments:

  1. I always enjoy reading about your postcards Lisca. I especially love Charlie Harper's art and the turtle card! Fun visiting wineries and learning about the local grapes. Thanks for sharing and happy T day!

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  2. I bet you loved the medical card Lisca. I also enjoyed the art of Charley Harper as he is a new artist for me. I love seeing your visit to the vineyard too. It is nice to see spring coming someplace in the world. Not here. Hope you enjoy the wine and have a wonderful T day. Hugs-Erika

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  3. Hi Lisca, I enjoy your postcards and stamps too and thanks for sharing more information about them.
    That is so fun to have a winery nearby-enjoy your wine and have fun planting some grape vines. Happy T hugs Kathy

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    1. Good morning, I had to drop back to your post to see that I have wine from the same grapes in the winery-awesome

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  4. The medical card was interesting. Those cards with the stamps on them are rare and I know how much you like the nursing community, too. I especially like the postcard with the turtles. I had never heard of Charley Harper before, but I really like his art.

    Kansas has never been popular for making wine, but lately some farms have turned to making elderberry wines and they seem really popular in this area. I say all that because I was impressed with the winery you visited. I hope you learned about soil testing, irrigation practices, and how to secure the vines. It's something I learned when I toured a winery in California. Even though I don't drink wine, I am sure you will enjoy making your own. Hope it becomes profitable, too. I know Krisha will enjoy reading about it.

    Thanks for sharing your postcards and your trip to the winery with us for T this Tuesday.

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  5. Wow. We need to be so thankful for women like Constance Stone!
    To leave beautiful Australia to make a point and now we all can study whatever and wherever we want.

    Call me... I dunno. The only male doctor I have is an orthopedist, all other are women!

    You have almond trees! Wow! And such beautiful houses! Interesting story around the wine, too.
    Happy T-day and hugs :-)

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  6. Your postcards are both beautiful and very interesting, thanks for including the backstories. Wine making sounds like fun, but also a lot of hard work. I have visited a lot of vineyards in Germany and it was always fun - especially as it was always accompanied by a tasting session! Happy T Day, hugs, Valerie

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  7. Lisca thanks for the tour of the bodega, we’ve been to one in Jumilla, very interesting seeing the process and trying different wines.
    We grew a grapevine in our BBQ area and it was beautiful but the birds just decimated them every year, made such a mess we eventually gave up so make sure you watch out when they are ripe, we also grew one in England, we bought it from a specialist who sold us one that would grow in the North,
    You should go to Jerez if you like sherry, they do tours and tastings and even give you cheese and bread to eat with the wine.
    Happy T day
    Jan x

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  8. What a lovely setting, sweet almond blossoms, and that stand-out house! I'll join you for a glass of the wine :) Happy T Tuesday!

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  9. Lovely post card, & stamps, too. What a nice visit to the vineyard. I would find it interesting. Thank you for the nice welcome back. Happy T Day.

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  10. Fabulous postcards! How wonderful to visit the vineyard too, it's always fun to discover new places 😊. I bet the wine was lovely too, I'll try a glass of the red - cheers and Happy T Day! Hugs, Jo x

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  11. I always love pulling up your post to see the cheerful header and your pretty smile.
    The post cards are a real treasure.
    The wine information was very interesting (since i'm a wine drinker) Almost all the wine grapes grown in this area are dry crops, they only get water to get the roots established.
    Thanks for asking about the Bible journaling, I'll try to remember to post some of it.
    Belated T-day wishes my friend.

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  12. Lovely postcards and stamps. I like seeing the almond blossoms. That vineyard looks lovely. Happy Belated T-Day!

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  13. Love the cards and the info about Constance Stone! I looked up more art of Charley Harper's - love his style! I shall look forward to seeing how your grapes grow! Belated Happy T Day, Chrisx

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  14. Catching up. Enjoyed the cards and the stories behind the Stone women and Harper. What an interesting art style. My Godfather had a grape arbor. The vines provided a shady area to sit under. I don't remember whether he made wine from the grapes, but your post brought back happy memories of a wonderful man. Thank you.

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