Friday, 30 October 2020

A Postcard A Day - Friday 30 October 2020 - Friday Smiles

 Good morning lovely ladies!

How are you all? It's Friday again and time to look back on the week and count our blessings and show you what made us smile this week.

Usually my first smile is a postcard that has come through the door. But as we are moing from downstairs to upstairs, the scanner hasn't been set up yet so I have no photos of the cards that came in this morning. But I do have some cards that I sent to other people in the club. Some people like maps, so I always have some map card on hand.

Here is our province of Granada. We live in Caniles, which is near the bull's tail. As you can see we are on the edge of the province and when we drive down the road, we end up in the Almeria province.

Here is a similar card with the Almeria province on it. There is a lot more coastline in Almeria, and our blog friend Kate lives in this province.


How has your week been? My week has been super busy and I am absolutely shattered, because we have been moving from down stairs to upstairs and that is four storeys!
We started with justr sleeping upstairs.....
Saturday I went walking with my friend and we came by the herb place. They were distilling lavender and the smell was lovely as you can imagine.
Then  hubby and I went to a friend who lives in the hills with lots of horses, to collect manure.

We managed to fill the trailer and two large sacks in the car. It was gone 3 pm when we got back, so we had lunch at the Kiosko bar near our house.
On Sunday morning we went to the 'rastro', a sort of car boot sale. Hubby had told me there was a young lady that made (fake) bonsais that he liked, so we went to say hello to her and we bought one of her banzais. She sculpts the bottom and the green bits are live moss.

On Monday we went to our cave house. I took some left over paste with sauce, made a cheese sauce and stuck it in the oven to make 'pasticcio'. Very nice., 
Virginia had recommended a stove fan, so i decided to get one. It is activated by the heat and it helps distribute the warmth evenly through the room in stead of straight up to the ceiling (hot air rises). We felt the difference and we are very pleased. Thank you Virginia!

On Tuesday we found ourselves in our cave house in the country. When we are there we always go to this restaurant. There aren't many people as Granada city is in lockdown. (no passing trade).

On Wednesday we met the couple that temporarily is coming to live with us. She is an artist and she and her husband have a 4 year old boy. The have a house out in the sierra, a long drive over mountainous dirt tracks. The school run is a night mare and they are looking for something to rent in the village.

As this couple is going to stay with us for a while, we need to vacate the bottom flat. All our summer clothes (which we usually leave down there), all the books, all the pantry items and all personal stuff needed to be carried upstairs. It was a tiring day. I must say that the husband came to help us for a few hours that morning. 

That was my week. Very exhausting, but I hope the couple can move in on Saturday. 

The other news is that we are heading for a lock down. We are now no longer allowed to travel without a good reason. We have to stay in our village and there are road blocks everywhere. It doesn't effect us much as we don't go out much. The shops as well as my pantry are well stocked.

I'll leave it at that as I need to go to bed now. 
There will be some funnies at the end as per usual.
Have a lovely weekend and a good week.
I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time, and with Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday.
Stay safe,
Hugs,
Lisca

















Tuesday, 27 October 2020

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 27 October 2020 - T for ...

 Good morning lovely ladies,

It's Tuesday again and I am looking forward to joining you all at the T-Party that is being hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

Before I show you anything drink related, I would like to share a postcard that I received last month from the USA.

It's from Kilauea, and it shows  volcanic activity at night.

Kilauea is a hyperactive shield volcano in Hawaii , and the most active of the five volcanoes that make up the island of Hawaii ; it is also one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. Located along the southern coast of the island, the volcano, with an age of 300,000 to 600,000 years, emerged from the sea about 100,000 years ago. (Wikipedia)

In 2018 a volcanic bomb, the size of a basketball and originating from the Kilauea volcano , fell on the deck of a boat in the port of Wailoa, in the town of Hilo, (Scary!) and injured 23 people.

The stamp is interesting. It has Earth Day on it, which of course is Elizabeth's birthday!  It also has a stamp with a Dutch Shepherd on it. Now I am Dutch and I have heard of a German shepherd. but I have never heard of a Dutch shepherd dog.


Last week I accompanied friends of ours into town to be their interpreter as they had some official business to attend to. I know all the little streets to get back to where the car was parked and we came across these old houses, with their typical wooden balconies.

I don't know how old they are, but at least 200 if not more.

This summer I bought this cactus (You might remember) and I hung it in the sun! Cacti don't like the sun I have discovered. It nearly died. But as you can see it has recovered since I moved it indoors, and is growing these thick 'fingers'.

I found two more photos from our holiday and the mountain walk we did. This is the beginning of the trail and it passes through a long stretch of rock. 

Note that I am just moving my mask away for the photo. Just so you know that I was wearing one.
The same with the following photo. I have my mask in my hand as we were totally alone by that point.

What am I bringing to the T-Party? A cup of black coffee! (Not mine as I will put a dash of milk in it). 
The writing on the mug says: 'Good morning with good hugs'.


This is my favorite drink at the moment: my home made kombucha flavoured with raspberries.
Last but not least, I found this interesting photo of a hand sculpted out of a tree. It is called The Giant Hand of Vyrnwy. Sculptured by Simon O'Rourke.

I found this bit of information on the BBC Wales website:

The remnants of the UK's tallest tree, which was felled after being damaged in a storm, has been transformed into a carving of a giant hand.

A 15.2m (50ft) stump was the only part left standing after the 124-year-old Douglas Fir was axed at the Lake Vyrnwy (which sounds a bit like 'wadneway) estate in Powys in March.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(2011)

It had stood at 63.7m (209ft), taller than a 20-storey building, and was once regarded as the UK's joint highest.

From wrist to finger tip, the giant hand measures 2m (7ft).

 

Artist Simon O'Rourke, 33, from Wrexham, used a chainsaw to carve the top of the stump, and modelled the sculpture on his own hand.


Scaffolding was erected around the "blank canvas" tree trunk last month and the project took a week to complete.



"The Forestry Commission, who are looking after the area, decided that it would be a good idea to have a memorial to the tree and left a 50ft stem when they felled it," said Mr O'Rourke, who has called his work the Giant Hand of Vyrnwy.

"They invited eight artists to tender for the job and I got it."

He said the hand carving was in an area of the estate known as The Giants of Vyrnwy, and the location had inspired him.


I found that very interesting. I love trees, having grown up in a country with very few trees (only newly planted). 


That is all from me today,

Happy T-Day all and have a good rest of the week.

Hugs,

Lisca


Friday, 23 October 2020

A Postcard A Day - Friday 23 October 2020 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls, 

Another blog post, another postcard. This one comes from Finland and was sent by a lady called Paulina, 39 yrs old.

I like anything to do with books and as autumn advances it is nice to curl up in a comfy chair and read a good book. Even better is when you take a book from the shelf and a dried flower falls out (or leaf). So this image speaks to my heart.

The stamps are lovely, as are all Finnish stamps. The one on the right depicts a frozen bilberry shrub designed by Klaus Haapaniemi, which is part of his Polar Byzantine Collection (link).



The birds in the other stamp are long-tailed ducks (clangula hyemalis) designed by Erik Bruun.  Interestingly the faint light blue lines are different on every stamp.

Today is Friday!! 

What have I been doing this week?
My highlight was returning to the gym. Only a limited number of people allowed, by appointment only and the machines were distanced. But it was great to be back doing something.
Saturday I went for a walk again with my friend and ended up at the bar having breakfast. That afternoon we had a surprise visit from a friend we hadn't seen for a long time and who had recently moved to our area (from London). She came to visit as soon as her quarantine was over.
Sundays is all about church and baking. Hubby went to our veggie plot and came back with a bag full of pomegranates.
I have been spending some money lately on kitchen stuff. My hand mixer needed replacing and I bought a Philips. Also on Monday we went to our 'weekend home' and spent a lovely evening by the fire and a night sleeping like babes in the cave.
There was a problem with the drain, which hubby sorted although it took him all morning, by 2 pm he was ready and we could go and have a meal in the local restaurant.
On Wednesday my other parcels arrived. I have bought an Instant pot! I also got a selection of accessories and a glass lid. Unfortunately, they don't sell the air fryer lid here. In the UK you can buy the air fryer Instant pot so I could have waited until we go to the UK, but that might be a long time, so I got a normal one. I have an air fryer anyways. So don't need it, just thought it'd be nice...

I put my Instant Pot to immediate use and made a mean lentil soup for lunch and these delicious egg bites for supper on Wednesday. 

That is all from me. I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time and with Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday

As usual I shall try and find you some funnies on the Internet to add at the bottom.


Hugs,

Lisca