A Postcard A Day - Friday 30 July 2021 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

It's Friday again and time to review the week and pick out the smiles, the silver lining and the positive things. I'm a person who's glass is always half full, so there is always a silver lining somewhere.

Let me start with my postcard. This one actually arrived this week and I immediately thought of you Friday ladies! 

It comes to me from Finland from someone called Iiris. She tells me that Finland has been chosen as the happiest country in the world in 2018,'19,'20 and 2021!

The postcard shows an artwork by Arja Kotiranta and it is feltwork.

This is Arja:

And this is another of her works:

The artist at work:

I think Annie calls it dumphing or something like that. (Please correct me Annie)

The stamp has beautiful pansies on it.

Now for the highlights of my week:

Friday nothing much happened but I did accompany my dearest to our plot to check on all that grows. The oleanders are flowering and our new trees are doing well. We have had to protect them from boisterous puppies by putting chicken wire around them and now they are doing well. 

On Saturday we had our Intercambio group (Spanish conversation) in the park. It is fun to see everyone go by. And we met some old friends.

Sunday was a very special day as there were some baptisms in the swimming pool. Again we saw many old friends we hadn't seen since the beginning of the pandemic. I had made one of my nice cakes as it was a 'bring-and-share'. There was so much food! The church has many members from South America in the congregation, and many cooked their country's speciality. There were people from Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. 

In the photo my hubby with his Mexican friend. I love his T-shirt:

Just an example of one of the dishes. This one made by my friend from Peru.

Needless to say it was a very joyous occasion and we had a lovely time.

My Danish friend had her sister over to visit. On Monday she was due to fly back to Denmark, so she came to say goodbye. 

I'm developing my sourdough starter and I think it is ready to be used.

I tried to make a dough to make bread, with the stretching and folding technique. But I still think it's too wet. Anyway, I'm not going to throw it away. I'll leave it in the fridge and bake something tomorrow.

I baked the dough in my Dutch oven and the result could not be called a bread, but it was delicious. I'm doing better with my fermenting and have done another batch of Kombucha.

Today (I'm writing this on Thursday) there isn't much to report other than it's still very hot. I have been busy cooking all the raw meat from the freezer as the door had been left open and some things felt semi defrosted. So I'm cooking absolutely everything just to be on the safe side.  My Instant Pot and the oven have been doing overtime. One lot of meatballs to do and then it's done. So no photo collage of today.

Of course there will be some funnies at the end.

Now it's over to Annie at A Stitch In Time and to Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

Have a great weekend,

Take care and keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 27 July 2021 - T for looms, canyons and badlands

 Hello lovely ladies! Good morning!

Sorry i have been AWOL last week but my sister and her husband were visiting and I did not find the time to write anything.

Let me show you my postcard for today. It comes from Ukraine and shows the national costume of the country.

The embroidery is amazing. And the stamps that were used reflect that. 

Two weeks ago my mail box was super happy as a parcel arrived from across the ocean. It was sent by Kathy in Ozark. Beautifully wrapped, and there is a card with it.

It is a vintage mini loom with a couple of examples. Isn't it cute? Thank you so much Kathy.

Luckily the instructions are still in it. I love the vintage look of the fonts.

I shall be having a go at this when the weather cools down (Like in winter). That will be a nice little project.

Also a couple of weeks ago Kokopelli Designs made Turkish Flatbread, and showed it on her blog. (I can for the life of me not remember her name. I spent an hour going through my blogs but I am none the wiser). Anyway, that lovely person had published the recipe in her blogpost (Thank you) and I made it the next day. 

It's not perfectly shaped but it tasted very good. It could probably have done with a little more oven time, but i didn't want it to go all hard.

Today is T for Tuesday, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard, and here is my beverage:

We (Hubby, sis and her hubby and I) had done a walk in the hot weather and were having a well deserved drink at the end of the trail. My sister is a Coca Cola drinker (With or without rum).

I thought I'd show this as I know that in the US the glass bottles seem to have been phased out. Here they are still in use, especially in bars and restaurants.

The walk we had been on is a trail in Castril

Here are some more photos:

We also took my sister and her husband to see the sunset at the Geopark. They are affectively the badlands near where we live. But we find it very beautiful:

My sister

This is a photo from the Internet as I was not able to capture it so beautifully:

I think I will leave it at that.

Well, one last thing:

Happy T-Day to all!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 23 July 2021 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely people,

Here I am again on this Friday counting my blessings. It has been a very good week for me with lots of smiles. I confess I'm exhausted, but very happy. The main reason for smiles this week was the fact that my sister came to see me with her husband and they stayed two nights. I hadn't seen her in nearly two years.

More of that later. First off is my postcard:

It reads: Greetings from the Ruhr area. These cheeky miners must be the German equivalent of the British firemen pin-ups.

The stamp is one I hadn't seen before. It says: The stamp becomes digital

The new Deutsche Post stamps will have a matrix code next to the image to make the letters traceable. The code is scanned at two points along the route. This enables the consumer to see in the “Post & DHL” app when the letter is in the mail center in his region and when it will arrive at the mail center in the addressee's region. The delivery itself is not scanned - the sender cannot see via the app whether the letter has already arrived at the recipient. If you want to be certain of this, you still have to send a more expensive registered mail.

The new stamps, which are slightly larger than their predecessors, will in future be stamped with blue ink. This should allow the recipient to scan the matrix code after receiving the letter in order to get information about the delivery route and the motif. Post manager Meyer praises the new stamps as “attractive collector's items that now document the connection between the stamp and the digital age”. Every matrix code is different, which makes every stamp unique.

A good idea. I have tried to scan the code with my QR scanner, but it doesn't recognise it. Perhaps I need a special app.

Now let me show you what I have been up to this past week:

Last Friday my new knobs had arrived. I still needed one more knob for my bedroom dresser.

It is very hot, and it would stay that way all week.

On Sunday I made some pancakes, which were delicious. We had them in the evening, not for breakfast. But they tasted just as good.

On Monday I was preparing for my sister's visit. They arrived in the early afternoon. 

We took her (and her hubby) to our plot of land. The later we drove 40 minutes to a beautify spot to watch the sunset.

On Tuesday we walked along the market (sorry, no photos) and then we drove 50 km to do this canyon walk (La Cerrada del rio Castril). The video was filmed before Covid (not by me).

In the evening we had dinner with our Danish friends and we sat in the garden (of a local restaurant) until midnight. We had a lovely time.

Wednesday we went for an early morning walk. I had my sister with me and my friend Susanne also had her sister over for a visit.

My sister and her hubby had to go back home on Wednesday, and in the evening we got together with the Danes again (they live next door) to finish up all the leftovers in the fridge, plus some more. Again we had a lovely time. But now I am utterly exhausted.

I have no collage from Thursday as we spent the morning at the hospital and the afternoon resting and didn't take any pictures.

Hubby's platelets are still low (65,000), so the oncologist had arranged for him to see a hematologist. The latter was able to tell us that there is no underlying problem with the blood. After discussing things with the oncologist hubby is going to start on oral chemotherapy again, but a reduced dose.

That was my week in pictures. And as per usual, I have some funnies at the end of this blog post.

Please join me in visiting Annie at A Stitch In Time and Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca