Friday 2 July 2021

A Postcard A Day - Friday 2 July 2021 - Friday Smiles

 

Good morning lovely ladies,

The weekend has started and I hope it is nice weather in your part of the world. Where I am in southern Spain, it's pretty hot, but we're used to it. But I heard that in Canada and parts of the US there is a heatwave. Please stay cool and calm and drink plenty of water.

I have two postcards to show you this morning and they are both from Russia and they are both drawings and they are both pretty ladies.

The first one is one of those adult colouring images. As you can see I haven't gotten round to colouring it.

It is by artist Ella Makina and is entitled 'Lovely Garden'. She is a designer, illustrator according to her Instagram account. I can't find out any more about her.
The stamps are gorgeous and I hope looking at the Kremlin in the snow helps you to cool down a bit.

The second postcard  is entitled 'White Irises' and was drawn by Olga Isaeva.

She is an artist in St Petersburg. Her portfolio is impressive. I have found a few other artworks by her. Have a look at these:
This squirrel-like creature is called Fenglog.

This one is entitled 'Tarot Judgement'.

And this is 'Amethyst Elf '.

The image on the postcard is called 'White Irises' and one of the stamps features irises as well.




Although they are not white but yellow.

Now a bit more about me and my life here in Spain. Last Thursday, hubby's platelets were too low to have his chemotherapy, but he did get his second covid jab. (Moderna). It made him feel tired on the second day. So we had a quiet day, just relaxing.
On Saturday he was feeling his good old self and I found myself doing what I love most: baking. I baked a custard tart, a Greggs cheese pastie and I cooked Spanish meatballs (called albondigas) in the  sauce that they do here.

In the early evening we met with our Intercambio friends for the first time since Covid started. We met in the park and brought our own fold-up chairs with us. Here you can see it better:
There were three Spanish and four English speaking people.


On Sunday morning we had a beautiful encounter with a swift. Hubby opened the patio doors in the morning and nearly tripped over a bird. It was alive and fluttered a bit when approached. We we looked carefully it didn't seem to be visibly wounded. We didn't know what to do and we each did what came naturally: I went to Google, and hubby managed to carefully pick it up. He was holding it cupped in his hands (I wish I had remembered to take a picture) by the time i had found out that swifts get disorientated when on the ground. So hubby carefully carried it outside, and facing the mountains he carefully opened his hands. Then whoosh! It flew away! 
Monday was a busy day. I went to the gym in the morning. The photo of the olive tree is on my way to the gym. Then in the afternoon we went grocery shopping.
In the evening we went to our friends next door for a BBQ. I had made that Speedy Broccoli Quiche (Jamie Oliver) again, and we bought an ice cream tart at our favorite ice cream shop. We had a lovely evening.
Tuesday we took it easy after that busy Monday. I didn't have to cook as there was meat left over from the BBQ. I made a card for our gym teacher as Friday would be the last gym session. 

Although we don't have telly and we are not really interested in football (soccer), there is a Eurocup going on and of course we follow the results. Our family in England we very pleased when England won the match on Tuesday and moved up to the next round.

Here are some photos of our last day at the gym. We do half an hour aerobics and then go upstairs to do circuit training. This time we all went to have breakfast together, where I presented the teacher with some money we collected and put in the card that I had made. (The Spanish don't 'do' cards, so the teacher took the envelope and shoved it in his bag. He will see it when he opens it later)
That brings us round to Thursday again, and another visit to the hospital, only to be told that yet again hubby's platelets are too low to have treatment. I think it has been 5 weeks now (I lost count). He is happy about it because it means he can get on with building his hen house.

And that, my lovely friends, is it for this morning. 

I will link up with Annie (A Stitch In Time) with my smiles and with Virginia (Rocking Your World Friday) with what's happened this week.

I will show you some funnies at the end as per usual.

So, have a lovely weekend, stay safe and...

Keep smiling!
Hugs,
Lisca
















10 comments:

DVArtist said...

You have had a busy week. I love the artist Olga Isaeva. She is magnificent. Looks like your area is open and people can gather. Nice baking too. Have a great day.

Celtic house said...

Morning hun you seem to have had a busy busy week i need to upload my photos to my post but I'm still drinking tea in bed lol. Your colouring in page looks lovely I don't do colouring in it just doesn't do it for me lol but I admire those with patience to do them.

The food you've made looks lovely the custard tart in particular. I had to smile at the Greg's comment said 20 year old occasionally buys their frozen range from Iceland.

I had no idea what you would do with the stranded swift, but I too would have turned to google, if all else fails in my book ask googe.

I wasn't aware the Spanish don't do cards, so I had to smile at your comment.

Have a lovely weekend and week ahead.

Hugs

Felix the Crafty Cat said...

Gorgeous art work and of course my favourite, gorgeous stamps! Looks like you've had another good week full of smiles. No football here either, unless it's Rugby the stations turn over but the tennis has been good. We watched it from the beginning and there are some great young players that will be worth watching in the future. Great collection of funnies too. Wishing you a lovely weekend with lots more smiles, Angela xXx

Annie said...

Swifts don’t land on the ground normally because they are unable to get up from there so well done for giving him a little help to get back up. ,I really love the work by Olga....she is an amazing artist. Looks like you’ve had another busy week with yummy baking and socialising....enjoy.
Hugs,
Annie x

mamapez5 said...

Well the second attempt failed too. I have just cleared my browsing data and cookies as recommended and I will have one more try.
Firstly Olga's artwork is very interesting. She has a very unique style.
I am glad you were able to help the little bird. Swifts don't usually land.
I wish our intercambio group was still running. Ours sort of fell apart when all the Spanish young folk passed their English exams, and went on to teach etc, and there are not many English people left around here who would be interested.
Is it important that Graham keeps missing his chemo sessions? Can they do anything to improve his platelet count? Just wondering as it has gone on for a long time now.
I hope you have a happy week together. Kate x

Lynn Holland said...

I couldn’t get past the custard tart, it’s my favourite pud. We do surveys to see which is the nicest. No soggy bottoms and lots of nutmeg on top please. Firm not sloppy custard please and just the right amount of sweetness. Pastry has to not to thick and not to thin.
I think you get the picture haha x

LA Paylor said...

lisca, the potato peel society movie was AWESOME. Terrific actors and story. I loved the photography and accents and everything about it. I am intrigued your husband grew up there... now I want to chat to him all about it! (we were taught in school about the German occupation of Guernsey but not much as Americans) (It's all about us you know! lol)
we watched it on Netflix by the way.
LeeAnna

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I didn't play today because I had my link up party I hosted. I stopped by to say hi and read your blog post. Nice postcards. Glad Graham got his second vaccine. Loved the cat funny and the cicadas.

Iris Flavia said...

You got me laughing about not coloring.
One of my teamleaders was in Russia in summer. It was stinkin` hot! ;-) But yes, thinking of Russia I feel I need a blanket! (He also sang the Russian alphabet to me. He sang!!! Like really.)

I only know the blue flowers. And learned something new again!

Just tired - that is good. And tuna steak.... my Mum once "sold" such a steak as real steak to my fish-hating Dad - he "bought" it! Boy was he astonished it was fish after all! Ages ago, but I´ll remember this forever.

Hmmm. Your baking looks very yummy! And yay for meeting friends again. Yay.
Oh, yes, I had such a bird on the outside windowsill. Took a while - I asked a friend online what to do... same :-)
What did we do pre-internet in situations like these?! Aren´t we a lucky generation?
You have a LIDL? LOL. The world turns into a village.

A broccoli quiche?! I´ll searched Jamie for that and it´s in my list - thank you!!!

Hahaha, I think Germany is out? I ... we hate soccer, so at least we hopefully don´t have it the news endlessly again this time (I feel sorry for those who love it, though).

LOL with your gym-teacher - hopefully he didn´t throw it away!
I understand your Hubby is actually a bit happy. My Mum felt horrible after the treatments.

Henry sure is laughing over the menu here.
Unfriending!!! LOL. Sometimes it feels like that! Cat shower is great, too. Yah. Convoy. LOL, get a horse. Dogs, where do you find this, thank you for the laughs!


Felix the Crafty Cat said...

Hi Lisca, I saw your question about the Craft Club. We all take our own things and one of us sets the task which you can either follow or not, we are not all card makers but a lot are. So yes the stamp I used was my own and it's one by Tracy Evans. Have a lovely weekend. Hugs, Angela xXx