A Postcard A Day - Friday 31 December 2021 - Friday Smiles, the last smiles of the year

 

Hello lovely ladies! How was your Christmas? I hope it was a happy one. For some people Christmas is an ordeal, or it brings back sad memories, or you have to put up with certain relatives you don't like etc.  Ours was quiet. More about that later. Here is my postcard for today. As tomorrow is New Year's Eve, I thought these two partying and dancing the night away would be appropriate.

The postcard comes to me from New Jersey, USA:

The photographer is Kurt Hutton. The title: Jazz on Tyneside - Club Martinique plays Dixieland and jazz in the new Orleans manner. 9th April 1955

Wikipedia says:

Kurt Hutton (born Kurt Hübschmann; 1893 in Strasbourg– 1960) was a German-born photographer who pioneered photojournalism in England.

Beginning his career with the Dephot agency in Germany, he migrated to England in 1934 and worked for Weekly Illustrated.

He then became one of the founding staff of the groundbreaking pictorial weekly news magazine Picture Post.

You can tell, I really like this photographer...

The stamps are very pretty. There are two Christmas stamps with an image by Peruvian artist Cuzco. It shows Our Lady of Guápulo, 18th century.

This is the entire picture:

The other stamp is one from the Otters in the snow series:

So what has been happening with us? Here are my daily collages:

On Christmas Eve, my husband, who fell ill with Covid some days before, was able to get up for half an hour and he even ate something: a poached egg.

On Christmas morning he was free of fever and I had him open a present. It wasn't really a present, but there were a few things we had bought just before Christmas, but these things had remained in their boxes. So I wrapped everything and put them under the tree. (To make it look a bit Christmassy). 

I made him open this 'present' as it was a new electric razor. He took the hint and had a shave.

Then came out of bed again for a bit for dinner. I had cooked a turkey breast and he had a few bites. 

On Sunday hubby was feeling a lot better, just tired. 

My mum, who lives in Holland, had been alone for Christmas, but my cousin and his family, who live in Friesland, went to visit mum on Boxing Day. That was really nice of them.

On Tuesday hubby went and did some work, a sure sign that he is better, although he took it very easy. A friend, who didn't know hubby had been ill, visited. We were supposed to self isolate until Saturday. Oh well, she saw him from a distance.

Our best friend David celebrated his 60th birthday. I made some stuffed dates (with goats cheese and pecans dipped in maple syrup)

I had a hairdresser appointment at 11 in the morning, but we usually get up late and when I do get up, my brain isn't awake yet, so I was having breakfast at 11 when she phoned. Oops! I had forgotten. Got another appointment for Thursday.

I had my haircut in the evening. When I walked back home, I took some photographs of the illuminations in our village.

That was my week. All in all a very positive week with many smiles. I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time (If she is posting) to share my smiles.

As usual I have posted some funnies at the end. Sorry, but most of them are Christmas jokes although Christmas is been and gone.

Lets hope that 2022 will be a better year for mankind. So dear friends, hubby and I wish you all a:

Stay safe, 

Hugs,

Lisca

Playing strip poker:

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 28 December 2021 - T for

 Good morning lovely ladies,

Have you all survived Christmas? Was it good? I hope so. In some families Christmas can be trying and of course if you celebrate on your own, it's not fun either. Our Christmas was very subdued as hubby was ill, but he was at the stage where he could be up for a few hours a day, so it was quiet but fine.

My postcard for today comes from Russia. The words translate: Happy New Year. It features Santa on his way home I assume, with one of his elfs holding a Russian flag.

The stamps are the usual (pretty) Russian stamps. The sender is Aleksandra who lives in Krasnodar and she wishes us a happy New Year. New Year seems to be celebrated more in Russia than Christmas.

Wikipedia writes:

Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 932,629 residents, and up to 1 million residents in the urban agglomeration.

I looked it up on the map and it is east of the Crimea.

Quite a big city.(Another million inhabitants' city I had never heard of...)

So, what have we been up to? Those of you who have read my Friday blog know that hubby fell ill with the new Omicron variant just before Christmas. He suddenly got very high fever and had to go to bed. He was in bed with fever for three days, feeling sweaty, awful and nauseous. It went as soon as it came and apart from having lost nearly 4 kg in weight, he is now back to normal.

We had to self isolate and I celebrated Christmas eve on my own. I had cheese and biscuits and poured myself a glass of wine:

I also busied myself wrapping things we had bought so we would have some presents under the tree.

I had some fun with double sided wrapping paper.

 The little  brown box on the right had arrived in the post. It had come from one of our children:

In it was a beautiful ornament with all the grandchildren's names. 

Christmas day was the first day hubby was out of bed and I let him open the largest present,

which was a new electric razor. He was looking rather rough after three days in bed.

After a shave he went back to bed. 

Christmas dinner was a piece of turkey breast I had in the freezer, which I cut in half and put stuffing in. 

I also cooked roast potatoes in the oven with the turkey and hubby insisted he wanted sprouts(!)

I put out two plates but hubby didn't eat much of course. He went back to bed after dinner.

You can hardly see the sprouts. They are towards the top of the picture in a small dish with some carrots. (I did eat a couple)

Our chickens are laying well and are giving us really large eggs. We get eggs that weigh much more than the store bought XL eggs. American XL eggs (according to the internet) weigh 2.25oz (which is 64 grams). English XL eggs are 72 grams and above. 

This one was exceptional, but still....

I don't think I've ever introduced you to our cat. Her name is Scallywag and she lives on the top terrace which has a 'shed' she has access to:

We've had her from a very young age and we have had her neutered. She is still basically a ferile cat and won't let us touch her. In fact she doesn't come near us, so when she suddenly appeared in the patio, I quickly snapped a photo of her, then she turned around and ran away. 

I think her colouring is called 'calico'.

That is it from me. Not much is happening as we are still self-isolating just in case. The doctor phoned this morning and I forgot to ask him how many days we have to stay isolated. I think a week after the last symptoms have gone should be ok.

Let's go and see what the other ladies of the T-Gang are up to. So off to Elizabeth and Bleubeard who are hosting this gathering at Altered Book Lover.

Wishing everyone a very happy (and healthy) New Year!

Stay safe,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 24 December 2021 - Friday (Christmas) Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies, 

Here we are on Christmas Eve. This year has really flown by. My postcard today of course has a Christmas theme. A rather strange one, especially for me. For me it is about Josef and Mary and the baby Jesus, who was born to be our Saviour. This card shows a group of angels , with a baby angel on a deer. Very strange, but quite pretty I thought.

The card was sent to me by Claudia in Germany.

The stamps are lovely especially the one on the right:

Siegfried fights against the dragon

The Nibelungen saga is one of the best-known German heroic legends. To this day, their material is widely used in Germanic and Scandinavian countries. Over many centuries, it has been handed down in numerous different versions, first in oral form and later in written form. An outstanding example of European heroic epic is the Nibelungenlied (around 1200, author unknown), whose three most important and complete manuscripts were included in the list of UNESCO Memory of the World in 2009.

We have had a rather turbulent week. You'll understand why as you read on. On Thursday we go to a small Bible study group at somebody's house. This last Thursday we did a social, where we all brought something nice. I made these mincemeat swirls.

Hubby had brought his guitar and we sang Christmas carols. (In English, that was a laugh because only two people actually speak English).

I spent Friday at home planning Christmas meals etc and nothing much happened.

On Saturday we went to a Birthday party. We saw lots of friends we hadn't seen in a while and it was a wonderful evening.

Sunday was another day in. Neither of us felt like we wanted to go to church, so we watched the online service of our Bristol church.

This is the puny little wreath on my door. I have ordered a bigger one from the florist.

Tuesday this wreath was ready and what a beauty it is. I don't know what the doll has got to do with Christmas. I asked for 'a touch of red'. But I like it and I think it's fun.

I managed to get fresh dates! And I made meringue cookies for the first time. They are delicious.

Hubby has been working on the bathroom in the cavehouse next door. And he installed the toilet today. He sat down in his recliner for a nap (as he sometimes does after work) and woke up shaking. He said he didn't feel well and went to bed. When I looked in on him he was very hot and had 39 degrees fever! And a headache and nausea. One of my friends' husband has covid (we have had no contact with them) and he has the same symptoms. Oh dear. 

The next morning his fever had gone down a bit but he still could hardly get out of bed, so I tried to get to speak with the doctor, but he had been called out, so I arranged a telephone consultation for Thursday morning. Hubby's fever of course came back. I went to the pharmacy but the Rapid Flow Tests had all been sold out. My visit to the post office was more successful as a little parcel had arrived from the UK. One of our daughters in law has sent us something. I told them not to send anything as now the UK is outside the EU, we have to pay so much import tax, that it's not worth it.

On Thursday hubby was able to get out of bed for a little while after two days of high fever. He has also eaten something. Hopefully he's on the mend, but I don't know how long this is supposed to last. We are now self-isolating so all the Christmas plans we had made are out of the window. Because I have been fully vaccinated, I am allowed to go out (with a mask), so I have been to the chemist to get the doc's prescription, but still no tests. The doctor says we must assume he is positive and act accordingly.

Now it is Thursday evening. Hubby is already fast asleep (mercifully) and after adding some funnies, I will post this at midnight. 

Wishing all my blog friends a very happy, peaceful and above all healthy Christmas!

Hugs,

Lisca