A Postcard A Day - Friday 30 December 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

It's almost the end of the year. And this will be the last Friday Smiles if 2022. Let me start with a lovely steampunk postcard:

It was sent to me by Kae, who lives in Hokkaido, Japan. I don’t think the artist was mentioned on the card. If it was, I didn’t make a note of it. Sorry.

The stamps are pretty and dainty:

The stamp on the left was issued celebrating International Letter Writing Week. (2022). 

International Letter Writing Week, spanning the one-week period that includes October 9, was established at the 14th Universal Postal Union Congress held in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1957 with the aim of contributing to world peace by encouraging cultural exchanges among the people of the world through letter writing.

In Thailand and Japan. International Letter Writing Week is a highly-active event while the UPU focuses more on the International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People (established 1969) and World Post Day. The theme for the 2016 competition is “Write a letter to your 45-year-old self.

I’m still in the Netherlands with my mum. Just the two of us. But the other day my cousin, his wife and their son came to visit.

The son has the same age as my son.

Yes, we had lots of fun.

My 98 yr old mum.

I try to go for a walk every day, and yesterday I walked 7 km. One of the canals I walked past had a heron, who gladly posed for me.

My mum says that this heron is always there.

I’m going to link this with Annie’s blog A Stitch In Time and of course I’ll put some funnies at the end just to make you chuckle.

Wishing everyone a very happy, and healthy 2023.

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 27 December 2022 - T for Temari and temples

 Hello lovely ladies,

How are the holidays going? I'm in Holland at the moment, visiting my mother. We have had a lovely cozy Christmas, just the two of us. I cooked something nice and we ate and reminisced and watched some tv, etc.

I'm sorry I'm so late. I thought it was Monday today and instead I realized quite late in the day that it was Tuesday, so I am late at the party. 

Let me first show you my postcard for today:

It was sent by from a Dutchman living in Krete. The card shows the Parthenon temple in Athens. The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the godess Athena during the 5th century BC.

The stamp is beautiful. It features the Koules or Castello a Mare, which is a fortress located at the entrance of the old port of Heraclion, on Crete, Greece.

It was built by the Repubic of Venice in the early 16th century, and is still in good condition today.

Around the same time I received a postcard from my friend Maggie who is now retired and travels a lot. She was in Italy. In Sicily to be precise. 

She visited the  Tempio della Concordia (Temple of Concordia), which is an ancient Greek temple in the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento on the south coast of Sicely, Italy. It is the largest and best-preserved Doric temple in Sicely and one of the best-preserved Greek temples in eneral, especially of the Doric order.

The stamp is interesting. It is all about Ferrari Trento. No, nothing to do with the cars but the winery. Ferrari Trento celebrated the 120 years since the foundation of the winery.

 Certainly, a great deal has changed since that long-ago year of 1902, when Giulio Ferrari decided to create a small cellar a short distance away from Trento’s Cathedral and produce just a few highly select bottles. 

This bottle of bubble could be my ticket to Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T-Party.

Now let me show you one of my most beautiful Christmas presents:

It was my lovely friend Dian who gifted me these two stunningly beautiful 'baubles'. 

They are hand made by someone called Sarah Stubley.

And the artform is called Temari and it is Japanese.

What have I been up to? Well, I've had my hair cut:

I went together with my friend Kim (on the left).

Then I got on the bus to Malaga where my sister came to collect me and I stayed at her house for two nights. While I was there we walked along the boardwalk to Marbella:

It took us about an hour to walk. It's a really lovely walk.

And the weather was lovely (I'm almost feeling guilty when I think of my blog friends in the US where they are experiencing awful blizzards.)

I know that Elizabeth loves palm trees, so here there are a few.

My sister and I stopped somewhere for lunch. We ordered a Scandinavian platter:

And we drank some blush rosé. Very delicious. Another qualifier for the T-Party!

That is it from me. Sorry I'm late.

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 20 December 2022 - T for Konotop and a cave house

 Hello lovely ladies,

It's nearly Christmas. I'll be getting on a plane in a few days to celebrate with my mum in Holland. The shops are laden with goodies and even I (we don't do presents) have got a few gifts in my suitcase. 

I can't help thinking of the people in the Ukraine. My postcard today comes from Ukraine:

The card was sent by Inna, who lives in a small town called Konotop. She writes: "I like reading, traveling and I collect porcelain dolls, but...Russian army invaded in to Ukraine. We need support of the whole civilized world now so much."

The stamps are impressive:

The Order of Danylo Halytsky (Ukrainian: Орден Данила Галицького) is an award of Ukraine. The Order was instituted on February 20, 2003, by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to honour the military men of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations created in compliance with the laws of Ukraine, as well as public servants for significant personal contribution in building of Ukraine, thorough and faultless service to the Ukrainian people.

Danylo Romanovych is one of the greatest and most famous rulers of the ancient Ukrainian state Kievan Rus. He was an excellent strategist, diplomat, military leader and great state builder and together with his brother, Prince Vasylko, succeeded to keep the state, coping with the Mongol invasion and defending it against the attacks of the western neighbors. King Danylo created a state that extended from the present territory of Poland to Kyiv and the Black Sea coast.

More info on this amazing king (that I had never heard of) here

The card was sent to me by Inna who lives in the small town of Konotop:

Some photos of Konotop:

Counterclockwise (from upper right): Shukhiv Tower, Myr Cinema, Ascension Cathedral, Konotop City Council Building, Monument of Horse, Konotop railway station and tram.

Wikipedia writes:

On February 25, 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city was reported to be under siege by Russian forces on their way to Kyiv. Ukraine later stated that it had lost control of the city. The mayor Artem Seminikhin stated on 2 March that Russian troops who had entered the city had warned him that they would destroy the city if the residents resisted them. An agreement was reached under which Russian forces accepted not to change the city's government or deploy troops, in return for which the residents would not attack them. On 3 April, Ukrainian MP Olexander Kachura stated on Twitter that all Russian forces had left Konotop Raion. On 4 April 2022 Sumy Oblast's Governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyi stated that Russian troops no longer occupied any towns or villages in Sumy Oblast and had mostly withdrawn, while Ukrainian troops were working to push out the remaining units.

The card was posted on the 29th of June 22.

Now for a bit of fun: I was invited to dinner with friends the other day. The hostess and her husband are English so she cooked an English dish (pork casserole with dumplings) and managed to obtain some crackers to make it christmassy.

Of course we had to explain the concept of crackers to the Spaniards, and the fact that they were supposed to don the 'hat' and read out the lame joke out loud.

Our friends live in a cave house and their kitchen is gorgeous!

Of course Blogger put my photos in the wrong order, but here we are pulling the crackers:

Today is T-Day and I need a drink to qualify. Well, I think I spot a can of beer on the table.

Another photo of the lovely kitchen:

That is it from me today. 

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a 2023 in health and peace.

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 16 December 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

I can't believe that I haven't done a Friday blog for so long! I do apologize. I hope you have been able to read my Tuesday blog posts and will know that my dear Graham died peacefully on November the 29th. And it's been a busy few days.

But let me show you my postcard for today:

It comes to me from Germany and I like it because I imagine it is Graham sending me lots of love.

The stamps are pretty. I like the origami bird (a crane I assume).

Today we share our smiles and happy moments of our week with Annie at A Stitch In Time. Although it has been a very sad time, I have had plenty to smile about.

After the funeral (Saturday the 3rd) I had a friend come over from Bristol to stay with me those first days on my own.  That was great. We went grocery shopping as I slowly got myself organized, and we were at Lidls, where I saw this Chrismassy track suit/lounge suit. I loved it but then decided I'd better not start spending money as I had a lot of bills. My friend bought it for me as a Christmas present! Isn't that nice!

While she was here I treated her to some yummy fish and just going to the fish monger in the village was quite a treat for her.

Before she was due to fly home again, we were invited at our friends' house (David and Patricia) for some pizza.

 So you see I have had a lot to smile about.

Another big smile was a visit to the post office when a large parcel had arrived:

It was my new suitcase! I have bought a Ryanair compatible suitcase and also a carry-on bag which Ryanair allows, as it fits under the seat. This one also has straps so I can carry it as a rucksack.

I'm pretty pleased and all poised to go to the Netherlands to spend Christmas with my mum.

Next week I'm going together with a friend to the hairdresser in Baza to have my hair cut short. When her husband picks us up, we will go out for lunch somewhere as I will catch the bus to Malaga later that afternoon. I'll be staying with my sister in Marbella and then fly to the Netherlands after a few days. Most of you know that my mother still lives on her own. She is 98 years old and I'm so glad I can spend the holidays with her.

All exciting stuff!

That is it from me today. 

Of course there will be some funnies at the end.

Have a lovely weekend,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca