A Postcard A Day - Friday 24 February 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies, it's Friday again. It comes around so quickly, I feel time is running away from me! 

On Friday I always stop and think back over the week and give thanks for the good things, and remember what made me smile this week. 

I always start with a postcard as I am in a postcard exchange club called Postcrossing and a postcard in my postbox is always worth a smile.

Seen the situation in the Ukraine, I decided to show you a card from that country. It was sent to me on the 12th of January, but I didn't receive it until the 16th of February. It took that long to arrive (But it arrived!)

I have written in my profile that I like 'doors and windows', so Maria, who sent me this card , has chosen this beautiful old door for me. 

She apologizes for her limited English, but then mentions that she is only 13 years old. She lives in the capital Kiyv (Kiev), far away from the current conflict. But nevertheless...

The stamp is beautiful: 

It is part of a series of Europa stamps called Endangered National Wildlife. They were issued in June 2021 and were designed by Olga Symonenko.

If you want to learn more about the Ukraine. This website explains it succinctly and with maps and facts. Have a look.

So what has my week been like? Up and down as with everything. Here are some collages of my (not at all boring) life:

Once a month we get together with our friends D and P. We do see them in between as they only live a five minute walk away. But we like to have a good ol' chat and catch up, so we went to our favorite Italian restaurant. Unfortunately they were fully booked, so we got into the car and drove to Duende, where we had lunch the other day. They serve really good food. Hubby and I both had a slow-cooked pork shank (codillo in Spanish) and it was delicious!

Saturday I made Toad-In-The-Hole again as it is hubby's favorite, and it is a dish that doesn't upset his bowels. (Something we now have to consider).

In the evening we met for our English-Spanish conversation group Intercambio. We were given the use of a small teaching space in the center of the village. (The key of which was still in my purse when I flew to Holland, so I had to post it back!). I had brought some cake and drinks.

I didn't make a collage for Sunday as nothing really happened. We went to (Spanish) church in the morning, had dinner and watched an online church service later in the day (English), did our Bible study, wasted time with our tablets and went to bed. Nothing worth photographing.

On Monday we went to see our other friends as there are lots of flowering almond trees near their house and I wanted to  photograph some white blossom for the photo club's monthly photo competition. This month the theme is 'white'.

They have this sweet cat that has a broken tail. Poor thing. Its tail stands in a 90 degree angle (but it doesn't seem to bother her) so they call her Cocktail!

Hubby is still working in the derelict cave house (Now not so derelict anymore) and we had an omelet for lunch (our chickens are giving us so many eggs!).

My bestie Antonia has children all over the world, but this week her daughters from Germany, France and Italy had all come to visit with husbands and babies. And we all congregated at the house of the daughter who lives here. She has married a Dutchman and his parents were visiting. (We know the parents quite well by now) so we had a very happy reunion in the sun. 

On Wednesday I cooked a meat and potato pie. I did the meat bit in the Instant Pot and then I covered it with some puff pastry and stuck it in the oven. Very nice indeed.

In the afternoon I had a haircut. I have quite thin, floppy and difficult hair since my chemo, so I tend to keep it short.

Then this morning hubby woke up with a fever and abdo pain. I did not want a repeat of last year's peritonitis, so we got in the car and went to the hospital. They checked him over, did a scan, and eventually diagnosed a bladder infection.(Phew!) They gave him some IV antibiotics and at 2 pm he was sent on his way. I was not allowed into the hospital, so I waited outside and read my book in the sunshine. Then I drove to a nearby restaurant and had a (non-alcoholic) beer. I was halfway through my lunch when hubby called that he could go home. Hurray! He's already feeling better. We're both glad it is nothing serious.

That was my week. It was good. I hope yours has been good too. 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of the Ukraine. 

I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time to share my smiles.

Have a great weekend, 

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 22 February 2022 -T for bees and Gouda

 Hello lovely ladies, it's Tuesday again and I'm going to join the ladies of the T-gang at the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

Today I'm going to show my photos from Gouda and the shop front that Kate Yetter painted.

But first let me share this postcard with you:

I love this card because I love bees. And look at those hives! Aren't they lovely decorated. 

The card was sent to me by Anita, who lives in Slovenia. Her town is called Kranj, a lovely city in the Gorenjska region surrounded by mountains.

The Kokra river runs through Kranj.

The info on the back of the card reads: Bee-Aware represents cooperation project between CIPRA International Partnership "Alliance in the Alps" and Alpine town of the year. The project is co-founded by an animal protection foundation and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety Germany (BMU).

The stamp has this cute water shrew on it. 

Mediterranean water shrew

It feeds mainly on amphibians and small fish, but also take insects and worms.

Because of its small size and thus higher surface area to volume ratio, it loses body heat more quickly and must eat two or three times its body mass each day.

Now let's go to Gouda! I went there because it's only one stop on the train from where my mum lives in Rotterdam and I wanted to see the shop front that Kate Yetter had painted from a photo.

This is the street where the shop is. It's a typically Dutch canal street:

Here is the shop on the right. 

Unfortunately it was closed!

It looks like it was closed on Kate's photo as that same 'sombrero' that reads 'closed' is on the door.

It looks like the owner parks his/her bike in the shop.

I peeped inside and I saw rows of oriental tea cups. (These could be my ticket to the T-Party.) I couldn't avoid the reflection of the buildings on the opposite side of the street.

Here it is and it looks like it has been closed for a while. Probably since the start of the Covid restrictions.

Here is a little ceramic turtle and some tea pots from the window display (another ticket to the T-Party):

The other window:

A last glimpse and then I went to see more of Gouda.

The street from the other side:

Gouda is a really lovely little town and next week I will show you more photos of it. 

That is it from me today. 

I hope you enjoyed the little excursion into Gouda.

Happy T-Day,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 18 February 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello ladies,

How are you all? I'm here to show you a few smiles I had this week. Yes, there were many as always as my husband and I are positive people. Of course receiving postcards is always smile-worthy.

My first postcard (I have two today) comes from the Netherlands:

It's a very old photo of the Dutch royal family. It doesn't give the year but from memory it must be around 1960. From left to right: Princess Beatrix, princess Christina, prins Bernhard, queen Juliana, princess Margaret, princess Irene.

This card was sent to me by someone called Veerle. She uses the standard international stamp but also adds a fun sticker of a lady in Dutch national costume:

She writes that she has an old typewriter and she has typed the address on the card:

Which brings me to my second postcard:

This one comes from Russia. It was sent by Evgeny who lives 500 km south of Moscow. The stamps are the usual Russian stamps, but I like them:

My mum taught me to type with ten fingers. I was allowed to use the family typewriter. It had an extra wide carriage, which was very heavy going.

My dad had brought it home from the office when it was no longer being used. It looked like this:

Sweet memories....

So what has my week been like? Any smiles? Yes, quite a lot. Here are my collages (I don't have any for Friday and Saturday):

I was in Rotterdam keeping an eye on my mother, but she is doing really well so I went home on Sunday. At 8 am I left and walked to the train station, Got the train from Rotterdam to Amsterdam Airport (called Schiphol). The trainstation is beneath the airport. Very convenient. My sister picked me up at Malaga airport and I stayed with her and her husband that night.

The next morning sis and I walked along the boardwalk to Marbella and back (15000 steps). In the afternoon I got the bus back to Baza. When I got home I found an enormous bunch of roses! It was Valentine's Day! 

Tuesday was lovely weather. I bought some boots at the market and a nice blouse in a new boutique in the village.

On Wednesday I baked a cake.

And yesterday we had another hospital visit. The car park is next to the helicopter pad, as you can see on the photo. Hubby has bowel cancer and has to have another operation, (after some more investigations). After our hospital visit we treated ourselves to lunch at a very nice restaurant. I had gambas (prawns) Yummy!

That was my week. As you can see, lots of smiles.

Of course I will leave some funnies at the end.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca