A Postcard A Day - Friday 25 March 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

This week has gone real fast and already it is Thursday night. Let me find you a nice postcard that I received recently:

It's one of those old British Railways travel posters.

High Force is a waterfall on the River Tees, near Middleton-in-Teesdale, Teesdale, England. The waterfall is within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the European Geopark. 

This is what it looks like now:

The whole of the River Tees plunges 70 feet (21 m)^[2] over a precipice (an almost vertical cliff edge) in two stages. After heavy rainfall the river will also flow over the usually dry right hand side channel, creating two falls. 

Very occasionally the river level will be high enough to flow over the central section of rock; the last recorded time this happened was in December 2015 after Storm Desmond. In harsh winters the falls have been known to freeze, creating cathedral-like ice formations.

Access to the northern bank is via a private footpath on the Raby estate for which a fee is charged. The southern bank can be reached free of charge via the Pennine Way public footpath which crosses the Moor House-Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve.

The stamp is lovely. It's one of eight stamps to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign

celebrating the Queen's dedication to service have been issued to mark her Platinum Jubilee.

• A 1966 photo from a visit to St Vincent on a tour of the West Indies

Our week has not been the most uplifting, but we tried to make the most of it and stay positive. The constant fog and rain doesn't help. Last week we had Sahara sand everywhere and hubby, who is not well, has made a start to clean surfaces and terraces with his power washer. The poor thing couldn't cope (the power washer)and packed up. On Friday he managed to repair it again. He has to take it very easy and sleeps/rests a lot. From Saturday he has to follow a low residue diet, so I made him some fish and chips. The last he can have for a while. The weather is cold and miserable and I have been working on my jigsaw puzzle. 

The cat in the picture is our friends' cat. It is the sweetest little kitten that chose their house as her home. The kitty would come to their garden every day  and spend time with them. They didn't feed it, but it became clear that no-one else was feeding it and in the end they relented. They named her Cocktail because she has a broken tail.

On Saturday hubby tried to wash some of the orange sand off the walls (in between showers). I had to dry my washing inside. My sister is visiting my mum in Holland at the moment, so I could talk to her via FaceTime. Great!

I cooked a potato tortilla. Hubby is only allowed carrots as vegetables, but I can have broccoli (and wine for that matter).

Thank goodness hubby is allowed eggs. We have plenty of those as our chickens are laying very enthusiastically (5 eggs a day).

The washing is still not dry.

For our Sunday lunch I had some pork shank (bought ready cooked) and I roasted some potatoes in the oven.

Riverbeds in this part of the world are dry and are used as roads. Not now. Hubby has to drive through the river to get to his parcel of land. And it will get worse I expect.

Usually I water my plants and succulents on Sunday, but I hadn't gotten round to it, so I did it on Monday. Hubby continues to do a little cleaning here and there. He is a man that likes his food and the diet is depressing him. He has to keep this up at least until the end of his treatment, which could be a long time.

On Monday evening the glazier came to put the glass in the windows and doors that hubby has placed in the cave next door (which he is renovating).

Tuesday I popped to the market to buy a bunch of flowers for myself (from my husband, but I told him to stay in bed as it was going to be a strenuous day for him). I met this man and his donkey. I didn't actually take this picture but a friend of mine did. 

Then we drove all the way to Granada again. To the big teaching hospital for hubby's radiology simulation. We also spoke to the consultant and she said he would have to have 5 weeks of radiation and oral chemo combined. That was more than we had expected and it was a bit of a disappointment. But we are so glad that we are getting good health care here and that is it free. 

Wednesday was my birthday. A bit of a subdued affair this year. Neither of us felt like celebrating, and with hubby's diet, there was no sense in going out for a meal. I  cooked chicken legs, made some chips in the air fryer and we had green beans with that. I also opened a bottle of Cava (bubbly) which I had to drink on my own. In the afternoon my friend Antonia and her daughter Isa came and brought this huge fuchsia! A beauty! After they had gone our Danish neighbors  visited and we had a good old catch-up. 

That is it from me. I know you are waiting for the funnies at the end. I don't have many this week.  But I do have some lame cow jokes. (Please forgive me)

Have a lovely weekend and I hope you have better weather than we have.

Take care,

Hugs,

Lisca